Brett James Cornelius, a Grammy-winning country music songwriter who wrote over 15 songs with Rascal Flatts, died on Sept. 18 after a small-engine plane crashed in a field in Franklin, North Carolina.<\/p>\n
The Columbia, Missouri, native cowrote hits including Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take The Wheel,” which earned him a Grammy Award in 2006<\/a> for Best Country Song.<\/p>\n He was also a 2020 inductee into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2020 inductee Brett James gives an interview during the the 50th\/51st Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala at Music City Center in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, Nov. 1, 2021. Singwriters 110121 An 014<\/p>\n Cornelius penned Rascal Flatts hits, including “Summer Nights” and “Love You Out Loud.”<\/p>\n Gary LeVox, the lead singer of the country music band originally formed in Columbus, posted a tribute to his friend Sept. 19 on social media. He said they wrote each of these hits over coffee while brainstorming melodies for fans.<\/p>\n “We\u2019re all loving u out loud Bj. I will miss u and r talks and texts and melodies and laughs. We wrote a lot about where you\u2019re standing now,” the singer said in the post<\/a>. “I know it\u2019s gotta be better than what we tried to come up with. I love u and will miss u!”<\/p>\n The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to Nashville’s\u00a0WZTV Fox 17<\/a>\u00a0that a Cirrus SR22T plane with a pilot and two passengers on board crashed in Franklin, North Carolina, about 3 p.m. local time on Sept. 18, according to reporting from The Tennessean<\/a>.<\/p>\n He was 57 when he died. He is survived by his wife, Sandra, and their four children.<\/p>\n Sophia Veneziano is a Columbus Dispatch reporter supported by the Center for HumanKindness at The Columbus Foundation. She may be reached at\u00a0sveneziano@dispatch.com<\/a>.\u00a0The Dispatch retains full editorial independence for all content.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n