Brett James, the songwriter behind Carrie Underwood’s Grammy-winning hit “Jesus, Take The Wheel,” has died in a small-engine plane crash. He was 57.
James was one of three people on board a Cirrus SR22T aircraft that crashed in Macon County near Franklin, NC, around 3 p.m. EST on Thursday, Sept. 18. A spokesperson for Macon County Highway Patrol confirmed to NBC News that none of the three passengers — Melody Carole, Meryl Maxwell Wilson, and Brett James Cornelius (the songwriter’s full name) — survived.
The Cirrus SR22T’s tail number is N218VB and is registered to James out of Brentwood, Tenn., according to FlightAware.
Rick Diamond/WireImage
Brett James and Carrie Underwood at the 2005 Country Music Awards
During his two-decade-long career, James was known primarily as a songwriter for other country and pop music artists, including Kelly Clarkson, Rascal Flats, and Tim McGraw.
James was born on June 5, 1968, in Columbia, Mo. He grew up intending to graduate from medical school but dropped out to pursue his passion for music. He signed with Arista Nashville’s imprint Career Records as a solo artist and released a solo album in 1995.
Although his album and subsequent releases failed to fire up the charts — briefly sending James back to medical school in Oklahoma in 1999 — the artist found success behind the scenes as a songwriter. Early on, he wrote for Billy Ray Cyrus, Kenny Chesney, and Martina McBride, landing his first No. 1 hit in 2001 with “Who I Am” by Jessica Andrews.
“I thought I was quitting the business,” James said in an interview with Yamaha in 2005. “But then Faith Hill recorded my song ‘Love Is a Sweet Thing.’ Then I started placing a lot of songs. It was pretty bizarre.”
James would pen more than 300 major-label cut songs, including Underwood’s “Jesus, Take The Wheel,” which hit No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned the 2006 Grammy for Best Country Song, 2005 ACM Single of the Year trophy, and the Nashville Songwriter Award for Song of the Year.
He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020, with Underwood, Gordie Sampson, and Hillary Lindsey taking to the stage to honor him during the ceremony in 2021. James was also named ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year twice, in 2006 and 2010.
As news of his passing spread, the music community paid tribute to the acclaimed artist and songwriter on social media.
The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame mourned James’ death in an Instagram post shared on Friday. “We mourn the untimely loss of Hall of Fame member Brett James (“Jesus Take The Wheel” / “When The Sun Goes Down”), a 2020 inductee who was killed in a small-engine airplane crash on Sept. 18. He was 57,” the caption reads.
ASCAP also paid tribute to James’ in a post on X, writing, “We’re mourning the loss of Brett James … a 2-time ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year. Brett was a trusted collaborator to country’s greatest names and a true advocate for songwriters. We miss him dearly.”
Singer Sara Evans posted a group photo with James on Instagram, writing, “I am absolutely devastated at the loss of one of the best writers I’ve ever written with and recorded several of his songs. Brett James. I’m praying for his loved ones. What a tragic and sad day. He will be so missed.”
“Oh no,” singer Gavin DeGraw commented her post. “How did this happen? One of the great ones.”
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Singer Dierks Bentley posted to Instagram, writing that James was “one of the best singer-songwriters in our town,” and said the pair’s collaboration on the song “I Hold On” changed his life.
“One of the best singer-songwriters in our town….total legend,” Bentley wrote. “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.”
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