Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Brett James
American singer-songwriter and record producer (1968–2025) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Brett James Cornelius (June 5, 1968 – September 18, 2025) was an American country music singer, songwriter, and record producer based in Nashville. James began his musical career in 1995 with a self-titled album on Career Records. This project charted three singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.
In the beginning of the 21st century, James became known primarily as a songwriter for other country and pop music artists. Among his compositions was Carrie Underwood's 2006 number-one hit "Jesus, Take the Wheel", which received a Grammy Awards for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. His writing credits included number-one hits for Jessica Andrews, Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Rodney Atkins, and Jason Aldean.
James, along with his wife, Melody, and her daughter, Meryl Maxwell Wilson, died in a plane crash in North Carolina on September 18, 2025.
Remove ads
Early life and singing career
Summarize
Perspective
Brett James Cornelius was born in Columbia, Missouri, to Carolyn and Sam Cornelius. He graduated from Christian Heritage Academy high-school in Del City, Oklahoma in 1986. He attended Baylor University in Waco, Texas, pledged with the Sigma Chi fraternity, and graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He attended medical school for a time in the early 1990s, but dropped out to pursue a musical career as a recording artist on Career Records, a subsidiary of Arista Nashville, in 1995. He recorded one self-titled album for Career, which accounted for three singles: "Female Bonding", "If I Could See Love", and "Worth the Fall". All made the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts, though none reached top 40.[2] Also included on the album was "Wake Up and Smell the Whiskey", which was co-written and later released as a single by Dean Miller in 1997.[3]
In addition, he appeared on two compilation albums issued by Arista Nashville. The first was 1996's Star of Wonder: A Country Christmas, on which he sang "What Child Is This?",[4] and the other was a country-gospel album entitled Peace in the Valley, to which he contributed a recording of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus." This latter album was also promoted via a special on The Nashville Network (TNN), now Spike.[5] In 1998, James and Tammy Graham were both dropped from Career Records when Arista chose to shut down the Career label.[6]
James returned to his singing career at the beginning of the 21st century. He was invited to become a member of the band Sixwire, but turned down the offer.[7] James re-signed with Arista Nashville and Dann Huff.[8] The sessions with Huff resulted in the charting singles "Chasin' Amy" and "After All" between 2002 and 2003, although neither was included on an album.[2]
Remove ads
Songwriting career
Summarize
Perspective
In 1998, James was at a low point: he had left medical school at the University of Oklahoma in Norman after one year for Nashville to make a career, but after nine months of waiting tables and attending many open mic nights, he had not had much success. He was dropped from his recording and publishing deals. James thought that he was in the wrong business, according to entertainment writer David Ross.[9] James met the music producer Mark Bright who agreed to sign him a contract with his publishing company Teracel Music.[10] Six weeks into the agreement, James was accepted back into medical school and decided to resume his studies. Bright asked him if he would continue to write songs anyway satisfying the one-year agreement, and James promised to write every third day. He kept his promise and later said, "It was a big creative shift—letting go of the dream of being a big star and just trying to write some cool music."[9]
He wrote many songs including "Jesus, Take the Wheel" and "Cowboy Casanova" for Teracel, and his songs were recorded by artists including Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean, Jessica Andrews, Martina McBride and later Carrie Underwood. Within his contract with Teracel, James had a hot streak of 33 songs to be recorded by major artists. In 2000, James quit school for a final time.[11] The dean of the medical school agreed with James that his success as a songwriter was undeniable and wished him well, saying, "You have to go and do this... but you can't ever come back."[9]
His singles for other artists in the early 2000s included the number-one hits "Who I Am" by Jessica Andrews and "Blessed" by McBride.[11] He continued to write for other artists, with two more of his songs topping the charts: "When the Sun Goes Down" by Chesney and Uncle Kracker, and "Jesus, Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood, in 2004 and 2006 respectively. "Jesus, Take the Wheel" also won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Song, the latter of which was awarded to James and the song's other two songwriters.[12] Rodney Atkins' " In September 2025, Underwood revealed that James "basically wrote 75% of" "Jesus, Take the Wheel" and also had it "ready when he walked in the room."[13] It's America", Chesney's "Out Last Night" and Carrie Underwood's "Cowboy Casanova", all co-written by James, also topped the country charts in 2009. In 2010, James charted number one with Jason Aldean's "The Truth" and Chris Young's "The Man I Want to Be". ASCAP named James as their country songwriter of the year in 2006[14] and again in 2010.[15][16] Non-country artists who have recorded his works include Kelly Clarkson, the Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi, and Paulina Rubio. James also co-wrote American Idol season 10 winner Scotty McCreery's debut single "I Love You This Big".[16]
In 2008, James began working as a record producer with his production credits including Gracin's We Weren't Crazy, Kristy Lee Cook's Why Wait,[17] a re-release of Taylor Swift's self-titled debut album, Jessica Simpson's Do You Know, and Kip Moore's Up All Night.
Remove ads
Death
Wikinews has related news:
_(cropped).jpg)
James was killed in the crash of his Cirrus SR22T airplane on the afternoon of September 18, 2025, near Franklin, North Carolina, at the age of 57. Two passengers aboard the plane – his second wife, Melody Wilson, 59, whom he married in 2021, and her daughter, Meryl Maxwell Wilson, 28 – also died in the accident.[18][19] The plane had taken off from John C. Tune Airport near Nashville before crashing in a field by Iotla Valley Elementary School in Franklin.[20][21] The aircraft, registered to James, came down near the runway of the Macon County Airport.[22][18] FlightAware data showed that the plane's last recorded speed was 83 miles per hour (134 km/h). The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident.[22] No one onboard the plane at the time survived, and only three people were confirmed dead.[23] James had four children by his first wife, Sandra Cornelius-Little.[19] Country singers Dierks Bentley, Josh Gracin, Sara Evans, and Carrie Underwood eulogized James in posts online.[13]
Songs written by Brett James
James's songwriting credits include 26 number-one country hits. Besides those songs, he wrote several other top-10 country hits, including cuts performed by Rascal Flatts, Josh Gracin, Sara Evans, Tim McGraw, and others.[16]
Discography
Albums
Singles
Music videos
Remove ads
References
Works cited
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads