Oliver Anthony

Born Christopher Anthony Lunsford, he took the stage name “Oliver Anthony” from his grandfather; in 2010 he dropped out of high school at 17, later worked several plant jobs in Western North Carolina, the last at a paper mill in McDowell County, and afterward moved back to rural Virginia.⁠[1]

He said that from 2014 until a few days before his August 2023 statement he had worked in outside sales in industrial manufacturing.⁠[2]

On August 8, 2023, a YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel that shares outdoor performances by Appalachian musicians posted a video of him singing Rich Men North of Richmond; it passed 20 million views almost overnight, and by August 19 the song topped Apple Music’s U.S. and global top 100 charts.⁠[3]

The video was posted by the WV Radio channel, which features country, bluegrass and folk musicians from Appalachia; he was then 31 and based in Farmville, Virginia.⁠[4]

In August 2023 he played a free show at Morris Farm Market in Barco, North Carolina, where Jamey Johnson joined him to perform Johnson’s In Color.⁠[5]

He also performed at Eagle Creek Golf Club & Grill in Moyock, North Carolina, before a crowd conservatively estimated at more than 3,500 people, singing Rich Men North of Richmond twice back to back.⁠[6]

In August 2023 he said in a statement that he had been turning down $8 million offers from record labels, writing, “I don’t want to play stadium shows, I don’t want to be in the spotlight.”⁠[2]

In August 2023 Rich Men North of Richmond debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making him the first artist to reach the top with no prior chart history; in the tracking week ending August 17 the song drew 17.5 million streams and 147,000 downloads.⁠[7]

Without radio promotion the song earned 553,000 radio audience impressions, mostly from country stations, and also debuted at No. 1 on Digital Song Sales and No. 4 on Streaming Songs.⁠[8]

On August 23, 2023, at the first Republican candidates’ debate of the 2024 presidential campaign, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, moderator Martha MacCallum opened the questioning with Rich Men North of Richmond, then No. 1 on the Billboard chart, and Ron DeSantis answered, “Our country is in decline.”⁠[9]

MacCallum later defended the choice, saying the question was whether the candidates on stage were part of the problem he sings about or part of the solution.⁠[10]

He responded in a video, saying he had written the song about the people on that stage and that “I see the right trying to characterize me as one of their own” and “I see the left trying to discredit me,” describing himself as “pretty dead center” politically.⁠[11]

Some on the political left accused certain lyrics of dehumanizing poor people; he denied that the song attacked the poor, saying all of his songs that reference class defend the poor and that his lyrics targeted government inefficiency.⁠[12]

On August 26, 2023, he appeared unannounced at the Rock the Block festival on Main Street in his hometown of Farmville, playing an outdoor set that closed with Rich Men North of Richmond; he has stressed that Farmville is not part of Appalachia.⁠[13]

In 2023 he made a surprise appearance at Joe RoganJoe RoganJoe Rogan is an American podcaster, stand-up comedian and UFC commentator whose long-form interview podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, launched in 2009, is among the most listened-to podcasts in the world; he hosted the NBC reality show Fear Factor, and his show’s content and political statements have repeatedly drawn controversy.Open the full entry’s Austin comedy club, the Comedy Mothership, and then appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience, saying Rich Men North of Richmond “is not even in my top five.”⁠[14]

In September 2023 the agency UTA announced it had signed him for exclusive worldwide representation, with UTA Nashville co-head Jeffrey Hasson and music agent Curt Motley saying they would build a global strategy for him.⁠[15]

In November 2023 he announced the 2024 Out of the Woods Tour of 42 shows, 33 of them in the United States, opening February 1 at Cirkus in Stockholm, Sweden, and closing September 13 at the Allegan County Fair in Michigan.⁠[16]

On November 30, 2023, he announced that he would make his Grand Ole Opry debut on December 16; he also said he was making his first full-length album with a top producer, and his third child had just been born.⁠[5]

On March 31, 2024, Easter Sunday, he independently released his first studio album, Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind, a 10-song collection produced by Dave Cobb and recorded in an empty church in Savannah, Georgia; that day he played the Beacon Theatre in Hopewell, Virginia, with a free livestream.⁠[17]

The album has 18 tracks, eight of which feature him reciting Bible verses; the reviewer Trigger rated it 8/10, saying it found “the right balance.”⁠[18]

One analysis argued that the album partly moves away from the polarizing narratives around him while in other noticeable ways it does not.⁠[19]

In October 2024, replying to fans on social media, he said that “I’m in the process of getting out of the music industry” but would keep releasing music as normal; the first Rural Revival Project show, a $25 hurricane-relief benefit, was set for November 2 in Morgantown, West Virginia.⁠[20]

In a video posted October 29 he said he planned to “change my entire focus to traveling ministry work,” releasing new songs through the Rural Revival Project, to be set up legally as a ministry, and staging shows in towns that had long gone without live music, outside the Live Nation and Ticketmaster system.⁠[21]

In November 2024 the promoter Frontier Touring announced his first Australian headline shows, in Brisbane, Cairns, Newcastle, Sydney and Melbourne in March 2025, plus Meatstock festival appearances; his latest single at the time was Cowboys and Sunsets.⁠[22]

In April 2025 the Rural Revival Project announced a May 17 show in Inez, Kentucky, with $30 tickets, free entry for children 12 and under and a capacity of 3,000; the project avoids big labels and corporate venues in favor of small towns that rarely see live tours.⁠[23]

On May 20, 2025, he appeared on episode #469 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, discussing open mics, mainstream country music, fame, music versus politics, Rich Men North of Richmond, blue-collar people and nature, and performed I Want to Go Home live.⁠[24]

Personal website: Public link: https://oliveranthonymusic.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[24]

X: Public account: https://x.com/AintGottaDollar (opens in a new window)⁠[24]

YouTube: Public channel: https://youtube.com/@oliveranthonymusic (opens in a new window)⁠[24]