Songwriter Brett James has died aged 57 in a plane crash.The Grammy Award winning star, who picked up a prize in 2007 for Carrie Underwood’s Jesus, Take The Wheel, is one of three people who died after a small-engine plane crashed in a field close to a school in North Carolina. According to FlightAware data, the plane was registered to the musician, whose full name was Brett James Cornelius. The plane, a Cirrus SR22T aircraft, left Nashville, Tennessee and crashed in Macon County at around 3pm on Thursday (Picture: Terry Wyatt/Getty Images)
It’s said the National Transportation Safety Board is launching an investigation into the incident. The FAA told News 13: ‘A Cirrus SR22T crashed in a field in Franklin, North Carolina, around 3 p.m. local time on Thursday, Sept. 18. Three people were on board. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The NTSB will be in charge of the investigation and will provide further updates’ (Picture: WLOS)
In a statement, the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) added: ‘The NSAI family is stunned by the death of board member and legendary songwriter Brett James. The loss is profound.’ The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame said: ‘We mourn the untimely loss of Hall of Fame member Brett James, a 2020 inductee who was killed in a small-engine airplane crash on Sept. 18’ (Picture: Rick Diamond/Getty Images for CRS)
James initially planned a career in medicine, but quit school to pursue music, releasing his first solo album in 1995. He started writing for the likes of Billy Ray Cyrus and Kenney Chesney, and he landed his first of 26 number one singles in 2001 with Jessica Andrews’ hit Who I Am. He went onto write over 300 songs for major labels, including Jesus, Take The Wheel which won best country song at the Grammys. ‘At the time we didn’t know it would be a hit. But it turned out to be the right song for the right artist,’ he told Songwriter Universe in 2011. ‘Later on we realised how much it meant to people – it struck a nerve, particularly the faith aspect of the song’ (Picture: Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
He also co-wrote for the likes of Taylor Swift (A Perfectly Good Heart), Leona Lewis (Here I Am) and Kelly Clarkson (Mr Know It All). In 2020, James was announced for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and he marked the occasion with I Am Now, his first self-written album in over two decades (Picture: Rick Diamond/WireImage for NARAS)
He was officially inducted at the 2021 ceremony, after the pandemic forced the postponement,and thanked Carrie Underwood and Kenney Chesney ‘for sharing your talents and being so good to me for so many years’.He added at the ceremony: ‘I want to thank the songwriting community and all my fellow songwriters. This award especially belongs to you’ (Picture: Rick Diamond/Getty Images for BMI)
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