Kenny Chesney is speaking out about the loss of his good friend, Brett James. James, his wife and stepdaughter, were killed in a plane crash on Thursday, September 18, in North Carolina.
James penned some of Chesney’s biggest hits, including “You Save Me,” “When the Sun Goes Down” and “Just To Say We Did,” the latter a No. 1 hit, which James wrote with Chesney, Matt Dragstrem and David Lee Murphy.
“A very difficult goodbye to my Brother Of The Sun, Brett James,” Chesney begins his heartfelt post. “I haven’t wanted to post cause I didn’t want to believe it. Brett and I shared a unique bond. A brotherhood. A kinship. We wrote ‘Reality’ and ‘Out Last Night’ on the same afternoon, sitting on my pool deck in the Virgin Islands two days after Christmas. We had a lot of authentic life fun writing songs together over the years, and I’m sure going to miss it.
“It’s hard to process his creative soul being gone,” he continues. “This kind of loss. I feel as if part of my creative soul went with him. It will be a void in my life and creativity forever. I’ve never known writing songs or being on the road without him. Half the songs in my shows are songs he wrote or songs we wrote together. So it’s impossible for me to do shows moving forward and not think about him. I can’t believe I’m saying it, but adios Brett James. Thank you for being a lifer, for being a shirtless, sunburned troubadour, for your friendship, your songs and all the laughs. Save me a seat at the After Party.”
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Other Artists Mourn The Loss of Brett James
Numerous other artists are also mourning the loss of James, not only for his talent as a songwriter, but for his friendship as well.
“Rest in peace pal,” Dierks Bentley writes. “Total stud. Fellow aviator. One of the best singer-songwriters in our town….total legend. I brought a couple of roughy sketched verse ideas of ‘I Hold On’ to Brett after my dad died and he just did his thing. The chorus is all him. When I sing that song live, I’m always thinking of my dad, but I also think about that day we wrote it.
“He just got it, just lit into it,” he continues. “It was one of the first times we wrote and I decided to drop the most meaningful and necessary idea of a song I had on him, because I felt like God was telling me to do so. Our friendship and that song changed my life. Prayers for his family.”
Carrie Underwood and James were friends from the beginning of her career, since he is one of the writers on “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” from her debut album.
“He was a good guy,” Underwood shares. “I remember writing with him on a song that he basically wrote 75 percent of and had ready when he walked in the room. We filled in the blanks and added a little melody and I told him after that I didn’t feel right splitting the credit evenly when he did most of the work. He wouldn’t have it. He insisted that everything be equal. He was just that kind of guy.”
“Brett was the epitome of ‘cool,’” she continues. “I see him in my mind riding up to my cabins to write on his motorcycle…his hair somehow perfectly coiffed despite being under a helmet for however long. I always loved hearing him sing ‘Cowboy Casanov’ because a sassy girl anthem should’ve sounded ridiculous coming from a macho dude like him, but somehow, he even made that cool.”
Jason Aldean performed “The Truth” in tribute to James, shortly after news of his passing was announced.
“We got a little bit of sad news tonight, right before we came on stage,” Aldean said. “A longtime friend of ours, a guy that wrote this song, actually found out today died in a plane crash in North Carolina. This guy has written a lot of stuff for us over the years.
“If anybody’s familiar with the albums, we had a song called ‘Two Night Town’ that this guy wrote,” he continues. “Had a song on I think the second album that we did with Miranda Lambert that this guy wrote. And he also wrote this next song, which ended up being one of the biggest songs of my career. So tonight we send this out to our friend that we lost tonight, Mr. Brett James. This one’s called ‘The Truth.’”
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