"He said it himself in the letter to me – that there are only so many notes on the piano – and that's why I was annoyed. I was like, ‘You get it, so why is this happening?’”: Sam Smith reflects on their 2015 songwriting dispute with Tom Petty

Sam Smith and Tom Petty.

Sam Smith has said that they regret not getting back to Tom Petty after the Heartbreakers singer wrote to them, pointing out the alleged similarities between Smith’s 2014 hit Stay With Me and I Won’t Back Down.

Smith and his co-writers James Napier and William Phillips ended up having to give a 12.5% cut of the royalties to Petty and co-writer Jeff Lynne, due to a three-note figure in the song that was a mite too close to the one in Petty’s 1989 hit. A decade down the line, Smith admitted during an appearance on the Alchemy With Anthony Mason podcast that they have regrets about what happened.