Why is Stairway to Heaven BANNED in Guitar Stores?

Of course stairway to heaven backwards leads to hell. That's essentially how stairways work.

The fact that there's a stairway to heaven but a highway to hell says a lot about expected traffic numbers

When I started learning guitar in the early 80s, my guitar teacher said, “you’re gonna have to learn stairway to heaven, because everyone on the face of the earth is going to ask you to play it.“ And for a good while after that, he was absolutely right. And then, suddenly everyone hated it.

I actually had a good friend growing up that ran a music store (80's) and the reason they didn't want people playing it was that EVERYONE would play it. He said "Working 60 hours a week and hearing it at least 50 times a day was just too much". He told me a story of one day when they finally had enough, his brother and himself decided to spend $15,000 to build a soundproof booth for people to try out instruments. No more playing out on the floor. Lol

I’m going to open a guitar store where the only song you are allowed to play is stairway

If stairway to heaven is satanic, than highway to hell is a message from god

Random story: When I was at a music shop, I joked to my dad who was next to an employee, “Imagine if I just started playing Stairway To Heaven.” The employee immediately started playing it on the guitar.

It still bugs me to this day that I was told “you can’t play that here” when I started playing Sweet Child Of Mine in a guitar store. When you’re a kid learning guitar that’s one of the first things you learn! I bought a guitar there because I knew what I wanted and was set on a specific guitar. I wished I’d walked out of that store and bought it elsewhere. This was in the mid-90s.

If you can't play Stairway to heaven in guitar stores, you can always play Highway to hell...

There's a guitar store in Washington that has a sign "if you play stairway to heaven perfectly and completely you get 10% off your purchase. If you just play the beginning we'll chase you out with a broom"

I think it comes from the courtesy of not ruining the song for guitar store owners. Imagine having to hear it every day in day out being played by maybe not the best guitar players. Wouldn't be long before this beautiful song would be ruined. So i think the rule comes from an equal respect of the song and the store owners.

I remember in The Rocks (Sydney, Australia), buskers played guitar to many songs. Two buskers played Stairway from start to finish, they dropped their guitars, sweat pouring down their faces, took some puffs from cigarettes and this guy comes along and asked if they could play Stairway to Heaven. The look from the two buskers had me in stitches.

How tough are ya? I play Stairway To Heaven.. Yeah, so? ..in guitar stores. R-right this way, sir!

Let’s be honest every sound going backwards is scary

We were auditioning a new guitar player. When he played "Stairway to Heaven" to a country beat, and sang it as "Stairway to Austin", he got the job.

I asked a Guy working in a major Store around my Place. And he was just like "Ok. Stay 3 hpours here, just follow me around, I give you a complete Tour and you can dig through all we have." I accepted. After one and a half hourr, I understood. One half butchered the Thing and the others play fine - but always, just always the shown Chords in loop. It makes you crazy. Same goes for "Smoke on the Water" and "Knocking on Heavens Door". One Day in a Store and you "love" it as everyone does love to hear "Last Christmas" over and over again.

I worked in a store where we put up a sign reading "STAIRWAY ACCEPTED HERE". All the local competitors guitar customers moved over to our store.

You can’t play stairway to heaven in guitar stores “on guitar”. Nobody ever said anything about playing it on piano.

I've been playing for 28 years. I've owned 30+ guitars and played hundreds more in music stores. I've never seen a "No Stairway to Heaven" sign. Not once. That being said, just because it's a good song doesn't mean that everyone who wanders into a music store can play it well. I imagine hearing people play it with middling skill at best could get old really fast.

I'm an old rock hound and "Stairway To Heaven" has to be the ultimate step to heaven. I will be humming this song as I pass through those pearly gates.