“Rich Men North Of Richmond” Singer Oliver Anthony Appears As Guest On Joe Rogan’s Podcast
Oliver Anthony‘s star exploded overnight following the release of his “Rich Men North of Richmond” video. The performance video, shared on the radiowv YouTube channel, has over 50 millions views at the time of this writing.
Now, “Rich Men North of Richmond” has been the #1 song in the U.S. for two weeks. Its emergence at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 made Anthony the first artist to debut on top of the chart without any prior chart history.
Over the past few weeks, Anthony has revealed more about himself in posts on social media. In one post, he shared his true name, which is Christopher Anthony Lunsford. “Oliver Anthony” was his grandfather, and he chose to take on his name to honor him with his music.
Anthony also had the opportunity to perform live a few times since “Rich Men North of Richmond” took off. He opened one recent sold-out performance with a reading from the Bible.
Oliver Opens Up About Rediscovering His Faith While Speaking With Joe Rogan
Anthony continued to share more about himself in a 2.5 hour interview on Joe Rogan’s The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. They touched on multiple topics during their conversation, including Anthony’s faith.
He shared that he grew up in church, but didn’t truly devote himself to his faith until about a month ago. He had a breakdown, and realized he needed God not just in that moment, but moving forward:
“I just felt hopeless, like almost the way a child feels hopeless when you can’t find your parent or something,” Anthony said. “Like a four-year-old who can’t find his parents, I didn’t have anything left in me. I don’t know, I just decided right then and there, I know I can’t do this anymore, but I know there’s thing I need to do. I just told God, let me do it and I’ll give all this sh– up. I’ll give up the weed, and I’ll quit getting drunk and I’ll quit being so angry about things…and I’ll start over again and make him the focus and not me.”
Then, Anthony paused to read some scripture. He turned to Proverbs 4:20-27, saying it is a passage that greatly impacted his life.
“The whole book of Proverbs is like that…it’s not preachy, it’s not what you think. It’s good guidance, it’s like good guidance that you would want a father to give to his son,” he said when explaining what that particular passage means to him.
Watch the clip of Anthony speaking about his faith with Rogan below.