Sam Smith's 'Stay With Me' Will Give Royalties to Tom Petty

Sam Smith is going to be making a little less money from his song “Stay With Me” – he has agreed to give some of the royalties to the legendary singer Tom Petty.

Tom and his collaborator Jeff Lynne noticed that there are major similarities between their song “I Won’t Back Down” and Sam’s hit song, so they reached out to his team.

“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,” Sam‘s rep said in a statement to Billboard. “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.”

Listen to “I Won’t Back Down” and decide if the songs sound alike!