Led Zeppelin have spent most of their career dodging lawsuits rather than launching them. Known for pushing musical boundaries, they also occasionally crossed legal ones—especially when it came to borrowing from blues pioneers.
The most infamous example is their 1969 hit ‘Whole Lotta Love’, which featured lyrics taken from Willie Dixon’s ‘You Need Love’. Though Jimmy Page’s riff was entirely original, Robert Plant later admitted he “nicked” the lyrics, saying, “Page’s riff was Page’s riff. It was there before anything else. I just thought, ‘Well, what am I going to sing?’ That was it, a nick. Now happily paid for.” The band quietly settled the matter out of court in 1985.
That wasn’t their only tangle with Dixon either. ‘Bring It On Home’ was also based on a Dixon-penned track, previously recorded by Sonny Boy Williamson. Though Led Zeppelin treated it as a tribute, the courts didn’t see it that way, and Dixon received a share of the royalties after legal action.
Given their own history, it’s no surprise that Robert Plant has never taken another band to court for sounding like Zeppelin. But that hasn’t stopped him from pointing it out when he hears a little too much familiarity. One such case? Pearl Jam.
While Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam have very different sounds, the influence is undeniable. Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament once told Bass Player that guitarist Stone Gossard “was always writing from kind of a Zeppelin angle.” One song in particular, ‘Given to Fly’, carries a striking resemblance to ‘Going to California’—and Plant noticed.
When Robert Plant appeared on Sirius XM with Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, he took a lighthearted jab at the similarity. During a discussion on originality in music, Plant quipped:
“Absolutely crucial… repetition is a hell of an evil bedfellow. To repeat yourself as regularly as we do as entertainers—you know this. I mean, how many times have you played ‘Going to California’? Oh sorry. Whatever your song is called.”
McCready didn’t take offense, laughing off the remark and recalling how Vedder had once introduced ‘Given to Fly’ as “Given to California” when Plant attended a Pearl Jam show in Sweden.
Plant kept the mood light, joking: “It’s a good job he had some dancing girls backstage afterwards to take the heat out of the moment. We’re all mature. So we all know that’s okay. I didn’t get a check in the post, nothing like that.”
Despite the clear similarities, Plant didn’t see ‘Given to Fly’ as an act of theft—it was, in his eyes, a respectful nod to Zeppelin’s legacy. The song borrows the structure and feel of ‘Going to California’, but lyrically, it stands on its own. Rather than hiding the inspiration, Pearl Jam embraced it.
If they had been trying to plagiarize, they surely would have picked a deep cut—not one of Led Zeppelin’s most cherished tracks. Instead, ‘Given to Fly’ serves as a heartfelt tribute to a band that helped shape the very foundation of modern rock.
