Two years ago, an unknown artist named Oliver Anthony topped the Billboard Hot 100 with the viral country-folk tune “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Whether you loved or hated it, the song was impossible to escape: I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day / Overtime hours for bulls— pay. The polarizing working-class anthem made Anthony (born Christopher Lunsford) the first artist to hit No. 1 with no prior chart history. Since then, the 32-year-old Virginian released his debut album, Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind, and then promptly quit the music industry—but apparently not before raking in some serious cash.
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Oliver Anthony: “I Would’ve Been a Hater Too”
In an episode airing Friday (June 13), Oliver Anthony stopped by The Joe Rogan Experience to discuss his dizzying rise to fame. And if you expected his time in the spotlight to be fleeting, well… so did Anthony.
“I believed everybody that said, ‘This kid’s got 15 minutes of fame and whatever,’” he told Rogan. “During when ‘Richmond’ blew up I would have been one of those guys who would have been like, ‘Oh, that stupid guy.” You know? Like, I would have been a hater, too.”
Continuing, Anthony revealed that his first royalty check for “Rich Men North of Richmond” was a whopping $800,000.
“Like… I could have lived a long time off of that money, you know?… That was a decade or more of work for me, easily. And so… I was like, ‘Heck yeah. I’m good. I’ll just take it, you know?’” he said.
What’s Next?
While it’s virtually impossible to replicate the organic success of an overnight hit like “Rich Men North of Richmond,” Oliver Anthony isn’t giving up yet. He recently dropped “Scornful Woman,” a blistering, fiddle-heavy tune reportedly inspired by his own divorce.
Hoping to “hit it good one more time,” Anthony revealed to Rogan that he has already recorded six more songs.
[RELATED: Oliver Anthony Is Bringing His Long-Awaited Rural Revival Project to Life]
“I’m pretty proud of them. They’re good,” he said. “So I’m going to put those out, and then who knows after that?”
Last November, Anthony announced he was preparing to leave the music industry, which he declared “a big joke.”
“The plan is to eventually change my entire focus to traveling ministry work,” he said, assuring fans he planned to continue putting out music: “I’ll just be set up legally as a ministry.”
Featured image by AFF-USA/Shutterstock
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