The name Oliver Anthony seemingly came out of nowhere. Now, he’s one of the most talked about people in music. It’s all thanks to his viral performance of his fast-rising hit, “Rich Men North of Richmond.” The song debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 2023, with Anthony making history as the first artist to debut atop the all-genre chart without ever having a song on the Billboard charts previously. “I listened to Oliver’s music and I just knew he was special,” Anthony’s co-manager Draven Riffe told Billboard. So who is the mysterious singer?
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1. Oliver Anthony isn’t his real name
Though it would be reasonable to think that Oliver Anthony is the singer’s actual name, it turns out to be a stage name. His birth name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, while “Oliver Anthony” is the name of his grandfather. The stage name not only honors his grandfather’s memory but also the struggles he faced growing up in the Depression era. “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,” the singer describes.
2. He dropped out of high school
In a lengthy Facebook post that provides fans with much of his backstory, Anthony shared that he dropped out of high school around his senior year and later got a GED. After high school, he worked at blue-collar jobs like industrial plants and paper mills that paid just above minimum wage but provided brutal working conditions.
“In 2010, I dropped out of high school at age 17. I have a GED from Spruce Pine, NC,” he explained. “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.”
3. He lives off the grid
Living in rural Virginia allows Anthony to live off the grid. In the aforementioned Facebook post, he reveals that he purchased a property for under $100,000 in 2019 that he intends to turn into a farm. It appears that he has yet to build a house on the property, as he’s currently living in a camper. “In 2019, I paid $97,500 for the property and still owe about $60,000 on it,” he explained. “I am living in a 27′ camper with a tarp on the roof that I got off of Craigslist for $750.”
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4. He has celebrity fans
After the video of “Rich Men” went viral, it didn’t take long for Anthony to acquire a hoard of celebrity fans, including John Rich, Joe Rogan, and Jamey Johnson, the latter of whom appeared with Anthony onstage at a recent show in North Carolina.
“There have been other artists who have reached out, honestly just to be a mentor,” Riffe tells Billboard, adding that Jelly Roll and Randy Travis are among the artists who’ve reached out. “He got to talk to Jamey, which was sentimental to Oliver because he grew up burning the speakers up on his vehicle listening to Jamey, so to get up there [on stage] your first time—that was special to Oliver.”
5. He struggles with mental health
Anthony’s honest lyrics come from a raw place. The singer has shared that he lives with depression and has found that his music is helping people to cope with similar mental health issues. “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 stated on Facebook. “The stories that have been shared paint a brutally honest picture. Suicide, addiction, unemployment, anxiety and depression, hopelessness, and the list goes on…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.”
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“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 sh*t’s gotta stop,” – Oliver Anthony
“The one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up into this. I’m disappointed to see, like, it’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identity with me, like I’m one of them. It’s aggravating seeing certain musicians and politicians act like we’re buddies and act like we’re fighting the same struggle here, like we’re trying to present the same message.” – Oliver Anthony