It's been difficult as I browse through the 50,000+ messages and emails I've received in the last week. The stories that have been shared paint a brutally honest picture. Suicide, addiction, unemployment, anxiety and depression, hopelessness and the list goes on.
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.
People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers. 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. 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 bullshit. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.
So that being said, I have never taken the time to tell you who I actually am. Here's a formal introduction:
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. At this point, I'll gladly go by Oliver because everyone knows me as such. But my friends and family still call me Chris. You can decide for yourself, either is fine.
In 2010, I dropped out of high school at age 17. I have a GED from Spruce Pine, NC. 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. 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.
From 2014 until just a few days ago, I've worked outside sales in the industrial manufacturing world. My job has taken me all over Virginia and into the Carolinas, getting to know tens of thousands of other blue collar workers on job sites and in factories. 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.
In 2019, I paid $97,500 for the property and still owe about $60,000 on it. I am living in a 27' camper with a tarp on the roof that I got off of craigslist for $750.
There's nothing special about me. 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.
That being said, 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.
When is enough, enough? When are we going to fight for what is right again? MILLIONS have died protecting the liberties we have. Freedom of speech is such a precious gift. Never in world history has the world had the freedom it currently does. Don't let them take it away from you.
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.
F-acebook message from Oliver Anthony, singer of "Rich Men North of Richmond."
Update 8-19-23: "Nothing terrifies people who only have money more than a person who cannot be bought."
The Farmville Herald did their part to share Chris/Oliver's Facebook posting.
Update 8-20-23: Chris/Oliver's manager spoke on his newly famous client. Chris/Oliver sings of the forgotten man and one columnist encouraged politicians not to ignore that widely shared sentiment.
Update 8-23-23: Country music radio may or may not welcome Oliver's smash hit. Variety suggests not, but it gets to song title wrong later in its article, referring to it as “Rich Men Up in Richmond.”
Oliver's lived life has him appreciating the diversity in our country and he lamented its use as a political tool to separate. The man is authentic and it will piss off those lining up to use him. As for those "Rich Men North of Richmond," they are winning.
Update 8-25-23: The "Rich Men" used Chris/Oliver's song as a prop during the Insane Red Team debate. Chris/Oliver said he found that "funny" and "aggravating" as he'd written the song about them (politicians of all political stripes).
The video of his performance at the North Street Press Club is worth the listen.
37:08: "And the Republicans and Democrats, Lord I swear they're all just full of crap"
Update 8-28-23: Blue Team Senator Chris Murphy scolded his party for its negative reaction to Chris/Oliver and his smash hit song. It behooves one to know something before saying something.
Update 9-22-23: Chris/Oliver signed with a Nashville based agent.
Update 3-26-24: Oliver Anthony will play in at Cook's Garage in Lubbock on April 6th.
