Christopher Anthony Lunsford — better known by his grandfather’s name, Oliver Anthony — is truly an artist like no other, telling stories of suicide, addiction, unemployment, anxiety, depression, hopelessness and more within his music, all while staying grounded in the midst of his booming country music career.
The Virginia native became an overnight sensation when RadioWV shared a video of his song “Rich Men North of Richmond” via YouTube this summer (August 8), garnering more than 134 million views to date, as well as securing quite the following on social media for Anthony. Debuting at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, he became the first artist to debut at number one without previously appearing on any other Billboard chart, as well as the first independent country artist to top said chart.
Despite his rapid rise to success, Anthony does not fancy the glitz and glam that the music industry has to offer, sharing in a statement on his official website, “People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off 8 million dollar offers. 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. 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 bullsh*t. Just some idiot and his guitar.”
Admitting that this is “the style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place” — describing his debut album, Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind, as his journal — one thing that Anthony is adamant about is remaining an independent artist and marching to the beat of his own drum, despite record labels all across Music City begging to take him under their wing.
If you find yourself asking why, the talented singer/songwriter shared his reasoning in an interview with Country Chord and other media today (April 23). Keep scrolling to see for yourself…
Kicking things off, Anthony shared that he never wanted to find himself in a spot where he needed to be a musician to pay the bills, explaining how he worked outside sales in the industrial manufacturing world up until “Rich Men North of Richmond” took off. If failing to sign a record deal causes his career to end here — although with his stellar singing skills and storytelling, we are almost certain it will not — Anthony admitted that he is fine with going back to his day job, as “the last thing [he] wanted to do was just be a cow at the auction block for everybody to bid on.”
To follow, the country crooner elaborated on why he is so passionate about remaining an independent artist, largely due to “how many musicians those companies have ripped off and screwed over” in stories he has heard. “I’d rather not have a career than feed those people. I hate the way some of those people treated artists. They just like rip the soul out of them, you know? They just look at them like a big dollar bill, and they don’t give a shit about anything they do, so that was kind of my thought process,” he dished.
“I’ll just do it myself and just stay true to myself, and if it doesn’t work out, then I still got to experience what I did,” he concluded with an ear-to-ear grin, explaining how he is content with the success of “Rich Men North of Richmond.” “I’m just thankful for every day I have doing it, and I’ll just do it as long as I can… With the people I’ve met and the crazy stuff I’ve done so far, I don’t know, even if I had to go back to my old job, I wouldn’t even be upset. I’m more than happy with everything.”
Turning down record deal after record deal — something that aspiring artists dream of having — Anthony’s rebellious spirit and “I don’t give a damn” attitude (for lack of a better phrase) bled over to his debut album, Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind, releasing the ten-track project on his own terms, rather than listening to what industry professionals were telling him at the time. While “some people think they need the record label and the infrastructure” to release music in today’s day and age, Anthony released his album when he wanted, Easter Sunday (March 31), largely due to the record’s religious undertones.
He elaborated, “I wanted to release this album on Easter Sunday, because I felt like that was the day to release it based off of what it is and the context of it, and everybody’s like, ‘No, no, no, you got to do it on Friday.’ A month and a half before we went to release it, they’re like, ‘Well, Beyonce’s releasing hers on Friday, so you can’t even put it on Good Friday, because Beyonce’s there.'” Getting fed up with industry professionals telling him what to do, Anthony said “Screw it. Let’s just put it on,” and the rest is history.
Admitting that Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind is playing long game — hoping to be outperforming other albums decades and decades from now — the Appalachia-based artist had no interest in playlists or charts, reinforcing his rebellious spirit yet again. While the future of Oliver Anthony is still up in the air, it is safe to say that he has already been a deemed trailblazer within the country music community in mere months, and it will be interesting to see whether or not his debut album will stand the test of time.
Until then, you can stream Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind from start to finish via Spotify below: