Brett James, the Grammy-winning songwriter behind Carrie Underwood’s country hit “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” is dead at 57. He was “killed in a small-engine airplane crash” on September 19, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame announced in a Facebook post. A plane registered to James’s legal name, Brett Cornelius, crashed into a field in Franklin, North Carolina, at around 3 p.m. on September 18, per public flight-tracking data and a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration to CNN. There were three people onboard and no survivors, officials said. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.
Born in Missouri in 1968, James wrote hundreds of songs over the course of his decades-long career, including Taylor Swift’s “A Perfectly Good Heart,” Kenny Chesney’s “When the Sun Goes Down,” Kelly Clarkson’s “Mr. Know It All,” and Jason Aldean’s “The Truth.” His full list of collaborators spanned genres and includes Bon Jovi, Keith Urban, Faith Hill, Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts, Leona Lewis, and the Backstreet Boys, among many more. A two-time ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year, he also served on the boards of the Country Music Association and the Recording Academy.
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