Oliver Tree cut his family out of his will and laid out eerie plans for his fortune just weeks before the 32‑year‑old musician was killed in a helicopter crash in Brazil on Friday, according to a resurfaced interview. The American singer and viral provocateur, real name Oliver Tree Nickell, was among six people who died when two helicopters collided in mid-air during his visit to the country.
Fans had been watching Tree document what looked like a carefree trip through Brazil on social media. The Miss You star, known for his bowl-cut persona and deliberately absurd visuals, had been sharing clips of himself playing football, clutching a replica World Cup trophy and joking around with Brazilian content creator Iae Break. Hours of chaotic, goofy footage that now land like a punch to the gut.
Oliver Tree's Final Days In Brazil
The crash happened while Tree was in Brazil as part of his 'World's First World Tour', an ambitious run in which he planned to hit 30 countries and play 70 shows. Local reports cited in LadBible state he was travelling in a helicopter with Lucas Vignale, Lucas Brito Chaves and Argentinian YouTuber Gaspar Prim, known online as Gaspi. Pilots Alexandre Souza and Charles Marsillac were also killed when the two aircraft hit each other in the air.
Details of the collision, including what caused the mid-air impact, have not yet been fully disclosed by Brazilian authorities. Investigations are expected to focus on flight conditions, air traffic control records and maintenance of the helicopters. Nothing is confirmed yet so everything should be taken with a grain of salt.
What is clear is that Tree's social feeds told a sharply different story in the days before the crash. One moment he is filmed sprinting around a pitch, hoisting a fake World Cup, the next his name is on global news tickers as one of six victims in a 'horrific' aviation accident. The whiplash for fans has been intense, even by social media's warped standards of proximity and loss.
Tributes flooded in from across the entertainment world. British YouTuber and musician KSI, who collaborated with Tree on the track Voices, posted a raw message to X insisting he did not want to accept the news.
'Can't believe I'm actually having to type this,' he wrote. '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.'
Oliver Tree's Will And His Decision To Cut Off Family
The shock was compounded when an interview clip from April resurfaced, revealing how Oliver Tree had already drawn up a will that explicitly cut his family out of any inheritance. Speaking on the Zach Sang Show, he laid out his thinking with the same mix of deadpan humour and bluntness that defined much of his work.
'I don't believe that any of the wealth or the things that get made from it is mine,' he said. 'So when I die, I've set it up, my will is set up that when I pass, my family, no one's going to get a penny.'
Instead, Oliver Tree explained, he had created a foundation he called 'Dr. Oliver Tree's Art Grants for Baby Geniuses'. The idea, he said, was for a committee to decide where the money from his estate should go, focusing on funding artists and creative projects long after he was gone.
'The idea is, when I die, all the money is going to go back to the arts,' he said, describing how the foundation would largely be fuelled by the interest generated from his music and other revenue. He suggested there was room for additional money to flow into the fund as his posthumous profile grew.
In a bleakly self-aware aside, Tree suggested his work would be more appreciated once he was no longer around to see it. 'My art will continue, and probably be worth more than it is now,' he said, before adding that 'people will finally appreciate my stupid fking videos or my stupid fking songs. That's when people appreciate you, when you're not there anymore.'
The comments sounded, at the time, like the usual Oliver Tree performance, half bit and half manifesto. In the light of his death, they land closer to a set of instructions.
Fans Grapple With Oliver Tree's Legacy
Neither representatives for Oliver Tree nor Brazilian authorities have issued detailed public statements about the state of his estate or the exact legal status of the foundation. It is also not yet clear whether his will has been formally filed or challenged by family members. Again, nothing is confirmed yet so everything should be taken with caution.
What is not in dispute is the effect his decision has had on how fans and observers are reading his story. Some online have praised the move to direct his wealth towards the arts as unusually generous and oddly on-brand for a performer who built a career out of bending the rules of what pop stars are supposed to do. Others have voiced discomfort at the idea of relatives being cut out entirely, especially now that his death is no longer hypothetical.
It is the kind of messy, human argument that follows a lot of celebrity deaths, only here the artist himself laid out the terms, on camera, with a smirk. He joked that his work would only be truly valued in his absence. He was having a good time in Brazil, chasing a world tour and a ball on some sunlit pitch.
No one thought the punchline would arrive this fast.
