In a matter of days, Oliver Anthony’s working-class anthem, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” has gone from viral sensation to legitimate country hit.
The song, which channels the previously unknown singer’s anger at working hard and paying taxes just to “waste ‘his’ life away,” has racked up millions of views on social media in less than a week and ascended to the top of Apple Music’s Top 100 USA chart and the iTunes top 40 US country chart, dethroning Luke Combs’ cover of “Fast Car” and the controversial Jason Aldean single “Try That in a Small Town.”
Anthony’s single has courted controversy, too, for its lyrics referring to politicians, “obese” welfare recipients “milking” the system, and “minors on an island.” Notable conservatives, from US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to commentators like Matt Walsh, have adopted the song.
CNN has reached out to Anthony through the email addresses he’s publicly shared but has yet to hear back. For his part, Anthony has not given an interview with a major outlet about the song. Nor has he commented on the song’s adoption mostly by conservatives.
Instead, he’s thanked his millions of new fans who see themselves reflected in the song’s lyrics.
“I appreciate the compliments, but … I’m not a good musician,” Anthony said in a YouTube video posted on Monday. “I hardly know my way around the guitar. My singing’s OK. That’s not what made this (success). It’s you, and the struggles in your life. That’s what’s made this what it is.”
Here’s what we know about how Oliver Anthony went from a self-described Virginia factory worker to a bonafide star in a little more than a week – and how “Rich Men North of Richmond” became a cause célèbre among many listeners on the right.
Up until last week, the Virginia-based musician, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, used his phone to record videos of himself singing his own songs, like “Aint Gotta Dollar” and “Ive Got to Get Sober.”
Anthony said in a recent YouTube clip he started writing his own songs in 2021, at a time when he was struggling with substance use.
“Things were obviously not good for a lot of people, and in some respects, I was one of those people … even things that I did care about didn’t mean anything to me anymore,” he said. “I found an outlet in this music.”
In late January, Anthony’s YouTube channel had just over 350 subscribers, per the Internet Archive, a digital library that archives websites at different points in time. Anthony’s most-viewed video at that time was “Aint Gotta Dollar,” a ditty about making one’s own joy and comfort in lieu of spending, with 1,500 views, according to the archive.
And then, on August 8, the YouTube channel RadioWV, which films and shares outdoor performances by musicians in Appalachia, posted a clip of Anthony singing “Rich Men North of Richmond,” which he later said was his first time playing with a “real microphone.” (CNN has reached out to RadioWV and is waiting to hear back.)
The day before the song was posted online, Anthony shared a 9-and-a-half minute video filmed in his car introducing himself to potential fans whom he hoped would discover the song. (It’s since been viewed over 877,000 times as of Thursday morning).
“Rich Men North of Richmond” touches upon Anthony’s time as a factory worker in Western North Carolina, he said in the video shared before the song was posted online. Its title appears to refer to politicians in Washington, DC, who Anthony said “make life a little more difficult than it should be.”
Its chorus goes:
“Livin’ in the new world/
With an old soul/
These rich men north of Richmond/
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control/
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do/
And they don’t think you know, but I know that you do/
‘Cause your dollar ain’t s**t and it’s taxed to no end/
‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond.”
The song also includes an apparent reference to Jeffrey Epstein, whose estate was sued after his death over Epstein allegedly trafficking girls and young women to his home in the US Virgin Islands. One line goes, “I wish politicians would look out for miners/And not just minors on an island somewhere.”
Anthony said he felt compelled to speak about human trafficking because he felt it was “becoming normalized.”
Since RadioWV shared the video on its YouTube and TikTok accounts, it’s received a combined 20 million views as of Thursday. Anthony posted the clip on X, formerly known as Twitter, on August 10, thanking those who’d already found it and reached out with their support. And from there, its popularity ballooned even further, with more than 25 million views.
