Who Is Oliver Anthony?

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Wow, this singer has blown up in the past few weeks as Forrest would say, “It’s a household name”.

Oliver Anthony is the name that Christopher Anthony Lunsford chose for his self-made music enterprise (Oliver Anthony Music), it is a tribute to his grandfather.

***NOTE*** For the remainder of this post, I will refer to him as Oliver Anthony as that is how you will find his music.

Oliver exploded onto the charts with his single “Rich Men North of Richmond”, which hit #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart. The strange thing is though he is #1 on the Hot Country Songs chart, he isn’t being played on the radio, nor is he on the Country Airplay chart hell he’s not even on Mediabase’s radio rankings either. That is because Oliver Anthony’s music is being spread across Social Media in a very grassroots type of way, good old word of mouth.

Oliver Anthony - Rich Men North Of Richmond

Everything about Oliver Anthony screams down to earth, from his red hair and bushy red beard to his resonator guitar and the dogs at his feet. It’s like he stepped out of a scene from “O Brother, Where Art Thou? “Every song on his YouTube channel is of him outside on his farm and recorded on his cell phone. He uses a shed, a trailer, and the woods on his property as his authentic backdrops. He doesn’t want to ever go away from being down to earth and in his own words from his Social Media accounts:

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 gone 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 from 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 to 1930s 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 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.

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. I’ve spent all day, every day, 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.

Like many of us today, he suffers from mental health issues and his music is his outlet. So where do you go to see Oliver Anthony live in concert? Well, that is the fun part of all this, he’s likely going to be at your local farmers market soon enough.