Sam Smith Agrees To Share "Stay With Me" Songwriting Profits With Tom Petty

Out singer/songwriter Sam Smith, arguably one of 2014's biggest music success stories, has agreed to pay a portion of his royalties for the song Stay With Me to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne after similarities were pointed out between Smith's song and the Petty/Lynne hit I Won't Back Down.

Smith has agreed to share 25% of the songwriting royalties with Petty and Lynne.

The full statement from Smith's representative:

Recently the publishers for the song I Won't Back Down, written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, contacted the publishers for Stay With Me, written by Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips, about similarities heard in the melodies of the choruses of the two compositions.

Not previously familiar with the 1989 Petty/Lynne song, the writers of Stay With Me listened to I Won't Back Down and acknowledged the similarity.

Although the likeness was a complete coincidence, all involved came to an immediate and amicable agreement in which Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne are now credited as co-writers of Stay With Me along with Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips.

Stay With Me is nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards to be held February 8th.

In other Sam Smith news, Howard Stern recently said that Smith is "fat, ugly and looks gay to me." Smith, taking the high road, responded with the one word tweet: "Ignore."

(source)