Oliver Tree Skyler Barberio/Rolling Stone
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Oliver Tree‘s team has shared an update following the singer’s death in a helicopter crash June 14, revealing that a special grant is launching soon in his honor to support artists in need of financing, as outlined in his will before he died.
Alongside a carousel of photos of Tree from his various travels, performances and projects over the years, a posthumous post on his Instagram account announced Sunday (June 21) that the musician’s body has been returned to California, his home state and final resting place. “His legacy will live on through his foundation/endowment named ‘Dr. Oliver Tree’s Extremely Epic Grant For Baby Geniuses’ coming soon,” the caption reads. “This is something that Oliver had put together before his passing.”
“We will make sure his wish comes to fruition so that more joy, love and art can be spread into the world, that was his final wish,” the message continues, noting that “the constant love, support and positivity” fans have shown over the past week has helped his “family, friends and collaborators make it through these extremely difficult times.”
Tree died alongside five others in a helicopter collision in Rio de Janeiro. The artist had been in Brazil as part of his The World’s First Tour trek, playing what would become his final show on June 6 in São Paulo. The other people killed in the accident were identified as passengers Lucas Vignale, Gaspar Prim and Lucas Brito Chaves and pilots Alexandre Souza and Charles Marsillac.
A couple of months before his death, Tree had spoken about his intentions to funnel his wealth and the interest generated by his music into a grant for artists on the Zach Sang Show. “I take no credit for anything I’ve ever done,” he said in the April episode. “Furthermore, I don’t believe that any of the wealth or things that get made from it is mine. So when I die … my will is set up so that when I pass, my family, nobody is going to get a penny.”
“If I have a wife or kids or anything, they’re not getting a penny,” he added at the time, explaining that the grant’s purpose won’t be for education, but for funding the actual creation of art. “I’ll get my kids through college, that’s the agreement, but there’s not gonna be a silver spoon. All the money is going to go back to artists.”
