Background and career
Oliver Tree Nickell (June 29, 1993 – June 14, 2026) was an American singer-songwriter, rapper, and musician. Classified as a "genre-defying musician", he achieved international recognition with his songs "Life Goes On" in 2021 and "Miss You" in 2022. Born in Santa Cruz, California, Tree signed to Atlantic Records in 2017 after his song "When I'm Down" went viral. He released his debut studio album Ugly Is Beautiful in July 2020, which included the RIAA gold and platinum-certified singles "Alien Boy", "Hurt", "Miracle Man" and "Let Me Down". Tree released his second studio album, Cowboy Tears, in February 2022; his third studio album, Alone in a Crowd, in September 2023; and his fourth studio album, Love You Madly Hate You Badly, in April 2026. Tree died on June 14, 2026, in a helicopter crash in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The cause of the collision is currently under investigation.
Oliver Tree Nickell was born on June 29, 1993, in Santa Cruz, California, to Jesse Louis Nickell III and Christine Marie (née Begin). During his early childhood, Tree's parents worked as traveling circus performers. He spent much of his upbringing living in a mobile motor home, traveling extensively with the circus until his family permanently settled in Santa Cruz when he was 12 years old. Exposed to instruments that lined the walls of his family's motor home, Tree began taking piano lessons at age three, started songwriting the following year, and claimed to have written a full album by the age of six. While in middle school, he picked up the guitar and began singing, joining a local ska band called Irony, which served as his first experience performing live. During high school, Tree gravitated toward hip-hop and electronic music, performing at music festivals and working as a DJ under the pseudonym Kryph, and later, Tree. When Tree was 17 years old, he overdosed on drugs at the community art event "Burning Man", and went through an "LSD rebirth". Following high school, Tree studied business at San Francisco State University for two years. After a brief pause in his early musical career following the release of his 2013 debut EP Demons, he transferred to the California Institute of the Arts. He graduated from the institution in 2016 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music technology.
Tree launched his solo recording career as "Tree" in 2010. By then, he had made presentations for performances such as Skrillex and Zeds Dead. He initially self-released his music, releasing an album called Splitting Branches in early 2013. He sang and played guitar in a ska band called Irony, which was his first experience performing. In August 2013, Tree signed with London-based R&S Records and released his debut extended play (EP), Demons. The EP gained some recognition after Radiohead lead singer Yorke approved of his cover of their song "Karma Police". Tree eventually found himself on hiatus as he went back to school, studying music technology at the California Institute of the Arts.
In March 2016, Tree returned to music, being featured on the song "Forget It" by Getter, a part of his EP, Radical Dude! In November of that year, he made his television debut, performing "Forget It" on the talk show Last Call with Carson Daly. Shortly after the release of "When I'm Down" by Whethan featuring Tree in October 2016, Tree signed to Atlantic Records. That same year, he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a Bachelor of Arts in fine arts. On May 26, 2017, he released "Welcome to LA" as his debut single as Oliver Tree. In February 2018, Tree released his major-label debut EP, Alien Boy, along with the double music video for "All That x Alien Boy". Tree wrote and directed the debut, which took over nine months to create. He spent five months practicing freestyle monster truck jumping at the Perris Auto Speedway and performed all his stunts in the music video. Tree played at major festivals including Lollapalooza and Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival, and performed as a special guest at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival where he was subsequently named on LA Weekly's "The Best (and Weirdest) Fashion at Coachella" list in 2017. He was the supporting act on Louis the Child's Last to Leave Tour (2017) and Skizzy Mars' Are You OK? Tour (2018), and was scheduled to join Lil Dicky and DJ Mustard on the Life Lessons Tour Fall 2018 before it was canceled.
Throughout 2018 and 2019, Tree released singles that made an appearance on his debut studio album, Ugly Is Beautiful. On December 7, 2018, Tree released his second music video, "Hurt", for a single from the album. He traveled to Ukraine to film the video, which he wrote and co-directed with Brendan Vaughan, an up-and-coming music video director. Tree then embarked on the Ugly Is Beautiful Tour, performing songs that would later make an appearance on the album, including "Joke's On You!" and "Waste My Time". On April 11, 2019, Tree released a standalone single, "Fuck", with the music video being released on the same day. His fourth music video and single, "Miracle Man", was released on June 7, 2019, with the video reaching 1.3 million views on its first day of release, and Tree also announced his farewell tour, the Goodbye Farewell Tour, which occurred from September to November 2019. On December 6, 2019, Tree released "Cash Machine", a single accompanied by a music video. Together with the single, Tree announced his debut album, Ugly Is Beautiful, and announced that the album would be released on March 27, 2020. On March 25, 2020, Tree posted on Twitter that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ugly Is Beautiful would not be released on time. However, on May 19, the album's official release date was revealed to be June 12. On June 8, 2020, Tree announced his decision to delay Ugly Is Beautiful for a second time, this time to July 17. He stated that, because of the issues of racism and police violence against black people after the murder of George Floyd, he "did not believe it was an appropriate time" to release the album when "much bigger things" deserved attention. Ugly Is Beautiful was released on July 17, 2020.
Despite claiming that he was retired, he released the single "Out of Ordinary" on February 4, 2021, announcing the deluxe edition of Ugly Is Beautiful. On May 28, 2021, Tree released a deluxe version of his debut album titled Ugly Is Beautiful: Shorter, Thicker & Uglier, from which the song "Life Goes On" gained popularity. On January 12, 2022, Tree released the single "Cowboys Don't Cry" and the single "Freaks & Geeks" on February 4, both from his second studio album, Cowboy Tears. Cowboy Tears was released on February 18, 2022. On May 20, 2022, Tree released a single, "I Hate You", followed by another single, "Placeholder", on July 15. He also announced a tour to accompany the album.
