Who was Brett James? All about Grammy-winner songwriter who died in plane crash

Brett was born on June 5, 1968, in Columbia, Missouri, to parents, physician father Dr Sam Cornelius and mom Carolyn. He completed his schooling at Christian Heritage Academy High School in Del City, Oklahoma, in 1986.

He completed his graduation with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1991 from Baylor University. Brett also attended medical school in the early 1990s.

He then dropped out of medical school to pursue a musical career as a recording artist on Career Records, a subsidiary of Arista Nashville, in 1995.

He released his self-titled debut album in the same year. The album included charting singles Female Bonding, If I Could See Love and Worth the Fall. He was signed under Arista Nashville’s Career Records as a solo artist.

He has penned some of the popular songs like Jesus, Take the Wheel and Cowboy Casanova for Teracel for Carrie Underwood.

The song went on to win two Grammy awards in 2007 for Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance. Additionally, the song reached No.20 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song also won the ACM single of the year, the ASCAP country song of the year and the NSAI Song of the Year.

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His songs were recorded by artists such as Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean, Jessica Andrews, Martina McBride and later Carrie Underwood.

The musician had a hot streak of 33 songs recorded by major artists during the year of his Teracel contract. Brett had penned more than 300 songs in his career. Brett was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020. The ceremony was hosted in 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.

He is survived by his wife, Sandra Cornelius, and their children.