Oliver Tree Is Dead at 32 After His Helicopter Went Down in Rio, and His Will Just Said Everything About Who He Was

Oliver Tree, one of the most genuinely weird and brilliant artists of his generation, is dead. The Santa Cruz, California, singer and internet personality was killed Sunday morning, June 14, when two helicopters collided mid-air over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, according to CNN Brazil, citing the Civil Police of Rio de Janeiro.

He was 32 years old, barely a week shy of his birthday, and had his entire world tour still ahead of him. All six people aboard the two aircraft were killed, with no survivors.

The collision happened over Recreio dos Bandeirantes, a coastal neighborhood in the city’s southwestern zone, shortly before 9 a.m. local time. The crash did not stay in the sky. One of the helicopters came down directly onto a car dealership’s parking lot, igniting a fire as it struck several parked electric vehicles.

An investigation is currently underway to determine the exact cause of the collision. Oliver Tree had posted a video to his Instagram the day before, kicking a soccer ball around a Brazilian neighborhood. Twenty-four hours later, he was gone.

Two Helicopters, Six People, Zero Survivors

Tree was in one helicopter with four others: passengers Lucas Vignale, Gaspar Prim, and Lucas Brito Chaves, along with pilot Alexandre Souza, according to TMZ. Pilot Charles Marsillac was alone in the second aircraft. Gaspar Prim, also known by his online name Gaspi, was an Argentine influencer with more than 3.1 million Instagram followers, one of the more recognizable victims.

Tree had performed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on June 4, and the Brazil stop was part of an active world tour. He had concert dates scheduled across the United States, Europe, Australia, and China, with the next leg kicking off in Lisbon, Portugal, on July 1. He had been mid-run, not winding down.

The Career He Built

Oliver Tree was the kind of artist who looked like a joke until you actually listened. The bowl cut, the oversized scooter, the deliberately absurd persona, all of it was packaging for genuine, genre-defying talent.

He got his start at 17, back in 2010, cutting his teeth alongside Skrillex and Zeds Dead under the simple name “Tree.” He dropped an independent album in 2013, then walked away from the industry entirely to go study music technology, which honestly tracks for someone who was clearly thinking three steps ahead of everyone else in the room.

When he came back, he came back with a point to prove. His 2020 debut studio album “Ugly Is Beautiful” went gold in the United States, and its breakout single “Life Goes On” went platinum. That was just the opening act, because he kept stacking.

“Cowboy Tears,” “Alone in a Crowd” in 2023, and this past April, “Love You Madly Hate You Badly,” his fourth studio album and the last music he would ever release. His sound pulled from alternative rock, hip hop, indie pop, and dance all at once, and his collaborations matched that range.

He and British musician KSI teamed up on the 2023 single “Voices,” with Tree directing the video himself. It racked up over 9 million YouTube views. By every measure, he was hitting his stride.

Weeks Before He Died, He Said His Family Wasn’t Getting a Penny

This is the part that hit the internet hardest after news of his death broke, and honestly, it says everything about who Oliver Tree was as a person.

Just weeks before the crash, in an April 24 appearance on The Zach Sang Show podcast, Tree laid out the details of his will in full. He was not leaving his money to his family. Not a dollar.

“I don’t believe that any of the wealth or the things that get made from it is mine,” he told host Zach Sang. “So when I die, my will is set up that when I pass, my family, no one’s going to get a penny.” He went further: “If I have a wife or kids or anything, [they’re] not getting a f—ing penny.” I’ll get my kids through college. That’s the agreement. But there’s not going to be a silver spoon.”

Instead, he had set up a foundation called “Dr. Oliver Tree’s Art Grants for Baby Geniuses,” structured to collect the residual income generated by his music after his death and distribute it as grants to working artists.

“When I die, my art will continue to have residuals and probably be worth more than it is now. People will finally appreciate my stupid f—ing videos or my stupid f—ing songs. That’s when people appreciate you, when you’re not there anymore,” he said. “I have basically a committee that I’ve set up when I pass, and I plan to do it while I’m alive, where basically everyone will vote on who the money goes to each year.”

He also specified how the grants had to be used: recipients could not purchase equipment with the money, could not use it for education or schooling, but were required to “physically hire people to physically produce stuff” and were allowed to rent equipment to make things.

The whole thing was already in place. A committee of people he worked with while he was alive will vote on where the money goes each year. He built the infrastructure. He just did not expect to need it at 32.

The Music World Responds

The tributes flooded in fast, and they were raw. As NBC NEWS reported, Whitney Cummings wrote that being talented “usually comes with an ego and all kinds of nonsense,” but that Tree was “pure love and the best version of what an artist and person can and should be,” adding: “There’s no silver lining. We lost a giant.”

KSI, who collaborated with Tree and considered him a friend, posted on X: “You’re 32, man. You should still be here. You still had so much life to live. So much music to make. So much content to make. You’re a legend and will always be a legend. Still doesn’t feel real. Genuinely feel sick. I love you, bro.”

Diplo called Tree his “dream collaborator,” writing that he did not think the world would “ever have another human like this again.” Bebe Rexha said she was “in shock.” Kid Cudi described him as “a really amazing and beautiful human.” The consensus from everyone who worked with him or knew him was the same: there was nobody else like him, and there will not be.

What makes Tree’s death particularly hard to sit with is that his final public words were essentially a thesis statement on what he believed art was for. He did not think the money belonged to him. He thought it belonged to the next generation of artists who would make things the world had not yet seen.

He set up a system to make sure that happened, whether he was around or not. That kind of clarity about purpose is rare at any age, and Tree had it at 32. The foundation now activates exactly as he designed it, which is both the saddest and most Oliver Tree outcome imaginable.