Grammy Award-winning country music songwriter Brett James, best known for writing Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel,” was killed in a plane crash in North Carolina on Thursday.
James, 57, was one of three people aboard a single-engine Cirrus SR22T that had departed from John C. Tune Airport in Nashville before it crashed into an open field near Iotla Valley Elementary School in Macon County, killing all occupants, according to WTVF.
The school is located adjacent to Macon County Airport and surrounded by fields.
No students or staff at the school were injured in the crash.
James was one of the most renowned country music songwriters from the 2000s and early 2010s, having written Brantley Gilbert’s “Bottoms Up,” Rascal Flatts’ “Summer Nights” and various songs for Bon Jovi, Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean and Tim McGraw.
He wrote a total of 27 number-one hits on country radio.
“Jesus Take The Wheel” won Best Country song at the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007. The song had also been nominated for Song of the Year.
James, who was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020, also penned Dierks Bentley’s smash 2013 hit “I Hold On.”
Bentley mourned James’ death on Thursday night, describing the Missouri-born songwriter as “a total legend.”
“Rest in peace pal,” Bentley said. Total stud. Fellow aviator. One of the best singer-songwriters in our town….total legend.”
Bentley credited James for fine-tuning his concept of the song, which was written in the aftermath of the country superstar’s dad’s death.
“I brought a couple of roughy sketched verse ideas of I Hold On to Brett after my dad died and he just did his thing. The chorus is all him. When I sing that song live, I’m always thinking of my dad, but I also think about that day we wrote it. He just got it, just lit into it. It was one of the first times we wrote and I decided to drop the most meaningful and necessary idea of a song I had on him, because I felt like God was telling me to do so. Our friendship and that song changed my life. Prayers for his family,” Bentley said.
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