Who was Brett James, a country star who died in a plane crash

Among his best known songs, “Jesus, Take the Wheel”: he wrote it in 2006 for Carrie Underwood, who won the Grammy Award with the song as “Best Country song” and as “Best female country vocal performance”. Brett James, who was the author of that piece, died at the age of 57 in a tragic plane crash. The accident occurred around 3 pm – local time – on Thursday 18 September, in the skies of Macon County, near Franklin. The small monomotor aircraft on which the singer -songwriter was traveling has crashed for reasons still to be ascertained. On board, in addition to James, there were two other people: nobody survived the accident. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that the plane was recorded in Brett Cornelius, the real name of the original artist of Brentwood, in Tennessee.

In the USA James was considered a cult artist among fans of the country circuit. In 1995 he signed with the Career Records label (Arista Nashville group) and released his first solo album. But it was behind the scenes that he found his real voice: prolific and sensitive author wrote for Billy Ray Cyrus, Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney and many others. His first great success came in 2001 with “Who I Am”, played by Jessica Andrews, who conquered the summit of the country rankings. Among the other hits signed by James also “The Man I Want To Be” by Chris Young. In 2020 the musician had been included in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, one of the greatest awards for a musical author in the United States.