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Meet Oliver Anthony: The New Voice of America’s Working Class


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The Free Press

Two weeks ago, nobody had heard of ‘Rich Men North of Richmond.’ Now the song is a symbol of forgotten America. The Free Press sits down with the man behind a movement…

Rupa Subramanya

August 28, 2023

Back in 2022, Oliver Anthony started recording his songs because he thought he was going to die, and he didn’t want his music to die with him.

His anxiety and depression had gotten so bad, Anthony told me, that he was suffering from “brain fog, and I was getting chest pains.” It wasn’t any one thing so much as an accumulation of things over many years of working dead-end jobs and feeling increasingly hopeless.

“I was feeling like my body was starting to fall apart, and it got to a point where I was questioning how much longer I’d be able to be around and sing these songs and do this stuff, so I was like, ‘Well, let me just go ahead and start getting everything uploaded, so at least if, God forbid, I die of a heart attack in my thirties, there’s some legacy there,’ ” he said.

Anthony, whose real name is Chris Lunsford, had just wrapped up a set Wednesday at the North Street Press Club, in his hometown of Farmville, Virginia, and he was exhausted but elated as he devoured a burger and fries.

(Snip)

But when I asked Anthony about being catapulted into the first major event in a presidential election cycle, he shrugged. “I’d like to stay out of politics,” he told me. 

And the idea that he has been embraced by the political right baffles him. “If anything,” he said, his music is “more about the right than the left.” 

He added: “I’m singing more about, like, a lot of the older, super conservative politicians that brought us into endless war through my entire childhood.”

Those looking to politics to fix the brokenness of our culture and our country, he said, are looking in the wrong place. “You could find the most perfect human being in the world and put them in the White House. The problem isn’t the White House or the federal government. The problem is us—like human to human is where we fix our country. We don’t need the government to save us. We just need to save each other.” 

(Snip)

“I was obviously introduced to the concept of God and religion as a kid, and I think I was turned off to it growing up,” Anthony told me. “The reason I was always so reluctant to accept God as God is because it meant I had to accept all those people that I didn’t quite agree with as being correct—you know, I falsely associated man-made religion and some of the things that go along with it with the concept of Jesus Christ and God in general.”

He added: “It wasn’t until the last three or four months that I really, finally, completely broke down and accepted it and acknowledged it and embraced it—I guess that would be the word.” 

(Snip)

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Oliver Anthony warms up with Joey Davis before his performance. His debut video was posted only this month, but has since been viewed more than 44 million times.

(Snip)

I asked him if there was any part of him that wishes he could rewind two and a half weeks and recede into his own private Virginia, out of the spotlight—before the millions of clicks and comments, before the fandom.

He said no—he didn’t want to undo what couldn’t be undone. He called himself a “vehicle” for communicating a message—one of despair and unity and shared purpose—to a much wider audience.

“I’m not important. I’m just the vessel,” he said. “People are trying to put me on a pedestal and that’s not in any way what I want. I’m just the messenger. I’m not anybody special.”

He spends a lot of time these days thinking about being himself, not losing sight of that person. “The only thing I’m worried about is that guy three weeks ago or that guy two months ago. I just need to make sure I don’t leave him behind. I need to be careful not to abandon him if I continue on this journey. He’s a lot more important to me than anything else.”

 

 

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2 hours ago, Geee said:

Where Does ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Singer Oliver Anthony Really Stand Politically? Here’s Everything He’s Said So Far

In the wake of his viral fame, the songwriter has pushed back repeatedly against those who have attempted to 'stick me in a political bucket.' Here's a guide to his statements so far:snip:

Strikes me as pretty much Non-Political. By that I mean he wouldn't know John Locke, Saul Alinsky, Futurism, Intersectionality from a hole in the ground. I worked with guys like him. Fine people just don't think in Political terms. We (political junkies) do.

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Oliver Anthony released a video saying that his song "Rich Men North of Richmond" is about Republicans, not Joe Biden. He also says that it's about more than Joe Biden, which is a bit contradictory. There does seem to be some evidence that he's a Democrat. Here are my thoughts on these updates.

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Anthony's new song espouses Americanism

Oliver Anthony's newest music video features shots of handgun

 

Musician Oliver Anthony released his latest single on Saturday, complete with a music video featuring a handgun.

The latest song, titled "90 Some Chevy," seems to be a love song devoted to a woman who is likened to the classic American truck because, as the lyrics go, "she rides just right when you turn her on." In the music video released to YouTube, Anthony is seen driving a Chevy, and the camera briefly pans to the passenger seat, where a handgun rests.:snip:

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1 hour ago, Geee said:

 

Thing is Planned or Not, Left, or Right The song speaks to People.

As for having A File? If they don't they can build one fast....and Always Could. I Know they have one on me. Security Clearance if nothing else and I was not always  a fine upstanding Boy Scout I am today.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oliver Anthony Concert Canceled After Furious Singer Sees Ticket Prices: ‘I Had to Pull Off on the Side of the Road’

Oliver Anthony — the singer and songwriter of the hit “Rich Men North of Richmond”– apologized to fans for a show being canceled after he was booked to appear in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the end of the month.

Anthony was angry that the venue, the nightclub Cotton Eyed Joe, was charging $99 for tickets, plus another $199 for a meet-and-greet pass, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

“I had to pull off on the side of the road and make this video. My adrenaline’s pumping. I’m p*ssed off right now,” the singer said in a video posted to Instagram on Monday.

 

“Don’t buy Cotton Eyed Joe tickets for $99 a piece and sure as hell don’t buy VIP passes for whatever bulls*** price they’re on,” he added.

:snip:

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54 minutes ago, Geee said:

Oliver Anthony Concert Canceled After Furious Singer Sees Ticket Prices: ‘I Had to Pull Off on the Side of the Road’

Oliver Anthony — the singer and songwriter of the hit “Rich Men North of Richmond”– apologized to fans for a show being canceled after he was booked to appear in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the end of the month.

Anthony was angry that the venue, the nightclub Cotton Eyed Joe, was charging $99 for tickets, plus another $199 for a meet-and-greet pass, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

“I had to pull off on the side of the road and make this video. My adrenaline’s pumping. I’m p*ssed off right now,” the singer said in a video posted to Instagram on Monday.

 

“Don’t buy Cotton Eyed Joe tickets for $99 a piece and sure as hell don’t buy VIP passes for whatever bulls*** price they’re on,” he added.

:snip:

 

I have to question if the company Cotton Eyed Joe even has any Idea who Oliver Anthony is, other  than he's popular right now?

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