Oliver Anthony

Christopher Anthony Lunsford  (born 30 June 1992), known professionally as Oliver Anthony Music (or simply Oliver Anthony), is an American country-folk singer-songwriter. In August 2023, he released the single "Rich Men North of Richmond" independently, which debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 and made Lunsford the first artist to achieve this without any prior charting history in any form.

Career beginnings
A singer of the country-folk genre, Lunsford adopted his grandfather's name "Oliver Anthony" as his stage name in homage to the Depression era in which he lived.

Anthony started writing music in 2021, and since 2022 has released music as Oliver Anthony Music. Winston Marshall compared Anthony's performance on his song "Doggonit" —a song which contrasts consumption of insect protein and self-driving cars with Anthony's rural abode— to that of a character from Hillbilly Elegy. His music has been influenced by Hank Williams.

He said he "started getting messages from people saying how much the music was helping them with their struggles in their lives", and that that gave him a purpose. "It made me feel like I wasn't just wasting my time." Anthony had been struggling with mental health issues and alcohol abuse for five years, and according to Twitter user Jason Howerton who had interviewed him, in July 2023 Anthony broke down and promised God that he would get sober if he helped him follow his dream. Around 30 days later, West Virginia music channel radiowv asked him to record a song for its YouTube music channel, and the result was "Rich Men North of Richmond".

Anthony performed a free show at a farmers market in Barco, North Carolina, on August 13, which Anthony opened with the reading of verses from Psalm 37 about evildoers. He was joined by surprise guest Jamey Johnson. That same month, six other Anthony songs ranked in the iTunes top 20, with five of the others in the top 10, including "I've Got to Get Sober", which reached No. 3 on the Apple platform.

"Aint Gotta Dollar", a song about self-reliance without spending money, and ranked Anthony's fourth best by Taste of Country, reached number 1 on the Viral 50 list in Spotify and No. 2 on iTunes. Anthony said that members of the public had reached out to tell him that the song had connected with them powerfully.

In a Facebook post on August 17, Anthony described what he believes to be the reasons for his popularity: "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."

Anthony's second documented public concert, in Moyock, North Carolina, opened in what Billboard described as "a unique fashion", with him reading a passage from the Bible.

"Rich Men North of Richmond"
The video of Anthony performing "Rich Men North of Richmond" was uploaded to YouTube on August 8, 2023, and immediately went viral. Billboard described it as taking on "politicians, taxes, welfare and other issues from a struggling working man's perspective", and various news sources described themes in it as anti-establishment, conservative, or conspiratorial. It was further promoted by personalities including singer-songwriter John Rich, podcaster Joe Rogan, and conservative commentators Jack Posobiec and Matt Walsh. The song went to number 1 on the U.S. iTunes all-genres chart within days,  and to number 1 on the Spotify U.S. and Apple Music charts a few days later. Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares called Anthony's performance "unreal Virginia talent." NBC News reported on August 14 that the original video upload had over nine million views in the space of five days, and noted a comment on it which had attracted 11,000 likes: "And just like that you became the voice of 40 or 50 million working men."

Later output
All songs Anthony published before "Rich Men North of Richmond" were recorded on his mobile phone. Within days of the song's release, John Rich publicly offered to produce Anthony's first album. On August 16, Billboard talked of a music industry "feeding frenzy" for his signature, reporting that one label head had told them, "I don't think I've ever seen anything like this before." Anthony himself wrote on his Facebook page on the same day that "Everyone in the 'industry' is rushing me into signing something, but we just want to take things slow right now." He also wrote that "We are working on a full line up of shows" with space for bigger audiences. On August 17, Anthony wrote further, "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."

Draven Riffe of radiowv told Billboard in an interview published August 19 that he is Anthony's co-manager, together with Brian Prentice. He said that five more acoustic songs had been recorded at Anthony's farm at the same sessions as "Rich Men", to be released soon. There were also concert bookings until the end of 2023, he said.

On August 22, Anthony released a new music video for "I Want to Go Home" via YouTube. Views exceeded one million in 24 hours; It was followed on September 2 by a video for his song "90 Some Chevy", a song initially released in April that compares certain aspects of romantic love to an older vehicle. A live recording of the same song was also released, with 1.3 million views of the video in two days."

On March 29, 2024, Anthony announced his debut studio album Hymnal of a Troubled Man's Mind, which was released on March 31.

Firsts
In addition to being the first songwriter to debut at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with no prior chart history in any form, Anthony is the first male songwriter to chart 13 songs simultaneously in the top 50 Digital Song Sales while still alive—Prince and Michael Jackson exceeded that count only following their deaths.

Industry observers noted these milestones were reached despite virtually no radio play; nonetheless, when country music stations such as WGH-FM in Virginia and KBAY in California started playing Anthony, he debuted a few days later at No. 45 on the Country Airplay list.

Artistry
Anthony plays the resonator guitar, and is said to have a "raspy" or "distinct, gravelly voice and heavy twang"; Don Cusic described Anthony's style as straining and sincere, with "a voice that just cuts through."

Personal life
Anthony was born and raised in the Piedmont area of Virginia and currently resides in Farmville, Virginia. As of August 2023, Anthony lived with his wife and two children in a $750 camper on an off-the-grid 90-acre property, where he said he intends to raise livestock.

Anthony dropped out of high school in 2010 at the age of 17, and later secured a General Educational Development diploma; he went on to work in industrial jobs in North Carolina and Virginia. At a paper mill in North Carolina, he had a work accident in 2013 which fractured his skull, leaving him unable to work for half a year. He wrote in a Facebook post that from 2014 through 2023 he worked in outside sales in manufacturing, visiting factories and job sites.

Anthony said in a video in August 2023 that he is nonpartisan: "I sit pretty dead center down the aisle on politics and always have." Later that month, Anthony said he was bothered by others who "wrap politics" around his work. "I see the right trying to characterize me as one of their own, and I see the left trying to discredit me, I guess in retaliation. That shit's got to stop," he said.