{"id":8586,"date":"2025-09-22T12:36:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=8586"},"modified":"2025-09-22T12:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T12:36:20","slug":"grammy-winning-songwriter-dies-in-plane-crash-with-his-wife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=8586","title":{"rendered":"Grammy-winning songwriter dies in plane crash with his wife"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"89\" data-end=\"139\"><strong data-start=\"89\" data-end=\"139\">Hitmaker Brett James Dies in Plane Crash at 57<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"141\" data-end=\"341\">Brett James, the award-winning songwriter behind hits like Kenny Chesney\u2019s <em data-start=\"216\" data-end=\"240\">When The Sun Goes Down<\/em> and Carrie Underwood\u2019s <em data-start=\"264\" data-end=\"287\">Jesus, Take the Wheel<\/em>, tragically died in a plane crash Thursday at age 57.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"343\" data-end=\"659\">The small plane went down near Franklin, North Carolina, killing all three on board: James, his wife Melody Wilson, 59, and her daughter, Meryl Maxwell Wilson, 28. Authorities confirmed no survivors. It\u2019s unclear if James was piloting the aircraft, a Cirrus SR22T registered in his legal name, Brett James Cornelius.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"661\" data-end=\"1053\">James, an Oklahoma native and Nashville mainstay, left medical school to pursue music. He scored his first No. 1 in 2001 and went on to write over 500 recorded songs for artists like Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, and Kelly Clarkson. His work earned a Grammy and helped sell over 110 million albums. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1055\" data-end=\"1201\">Tributes poured in from across the industry, with Jason Aldean calling him a life-changing friend. Underwood remembered his generosity and talent.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1203\" data-end=\"1314\">James is survived by four children from his first marriage. FAA and NTSB officials are investigating the crash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hitmaker Brett James Dies in Plane Crash at 57 Brett James, the award-winning songwriter behind hits like Kenny Chesney\u2019s When The Sun Goes Down and Carrie Underwood\u2019s Jesus, Take the Wheel, tragically died in a plane crash Thursday at age 57. The small plane went down near Franklin, North Carolina, killing all three on board:&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/albotips.com\/?p=8586\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Grammy-winning songwriter dies in plane crash with his wife&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8587,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8588,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8586\/revisions\/8588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/albotips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}