Brett James, the acclaimed songwriter who won a Grammy Award for his work on Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus, Take The Wheel,” and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, has died in a plane crash. He was 57.
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According to WLOS, James was on board a small-engine plane that went down in Macon County near Franklin, North Carolina, around 3 p.m. EST on Thursday, Sept. 18.
None of the three passengers survived, authorities say. The FAA reports that the aircraft was registered to Brett Cornelius of Brentwood, TN; the artist’s full name is Brett James Cornelius.
Born on June 5, 1968, in Columbia, MO, James had initially intended to pursue a career in medicine, but he followed his heart and left medical school for the music industry. He signed with Arista Nashville’s imprint Career Records as a solo artist, and released a solo album in 1995.
James would become a behind-the-scenes star. Early on, he wrote for Billy Ray Cyrus, Kenny Chesney and Martina McBride, and in 2001 landed his first No. 1 with “Who I Am” by Jessica Andrews.
All told, James would pen more than 300 major-label cut songs, including Underwood’s 2005 single “Jesus, Take The Wheel,” which hit No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and captured two Grammy nominations, winning for best country song.
The awards kept coming. “Jesus, Take The Wheel” also won the ACM single of the year, the ASCAP country song of the year and NSAI Song of the Year. And he was twice named ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year, in 2006 and 2010.
James’ career was lauded when he was made a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame of 2020, and in the same year released his first self-written artist collection in over 20 years, I Am Now (via Songs of Brett/Label Logic/Ingrooves), featuring the single “True Believer.” He had to wait until 2021 for the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which was postponed due to the pandemic.
“I want to thank the songwriting community and all my fellow songwriters,” James said at the ceremony, presented Nov. 1, 2021 at Nashville’s Music City Center. “This award especially belongs to you.” He also offered a special thank you to all of the artists who have recorded his songs, but especially to Underwood and Chesney “for sharing your talents and being so good to me for so many years.”
By now, his catalog included “When The Sun Goes Down” by Chesney & Uncle Kracker, “Cowboy Casanova” by Underwood, “It’s America” by Rodney Atkins, “Out Last Night” by Chesney, “Summer Nights” by Rascal Flatts, “I Hold On” by Dierks Bentley “The Man I Want To Be” by Chris Young and “Bottoms Up” by Brantley Gilbert. Outside of country, James had a Latin hit with “The One You Love (Todo Mi Amor)” by Paulina Rubio.
James was a guest for Billboard‘s Behind the Setlist podcast in 2022, when he recounted an exhilarating songwriting session with Chesney at the country star’s house on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. “That was maybe the greatest songwriting day I’ve ever had, because that’s never gonna happen again,” he remarked. “So I have to thank Kenny for that day. It was fantastic.”
As news of his passing spread, the music community paid tribute to a fine artist and songwriter. “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,” reads a social post from the Nashville Songwriters HOF.
