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It’s not hyperbole to describe Oliver Anthony as an overnight sensation, thanks to the out-of-the-blue success of his hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond”.
After the video was posted to YouTube, it’s racked up more than 33 million views in just 13 days. Meanwhile, the song — which Anthony wrote, sang and produced — has climbed to No. 1 on the iTunes charts, and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts.
Clearly, the song — a country protest tune decrying an America in which hard-working people slave away for “bulls**t pay” while the wealthy one per cent and the politicians they control don’t care that “your dollar ain’t s**t / And it’s taxed to no end” — has connected with listeners, making Anthony the first-ever artist to debut at the top of Billboard‘s Hot 100 without any prior chart history.
Who Is Oliver Anthony?
While his exact age isn’t known — it’s been estimated at being somewhere between 29 and 31 — Oliver’s life hasn’t been an easy one.
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“In 2010, I dropped out of high school at age 17. I have a GED from Spruce Pine, NC,” he wrote in a lengthy Facebook post that, so far, has provided the most comprehensive details about his backstory.
“I worked multiple plant jobs in Western NC, my last being at the paper mill in McDowell County,” he continued. “I worked the 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. It forced me to move back home to Virginia. Due to complications from the injury, it took me 6 months or so before I could work again.”
Oliver Anthony isn’t his real name
“My legal name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford,” he wrote in that Facebook post.
“My grandfather was Oliver Anthony, and ‘Oliver Anthony Music’ is a dedication not only to him but to 1930s Appalachia where he was born and raised,” he added. “Dirt floors, seven kids, hard times.”
Nobody’s more shocked by his sudden success than he is
“It’s been difficult as I browse through the 50,000+ messages and emails I’ve received in the last week,” he wrote.
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“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. Draven from RadioWV and I filmed these tunes on my land with the hope that it may hit 300k views. I still don’t quite believe what has went on since we uploaded that. It’s just strange to me.”
His manager helped put him on the map
“I listened to Oliver’s music and I just knew he was special,” Anthony’s co-manager, Draven Riffe, told Billboard.
“Normally, it’s ‘OK, this person has a good song and I want to help them out and get them on the channel.’ With Oliver, I called my friends and family on my way to record him and also on my way back to tell them how special [he was],” Riffe added.
The song has generated controversy
All that success has come with some controversy, particularly due to one line in the song aimed at welfare recipients.
“Lord, we got folks in the street / Ain’t got nothin’ to eat /And the obese milkin’ welfare,” he sings. “But God if you’re five foot three / And you’re three hundred pounds / Taxes ought not to pay / For your bags of fudge rounds.”
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Thanks to that line, the song has become adopted by MAGA Republicans in the U.S., who’ve interpreted the song as being critical of President Joe Biden’s progressive policies.
Anthony, however, has insisted that neither left nor right can lay claim to him.
“I sit pretty dead centre on politics,” he said in a video he posted on YouTube.
He’s struggled with his mental health
“I’m not a good musician, I’m not a very good person,” he wrote on Facebook.
“I’ve spent the last 5 years struggling with mental health and using alcohol to drown it,” he continued. “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.”
What’s next
The music industry has taken notice of the the instant success of “Rich Men North of Richmond.” According to Anthony, he’s been besieged by offers, but has turned them all down.
“People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers,” he added. “I don’t want six 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. These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they’re 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. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.”
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