Viral singing sensation Oliver Anthony said he'd never had any interest in being famous, turned down seven-figure offers from stunned music industry reps and lamented the divided state of the Internet in a Facebook posting on Thursday.
Anthony's song "Rich Men North of Richmond" exploded into a viral hit this month after he recorded it on his Virginia farmland, and the red-bearded, high school dropout described himself on Facebook as "just some idiot and his guitar" who couldn't have imagined he'd become so well-known.
His song, which has been viewed more than 17 million times on YouTube as of Thursday afternoon, serves as both a screed against Washington greed and a lament for working-class ills like suicide, despair, high taxation, and working long hours for "bulls--t pay." It's won a host of conservative fans online, while some progressives have decried it as right-wing agitprop.
Anthony noted his real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford; Oliver Anthony was his grandfather and "Oliver Anthony Music" is a tribute to him and the Appalachia community he was born and raised in. He added he dropped out of high school in 2010 at age 17.
LIBERALS PILE ON DEM SENATOR FOR SHARING ‘RICH MEN NORTH OF RICHMOND’ VIRAL SENSATION
"At this point, I'll gladly go by Oliver because everyone knows me as such. But my friends and family still call me Chris. You can decide for yourself, either is fine," he wrote.
He recounted reading more than 50,000 messages and emails in the past week that have painted a "brutally honest picture" of widespread addiction, unemployment, anxiety and hopelessness.
"I'm sitting in such a weird place in my life right now. I never wanted to be a full time musician, much less sit at the top of the iTunes charts. Draven from RadioWv and I filmed these tunes on my land with the hope that it may hit 300k views. I still don't quite believe what has went on since we uploaded that. It's just strange to me," he wrote.
"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 bulls--t. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place."
Anthony discussed his past employment that included a "living hell" at a paper mill in North Carolina and once fracturing his skull in 2013 that forced him to move home to Virginia. He currently lives on farmland he paid $97,500 for, inside a 27-foot camper with a tarp on the roof, he says.
From 2014 until this year, he worked outside sales in industrial manufacturing, where he got to know thousands of other blue-collar workers.
"I've spent all day, everyday, for the last 10 years hearing the same story. People are SO damn tired of being neglected, divided and manipulated," he wrote. "There's nothing special about me. I'm not a good musician, I'm not a very good person. I've spent the last 5 years struggling with mental health and using alcohol to drown it. I am sad to see the world in the state it's in, with everyone fighting with each other. I have spent many nights feeling hopeless, that the greatest country on Earth is quickly fading away.
"That being said, I HATE the way the Internet has divided all of us. The Internet is a parasite, that infects the minds of humans and has their way with them. Hours wasted, goals forgotten, loved ones sitting in houses with each other distracted all day by technology made by the hands of other poor souls in sweat shops in a foreign land."
He encouraged people to use their freedom of speech and never let it be taken away.
"Just like those once wandering in the desert, we have lost our way from God and have let false idols distract us and divide us. It's a damn shame," he wrote.
Anthony's concert on Aug. 23 in his hometown of Farmville, Va., sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale. The venue only holds 300 people, according to the Statesville Record & Landmark, and he said he would be holding shows soon in larger places to accommodate more fans.
With the popularity of his new song, his other works have also been viewed by millions online, such as "Ain't Gotta Dollar" and "I've Got to Get Sober."
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