When asked to comment on the decision in a 1976 interview, Starr said: "There's no doubt that the tune is similar but how many songs have been written with other melodies in mind? George's version is much heavier than the Chiffons – he might have done it with the original in the back of his mind, but he's just very unlucky that someone wanted to make it a test case in court." In his 1980 interview with "Playboy", John Lennon expressed doubt about the notion of "subconscious" plagiarism, saying of Harrison: "He must have known, you know. He's smarter than that ... He could have changed a couple of bars in that song and nobody could ever have touched him, but he just let it go and paid the price. Maybe he thought God would just sort of let him off." McCartney conceded that the Beatles "stole a lot of stuff" from other artists; in a 2008 interview, he said the "nick" from "He's So Fine" was validated because Harrison had avoided the "boy–girl thing" and offered an important spiritual message.