He spent his early years studying varied styles at the family's Los Angeles folk club, the Ash Grove, which was founded by his uncle, Ed Pearl.

Kopter & The Fabulous Twirly Birds, which included California and Cassidy's version of Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion" plus a slew of Hendrix-inspired tracks (also featuring former Experience bassist Noel Redding, AKA 'Clit McTorius').

In writing Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", Jimmy Page allegedly lifted California's guitar riff from "Taurus", an instrumental song from the first Spirit album.

[9] In the liner notes for the 1996 reissue of Spirit's first album, California stated: "people always ask me why 'Stairway to Heaven' sounds exactly like 'Taurus,' which was released two years earlier.

The fact that "Fresh Garbage" was a track from the same album that includes the song "Taurus" further suggested that Led Zeppelin was likely aware of the song enough to lead to a belated 2014 copyright infringement and injunction lawsuit against the reissue of Led Zeppelin IV, with the lawyer stating, "The idea behind this is to make sure that Randy California is given a writing credit on 'Stairway to Heaven'.

"[10][11] In June 2016, after a trial that included audio recordings of several versions of both songs but not the Spirit and Led Zeppelin recordings, and also featured testimony from Page and bandmate Robert Plant explaining the songwriting process for "Stairway", a jury ruled that Page and Plant had not copied "Taurus".

Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on the basis that U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner gave jurors erroneous information about copyright law.

[15] In October 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear the case, leaving the Ninth Circuit's decision in place and effectively ending the dispute.

[16] California drowned in the Pacific Ocean on January 2, 1997 at the age of 45 while rescuing his 12-year-old son Quinn from a rip current near his mother's home at Molokai, Hawaii.