The Oliver Tree Celebration of Life comes weeks after the artist’s tragic passing on June 14, 2026, in a helicopter crash in Brazil that also claimed five other lives. See our prior coverage of the Oliver Tree memorial service livestream for more context.
Loved ones and friends of Oliver Tree gathered in his native Santa Cruz, California over the weekend for a public Celebration of Life memorial for the late singer-songwriter, who died in a helicopter crash in Brazil last month at the age of 32. Tributes from Diplo, Logan Paul and Oliver’s mother Christine Nickell anchored one of the most emotional public memorials the alternative music world has seen this year.
Nickell shared a moving story about her last conversation with her son. “I texted Oliver the day before he passed and asked how quitting smoking was going for him, as he promised he would give it up once he was on tour,” she said. “He FaceTimed me immediately and let out a huge puff of cigarette smoke in my face. But he was so happy and excited about life that day, he told us he was taking a helicopter ride to a house on a mountain top the next day to make TikToks and music with his friends. He loved having epic days, each one more memorable than the last.”
Diplo, who collaborated with Oliver Tree on multiple projects including the 2020 album ‘Sun Comes Up’ and the recent posthumous track with T-Pain and DJ Diesel unveiled at Electric Forest, called Tree the coolest person he had ever met. Logan Paul, a close friend of the artist, delivered a eulogy that leaned into Tree’s own comedic sensibility, joking that Oliver was “watching us all from somewhere in the heavens” and likely “super disappointed in this production.”
Paul added a more heartfelt note: “Oliver was everyone’s best friend. He was an adventurer with an incomparable zest for life and the ultimate ability to make anyone feel seen and heard. Oliver is a generational artist whose legacy and music will last forever, and he’d be proud of all of us for keeping our heads up high by celebrating the impact of his time here on Earth, because at the end of the day, life goes on.”
Oliver Tree, whose real name was Oliver Tree Nickell, was best known for songs including ‘Life Goes On’, ‘Miss You’, ‘Alien Boy’ and ‘Hurt’. His most recent album, ‘Love You Madly Hate You Badly’, was released earlier this year. Following his death, his family also announced Dr. Oliver Tree’s Extremely Epic Art Grant for Baby Geniuses, a memorial grant they revealed had been planned by Tree himself during his lifetime.
Tributes have continued to pour in since his passing, from Post Malone and Kid Cudi to Bebe Rexha, KSI and his former partner Melanie Martinez. Rest in peace.
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