Tributes flooded social media on Thursday for music agent Dave Shapiro and drummer Daniel Williams, both believed to have been involved in the fatal plane crash in the Murphy Canyon area.
According to FAA records, Shapiro owned an Alaska-based company that operated the Cessna Citation II, which went down in a military housing community. Though authorities haven’t officially confirmed who was piloting the plane or if Shapiro and Williams were among the dead, the FAA reported six people were onboard.
Sound Talent Group, the agency founded by Shapiro, issued a heartbreaking statement confirming his death. Meanwhile, Williams, formerly the drummer for Ohio metal band The Devil Wears Prada, had posted a series of Instagram stories just hours before the crash. The clips showed him sitting in the co-pilot’s seat beside Shapiro, along with visuals of the exact flight number that later crashed. In response, his former band shared emotional tributes on Facebook, writing: “No words. We owe you everything. Love you forever.”
Both Shapiro and Williams were San Diego County residents.
Even before Shapiro’s label publicly confirmed his passing, the music world was already mourning. Social media lit up with posts from musicians and talent agents who heard through industry calls that Shapiro—a veteran music agent and pilot for nearly 20 years—was on board. News of Williams’ presence took longer to surface, surprising many hours later.
Nate Blasdell, former guitarist for I Set My Friends on Fire, said several industry peers had personally confirmed it was Shapiro. Now an agent himself, Blasdell recalled that Shapiro was the first booking agent to believe in him, crediting him for helping launch his post-hardcore band.
“He was truly the best in the game, one of the most respected figures in the industry,” Blasdell shared with the Union-Tribune. “I was lucky to have worked with and known someone so iconic.”
Sound Talent Group later confirmed to the Associated Press that two more employees died in the crash alongside Shapiro, though it wasn’t immediately clear if Williams was one of them or who the other victims were.
Fans of The Devil Wears Prada poured out their grief online for Williams, a founding member of the band, which was started in 2005 and named after the novel “The Devil Wears Prada,” long before the 2006 film adaptation.
Shapiro and Williams were both recently seen at the Welcome to Rockville festival in Daytona Beach, Florida.
According to his LinkedIn, Shapiro was a certified airline transport pilot and owned Velocity Records, a small label. He had spent years working at United Talent Agency and The Agency Group in Los Angeles before co-founding his own San Diego-based agency, Sound Talent Media, in 2018.
After leaving music, Williams transitioned into software engineering, landing a role at GoPro in San Diego, where he had worked for the past seven years. In addition to his drumming legacy and tech career, Williams survived a mass shooting in Dayton in 2019 at Ned Peppers Bar, an incident that killed nine and wounded 17.
Ohio musician Alex Asch expressed his shock on Facebook, writing, “Thank you, Dave Shapiro, for everything you did for me and my friends. Your kindness was unmatched. I’ll forever be grateful for the opportunities you gave us.”
In an earlier interview with the Union-Tribune during the early days of the pandemic, Shapiro spoke candidly about the challenges artists faced when they couldn’t perform.
“At some point, you realize, ‘I can’t change this,’” he said. “This is the new reality. So let’s stop dwelling on the negatives and focus on how we move forward—getting artists back on the road and exploring new revenue streams.”
Description:
"Tributes pour in for music agent Dave Shapiro and drummer Daniel Williams following a tragic Cessna plane crash in Murphy Canyon. The article covers their careers, impact on the music industry, and the legacy they leave behind."