Country music sensation Oliver Anthony has claimed he’s turned down offers for as much as $8million after viral hit ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ soared to No. 1 on Apple Music’s global charts.
The song, released in early August, is sitting at the top above stars including Taylor Swift, Doja Cat, Travis Scott, and fellow country singer Morgan Wallen.
Anthony addressed the speculation about who he is, why he performs and what he thinks led to his sudden rise in a Facebook post Thursday after he claimed to have gotten over 50,000 messages after the video took off.I’m sitting in such a weird place in my life right now. I never wanted to be a full time musician, much less sit at the top of the iTunes charts,’ he wrote, saying he hoped that when he filmed the videos, they might hit 300,000 views.
‘I still don’t quite believe what has went on since we uploaded that. It’s just strange to me,’ Anthony wrote.
He then confessed to have gotten ‘blank stares’ from people in the music industry after having rejected the offers off $8million.’I don’t want 6 tour buses, 15 tractor trailers and a jet. I don’t want to play stadium shows, I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression,’ he confessed.
Anthony feels the secret to his success is that his songs are ‘being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung. No editing, no agent, no bulls**t. Just some idiot and his guitar.’
He then went into his full biography, saying that he had ‘never taken the time to tell you who I actually am.’
‘My legal name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford. My grandfather was Oliver Anthony, and ‘Oliver Anthony Music’ is a dedication not only to him, but 1930’s Appalachia where he was born and raised. Dirt floors, seven kids, hard times,’ he wrote.
He said that everyone now knows him as Oliver but that friends and family still call him Chris but adds that ‘either is fine.’
Anthony claims he dropped out of high school in 2010 and got his GED at the age of 17.
He describes in detail the conditions he worked under that ended up inspiring his songs once he left school.
‘I worked multiple plant jobs in Western NC, my last being at the paper mill in McDowell county. I worked 3rd shift, 6 days a week for $14.50 an hour in a living hell. In 2013, I had a bad fall at work and fractured my skull.’Anthony moved back to Virginia, he says, and was unable to work again until six months after the injury.
In 2014, he started working in ‘outside sales’ in industrial manufacturing, which he says has taken him ‘all over Virginia and into the Carolinas.’
‘Ive spent all day, everyday, for the last 10 years hearing the same story. People are SO damn tired of being neglected, divided and manipulated.’
Of his living conditions, he says he lives on a $97,500 piece of farmland (which he claims to still owe $60,000 on) inside a 27-foot camper with a tarp on the roof that he bought for $750 on Craigslist.
He reiterates that his success is ‘nothing special’ to do with him to the point of self-deprecation.
‘I’m not a good musician, I’m not a very good person. I’ve spent the last 5 years struggling with mental health and using alcohol to drown it. I am sad to see the world in the state it’s in, with everyone fighting with each other. I have spent many nights feeling hopeless, that the greatest country on Earth is quickly fading away.’
He then calls for unity and a deviation from the same internet culture that has made him famous.
‘I HATE the way the Internet has divided all of us. The Internet is a parasite, that infects the minds of humans and has their way with them. Hours wasted, goals forgotten, loved ones sitting in houses with each other distracted all day by technology made by the hands of other poor souls in sweat shops in a foreign land.’He goes on to say that we should be fighting for ‘what is right’ and freedom of speech and that people should turn toward God.
‘Just like those once wandering in the desert, we have lost our way from God and have let false idols distract us and divide us. It’s a damn shame,’ he finishes his letter.
‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ has gained mass notoriety for its ‘bone-chilling’ portrayal of life for the ‘average man’ in the United States.
Lyrics include: ‘Lord, it’s a damn shame / What the world’s gotten to / For people like me and people like you / Wish I could just wake up and it not be true.’
The music video for the song, which includes Anthony strumming a guitar and singing soulfully to camera, has amassed more than 18 million views in a week. Anthony, who lives in Farmville – an hour outside of Richmond – has said the song is meant to share the struggles of the blue-collar worker.
‘The universal thing I see is no matter how much effort they put into whatever it is they’re doing, they can’t quite get ahead because the dollar’s not worth enough, they are being over-taxed,’ Anthony said.
‘I want to be a voice for those people. And not just them, but humans in general,’ the singer-songwriter explained of ‘Rich Men North of Richmond.’
‘As long as you’re above the dirt, you’ve got a fightin’ chance,’ he continued.
On Spotify, the song has captured nearly 6 million listens in just five days.
It is also currently being predicted as a contender to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart come late August.
The tune has been adopted as the ‘working class anthem’ by many conservatives while some progressives have remained skeptical due to its lyrics.
The song touches on human trafficking of children, even alluding to late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and his illicit activities involving minors.
‘I wish politicians looked out for minors and not just minors on an island,’ Anthony sings in the song, which is just over three minutes long.
The singer also touches on out-of-touch politicians, high taxes, and those who take advantage of the system by ‘milking welfare.’
‘Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothing to eat and the obese milking welfare,’ he sings. ‘Well God, if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds, taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds.’
Its message has been amplified by major voices including Fox News’ Laura Ingraham and popular podcast host Joe Rogan.
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