Singer and songwriter Brett James has died aged 57 in a plane crash.
The star - who picked up a Grammy for Carrie Underwood’s 2005 hit song, Jesus, Take The Wheel - died after a small-engine plane crashed in a field close to a school in North Carolina.
The plane was registered to the musician, whose full name was Brett James Cornelius, according to FlightAware data.
The plane, which was a Cirrus SR22T aircraft, took off from Nashville, Tennessee and crashed in Macon County at around 3pm on Thursday.
Two other people on the plane died. It is believed the incident will be investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Tributes flooded in for the “untimely loss” of James, who wrote songs for country stars like Billy Ray Cyrus and Kenny Chesney.
The Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) said: “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 added: “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.”
The FAA told News 13: "A Cirrus SR22T crashed in a field in Franklin, North Carolina, around 3pm local time on Thursday, September 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."
James had initially intended to go into medicine but dropped out of medical school to pursue music. He released his first solo album in 1995.
He began writing for a host of country stars and scored his first of 26 number one singles in 2001 with Jessica Andrews’ song, Who I Am.
James wrote more than 300 major record label songs for singers like Chesney, Dierks Bentley and Rascal Flatts.
His track Jesus, Take The Wheel won best country song at the Grammys. James was named ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year twice, in 2006 and 2010.
He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021 and marked the occasion with I Am Now, his first self-written album in more than two decades.
