Singer Oliver Anthony Addresses Newfound Fame After Viral Success With “Rich Men North Of Richmond”
One day, Oliver Anthony was living his life on his plot of land in Farmville, Virginia with his three dogs. The next, he had the #1 song on the iTunes chart.
By now, you’ve surely heard of Anthony and his viral original song, “Rich Men North of Richmond.” A video of him performing the track was uploaded the YouTube channel radiowv on August 8.
The video, which shows Anthony delivering an acoustic performance in the middle of the country, took off overnight.
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At the time of this writing, the video has nearly 21 million views and is the #1 trending video for music on Youtube. The song also topped the iTunes chart, and Anthony had several other songs land in the Top 10.
Oliver Anthony Releases Statement About His Life After Releasing “Rich Men North Of Richmond”
Things have been a whirlwind for Anthony since the video dropped of him signing “Rich Men North of Richmond.” In a statement shared on his Facebook page on Thursday (August 17), Anthony said he’s received over 50,000 messages and emails in the past week.
As to be expected, Anthony’s received some offers from folks in the music industry. But as he shared in his post, he isn’t interested:
“People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers,” he said. “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.”
He also said:
“Im [sic] 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.”
Read Oliver Anthony’s Full Statement About His Viral Success Below
Anthony continued to share pieces of personal history, including his real name. He’s legally Christopher Anthony Lunsford, but took on his grandfather Oliver’s name to honor him through his music.
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While reflecting on why “Rich Men North of Richmond” and his other songs have received so much attention, Anthony said:
“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 b——-. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.”
Read Anthony’s full statement about his newfound fame in the post below.