Oliver Tree Memorial Service Draws 2 Million Views in One Day

Memorial Held at Hometown Venue

Hundreds gathered Saturday night at the Quarry Amphitheater on the University of California, Santa Cruz campus to honor Oliver Tree. The venue was the same one where Tree had been scheduled to perform his hometown show in late August as part of his seven-continent World's First World Tour, which was canceled after the artist died in a helicopter collision over Rio de Janeiro in mid-June. All six people aboard were killed. He was 32 years old.

Three mannequins dressed in Tree's windbreakers, sunglasses, cowboy hats and bowl cuts were laid out in coffins at the foot of the stage, one for each of the characters he built his career inside.

Diplo, Logan Paul, and Whethan Among Speakers

The celebration of life eclipsed two and a half hours and streamed on Tree's YouTube and Twitch channels. Speakers included Diplo, Logan Paul, Ethan Klein, Aaron Mercury, and Tree's parents, Jesse and Christine Nickell. Paul said Oliver was everyone's best friend before closing on the title of Tree's biggest hit. His mother recounted their last exchange, a call in which he answered her question about quitting smoking by exhaling into the camera.

Whethan, who produced Tree's 2016 breakout When I'm Down and executive produced much of the catalog that followed, appeared alongside archival montages. He withdrew from a scheduled Shambhala performance to attend. Stunt rider Robbie Maddison, who mentored Tree and became a recurring foil in his motocross videos, also spoke.

Proceeds Fund New Artist Grant

Proceeds from the memorial benefited the new artistic foundation Dr. Oliver Tree's Extremely Epic Art Grant for Baby Geniuses, fulfilling his wish to distribute his wealth to other musicians through an endowment written into his will.

The stream has drawn over 2 million views in a single day.