Tom Petty has issued a statement to say similarity between Sam Smith’s ‘Stay With Me’ and his own ‘I Won’t Back Down’ is just a “musical accident”.
However, Petty was not content to walk away from the “accident” instead deciding to fill his own bank account on the way from Smith’s earnings.
Petty and Smith settled out of court with Petty (and I Won’t Back Down co-writer Jeff Lynne) now credited on the Smith song with what is believed to be 12.5% cut of proceeds from the song. That could be worth millions over time.
In a statement, Petty said, “About the Sam Smith thing. Let me say I have never had any hard feelings toward Sam. All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets out the studio door but in this case it got by. Sam’s people were very understanding of our predicament and we easily came to an agreement. The word lawsuit was never even said and was never my intention. And no more was to be said about it. How it got out to the press is beyond Sam or myself. Sam did the right thing and I have thought no more about this. A musical accident no more no less. In these times we live in this is hardly news. I wish Sam all the best for his ongoing career. Peace and love to all.”
Similarities between ‘Stay With Me’ and ‘I Won’t Back Down’ are near impossible to detect but Petty’s legal eagles with the superhearing of Superman have managed to do so. You need to speed up the Smith song and slow down the Petty song before they even start to overlap.
Listen for yourself here:
This is not the first time a Tom Petty song has been featured in a plagiarism case but the last time Tom was the one being accused.
In 2002, the Tom Petty hit ‘The Last DJ’ came under fire from unknown Californian singer songwriter Jim Wagner who had earlier written and then sent a demo of his song ‘The Last Great DJ’ to KLOS radio announcer Jim Ladd.
Ladd liked the song so much that he wanted to use it as his theme. Ladd was also a mate of Petty’s who also happened to be a regular visitor to the studios for interviews with Ladd.
Not long after Wagner sent his demo to Ladd, Petty released his song ‘The Last DJ’, also about Jim Ladd.
Reality check: The law is not about right or wrong, it is about the man with the deepest pockets. The wealthy Petty soon drained the financial resources of the unknown Wagner of any hope of continuing his pursuit of justice. In the end, Wagner withdrew his legal claim because he could not afford to continue.
To recap, the score in the current season of LA Law is Petty 2, Smith 0, Wagner 0.
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