What Happened to Oliver Tree? What to Know About Fatal Crash

Who Was Oliver Tree?

Born in 1993 and raised in Santa Cruz, Calif., Tree (full name Oliver Tree Nickell) was drawn to music at an early age. In 2013, he released his EP Demons, featuring his viral cover of Radiohead’s “Karma Police.” Three years later, he took the internet by storm again by dropping “Forget It” with Getter as well as “When I’m Down” with Whethan. 

Soon after, Tree signed with Atlantic Records and went on to release his EP Alien Boy followed by several albums—including Ugly Is Beautiful, Cowboy Tears and Alone in a Crowd—as well as popular songs like “Miss You” and “Life Goes On.” Tree dropped his last album—Love You Madly Hate You Badly—in April 2026 and embarked on a world tour the following month, stopping in São Paulo, Brazil June 6.

In addition to being known for his music, Tree drew attention for his personas.

“I’d already spent the bulk of my existence on Earth making music and no one was listening to it,” he told Billboard in 2023. “No one cared. And I was like, ‘Wow, this actually working. This is bigger than my music.’ All I did was just show up looking stupid, and I think it’s a mirror that I was setting up of society, and how dumb things have gotten in a lot of ways but also experimentation is kind of the birth of invention and trying to make something that hasn’t been done a million times.”