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.’
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