The following is a transcript excerpt from Dr. Jordan Peterson’s conversation with Christopher Anthony Lundsford (stage name: Oliver Anthony) on the beauty of building a life with someone who shares a similar vision, and why it’s worth taking a leap of faith. You can <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast/oliver-anthony-with-jordan-peterson-art-commerce-and-the-religious" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listen to</a> or <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/oliver-anthony-with-jordan-peterson-art-commerce-and-the-religious">watch</a> the full podcast episode on DailyWire+.
Oliver Anthony: I&#8217;ve been watching your <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/exodus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Exodus series</a>, and I can find a parallel in that and your story, and it&#8217;s part of what&#8217;s inspired me to get back into Scripture the way I have because you&#8217;ve done a great job of finding the practicality in Scripture and presenting it in a way that it&#8217;s very easily understood because so much of the Bible is interpretation and trying to understand the deeper meaning and things. And so, yeah, this has been said many times in many ways, but it&#8217;s important for people to [do] whatever it is that really tugs at their heart strings — and, you know, maybe it&#8217;s lost through the education system — but, as a child, we all have these dreams of whatever it is we want to do and life seems so limitless and there&#8217;s so much potential. You&#8217;ve got to find a way to just face that fear and pursue it no matter what. 
I have a song called “Hell on Earth” that I just kind of threw together. It&#8217;s an Android recording, but it sort of reminisces this idea. “A lot of people die and go to hell before they ever hit the ground” is one of the lines in the song. But it&#8217;s like people get stuck in this sort of monotonous work: Let me drive to work down the interstate and get pissed off and flip everybody off when they cut into my lane and go work this stupid job that I don&#8217;t like so I can come home to this stupid house that I don&#8217;t like so I can pay all these stupid bills that I don&#8217;t want to pay. And deep down inside of them, there is some sort of ambition or pursuit that maybe they&#8217;ve even forgotten about. But the subconscious has such a weird way of holding onto things that sometimes even our cognitive memory can&#8217;t recognize.
For me, I didn&#8217;t want to die not taking that chance. You know, time is very precious. It seems like we live for a long period of time, but really 80 or 90 years in the grand scheme of the world&#8217;s existence is just a blip on the map. You don&#8217;t know if you&#8217;ll even live to see tomorrow. So yeah, you do have to pursue whatever it is that you feel compelled to do in that moment when the time&#8217;s there.
Jordan B. Peterson: All right, so you have about ten cool things there. You mentioned Exodus. One of the things that happens in Exodus is that Moses is being a shepherd. He is off with his Midianite father-in-law, Jethro, and he married one of Jethro’s daughters, and he is away from Egypt. He is just minding his own business. That is when he is wandering down the pathway by Mount Horeb, which is the center of the world. It is Jacob&#8217;s Ladder. It is the place where Jack would plant his beanstalk that stretches to heaven. That symbol is reused consistently in the Bible.
That is when he notices something off to the side that glimmers and glitters. That is the burning bush, and he could continue just walking down the path as a relatively satisfied shepherd — or maybe dissatisfied — shepherd, but he decides to go investigate this thing that attracts his attention. That is the key aspect of the story. He decides to go investigate what attracts his attention, and as he gets closer to it, he understands that he is on sacred ground. When he continues his pursuit, God himself speaks to him. That is when Moses becomes the leader. That is the story of life.
You said people are all tangled up in the nine-to-five and they are not paying any attention to anything but immediate practicalities, even though they are dissatisfied with them, and they are ignoring what is calling to them. Moses does not do that. Then he develops a vision, and that is the vision of the Promised Land. Everyone needs a vision of the Promised Land because, as we already said, that protects them from anxiety and gives them hope.
Then you talked about what you did with your wife. Now, this is particularly interesting to me because I used to play house with my wife when I was like eight, and this is how kids play house. If you are a boy and you are playing house with a girl, to play house properly, these are the rules: You have to come up with a vision that you offer the girl or she has to do the same to you. They have to say, “Look, here is the house.” You can maybe sketch it out on the ground or pretend this playground structure is the house, and there is the door and there are the rooms and you be the mom and I will be the dad. Here is what we are going to play out happening. The girl has to say, “Yes, I am on board with that,” and then you enter the same fictional landscape.
You said and you noticed you have to do the same thing with your wife. It is exactly the same damn thing. Once you develop a vision for yourself, let&#8217;s say, in your imagination, that is what calls to you; it is based on what you really want. You have to develop that vision. Then you have to say to her, “Look, here is what I see five years down the road.” Is there a manner in which what you see and what you envision — and that was, say, your wife&#8217;s concern for animals, that joint interest you had — is there some way that you have a vision of give years down the road that we could bring together, that we would both be thrilled to play out, that we could commit to? That visionary practice has to extend within the marriage. Then you get to play house. That is a hell of a lot better than beating each other up and, you know, using force and compulsion.
Those are the options, as far as I can tell: It is slavery, tyranny, or negotiation. If you negotiate in a visionary way, then you get to play. If you get to play, then you are not in that hell on earth that you described. You are as close to the opposite as you can get. So you obviously managed that successfully, I presume. What does your wife think about the way this decision is unfolding?
Oliver Anthony: Well, in the present moment, she is very excited. Neither one of us had any idea that any of this would happen the way it did with the music, but we&#8217;re excited. The last few weeks have been so difficult to interpret anything because she is pregnant now with my first son. I&#8217;ve got two daughters and so this will be my first boy. So the last couple of weeks have been spent more trying to figure out what we&#8217;re going to name the little rascal than anything else. But our vision, I think for the next 20 or 30 years, is very similar in what we want to do. We want to make sure that our children are brought up in a way that they get to experience nature and get to sort of have some of the imaginative, and like you said, even just some of the playful nature that children have. We want to do what we can to try to protect them from being so institutionalized at an early age — sort of the system that you describe and the way modern education works — and we want them to be able to pursue whatever. We&#8217;re very excited about the opportunities with our children and with our family. 
We have this vision. I don&#8217;t know exactly how it&#8217;ll work out. There&#8217;s a model very similar that Robert Kennedy Jr. describes called the Healing Center. I think we want to incorporate animals into it as well, but we want to use our property. Maybe we even try to purchase another piece of property just through this nonprofit. But I have this vision of creating a model that can be replicated that involves regenerative agriculture [for] people that are suffering with PTSD and people that are just getting out of rehab. There are studies that show that hard work in general helps anxiety and depression [plus] being out in nature doing it. I think there&#8217;s a place over in Italy that does this, that takes kids in that have depression, anxiety, and suicidal thought and [they work] on this vineyard for a period of time, and it&#8217;s got a very high success rate.
We have a vision of trying to take whatever has been produced from this, and we want to sort of light a fire that will hopefully light other fires and this can become something a lot bigger than just what she and I want to do with our world. We both are very like-minded in that bigger vision. And it did take some time. You know, it&#8217;s very difficult for anyone in today&#8217;s society, including me. I mean, I&#8217;m just like anybody else. But sometimes it&#8217;s hard to — how would I say it? — it&#8217;s hard to take away the immediate gratification of whatever world you&#8217;re living in now and those comforts and being able to somehow put those to the side for something that doesn&#8217;t even exist. It&#8217;s a terrifying thing to make that leap. But you know, there&#8217;s no going back.
Jordan B. Peterson: Well, it is a leap of faith. First of all, you have to have faith to do anything because you cannot do anything unless you have faith in it. So maybe you have faith in your nine to five routine and you think that is the best that there is. And that is faith, too, because like you said, you might be run over by a bus tomorrow and who the hell knows what is going to happen? You are going to put your faith somewhere. Then the question is, where should you put your faith? One answer to that is security or hypothetical security. But that seems to me to be stupid because there is no security. So if there is no security, then where do you put your faith? I would say, well, you put your faith in what beckons, and music beckons to people and beauty beckons to people — and art and justice and truth, these eternal verities. The path of heroism beckons. These things call, and that is the burning bush. You have to put your faith in something because you are ignorant and you do not know everything. So you have to take a leap.
* * *
To hear the rest of the conversation, continue by listening or watching this episode on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DailyWire+</a>.
<a href="https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Jordan B. Peterson</a> is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. From 1993 to 1998 he served as assistant and then associate professor of psychology at Harvard. He is the international bestselling author of Maps of Meaning, 12 Rules For Life, and Beyond Order. You can now<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> listen to</a> or<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch/jordan-peterson" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> watch</a> his popular lectures on DailyWire+.

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Meditations With Oliver Anthony: Negotiating A Shared Vision And Taking A Leap Of Faith

Bible

Jordan Peterson

Marriage

Music

Oliver Anthony

Psychology

Readers Pass

Taylor Swift owned pop music in 2023, but an unknown crooner named <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oliver-anthony-says-hes-turned-down-offers-worth-millions-after-going-viral-doesnt-want-spotlight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oliver Anthony</a> stole her thunder for a few magical weeks.
“Barbie” rocked the box office while an indie film that sat on a shelf for five years, “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sound-of-freedom-dominates-in-18-latin-american-countries" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sound of Freedom</a>,” out-grossed some of Hollywood’s biggest film franchises.
See a pattern? There’s more, too. And what began in 2023 might get even hotter in 2024.
This was the year of the pop culture disruptors.
Anthony’s “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oliver-anthony-makes-billboard-history-with-rich-men-north-of-richmond">Rich Men North of Richmond</a>” broke through the media clutter without the benefit of a record label, name recognition, or even a band. Social media paved part of the way, along with Right-leaning influencers who promoted Anthony’s battle cry against the elites.
It was the closest thing to an overnight sensation we’ve seen in music circles, and Anthony responded by eschewing politics and refusing to sign with the first — or second — label that approached him.
They needed him more than he needed them.
<div id="attachment_603051" style="width: 911px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-603051" class="size-large wp-image-603051" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-11-at-2.27.51-PM-901x576.png" alt="" width="901" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-11-at-2.27.51-PM-901x576.png 901w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-11-at-2.27.51-PM-300x192.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-11-at-2.27.51-PM-768x491.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-11-at-2.27.51-PM-1536x982.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-11-at-2.27.51-PM-2048x1310.png 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 901px) 100vw, 901px" />Screenshot: @RadioWV YouTube Channel</div>
He wasn’t the only singer to rock the music industry on his own terms. Rapper Tom MacDonald continued to rack up music sales by eschewing labels and mainstream radio airplay. Songs like “Your America” and “American Flags” skewered the anti-patriotic Left as well as anyone who’d rather burn down their town than help build it back up.
The media all but ignored his successes, but that didn’t matter. His songs rocketed up the iTunes charts and drew millions of views on YouTube without digital press clippings.
The story behind “Sound of Freedom” could make a heckuva movie. The Disney project sat unclaimed for several years before Angel Studios bought the rights from the Mouse House. The company behind “Dry Bar Comedy” and “The Chosen” decided to expand from TV to theatrical titles, and it felt “Freedom’s” heroic saga would be a snug fit with its adherents.
<div id="attachment_574759" style="width: 873px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-574759" class="size-large wp-image-574759" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/S704317-e1687445635961-863x576.jpg" alt="Sound of Freedom" width="863" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/S704317-e1687445635961-863x576.jpg 863w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/S704317-e1687445635961-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/S704317-e1687445635961-768x513.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/06/S704317-e1687445635961.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" />Sound of Freedom | Angel Studios</div>
The studio’s second official film release earned $184 million stateside ($247 million worldwide), surpassing “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Fast X,” “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1” and “The Flash.”
How? Angel Studios embraced a “<a href="https://www.angel.com/pay-it-forward/sound-of-freedom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pay if forward</a>&#8221; ticket-buying model, along with a keen sense of what its fan base craves in a story.
Total disruption from a studio with just two film titles to its credit.
Even more impressive? Major media outlets savaged “Sound of Freedom” in <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/media-sound-of-freedom-investor-fabian-marta/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cartoonish fashion</a>, but the sour press only made the project feel more rebellious and necessary. Old-school word of mouth did the rest.
And let’s not forget the ultimate disruptor.
The Daily Wire’s “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What Is a Woman?</a>” did a birthday victory lap on Elon Musk’s X platform, formerly known as Twitter. Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/every-parent-should-watch-this-elon-musk-retweets-what-is-a-woman-to-his-140m-followers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">personally retweeted</a> the documentary link to his 140 million followers. The result? Millions of social media users sampled the groundbreaking documentary one year after its DailyWire+ debut.
<div id="attachment_390045" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-390045" class="size-large wp-image-390045" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/06/WIAW_KeyArt_Horizontal-5-1024x576.jpg" alt="DailyWire+. What Is A Woman?" width="1024" height="576" />DailyWire+.</div>
X also allowed former Fox News superstar Tucker Carlson and sitcom queen Roseanne Barr a chance to be heard following their shocking dismissals from Hollywood, Inc.
A host of other <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/three-documentaries-that-shocked-the-mainstream-in-2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rebellious documentaries</a> also shook up the system in more ways than one.
“The Fall of Minneapolis” told a shocking story few journalists would ever share. The documentary from Minnesota-based Alpha News shredded key narratives following the death of George Floyd in 2020 in calm, reasonable tones. 
The film would be the toughest pitch possible on Netflix, Hulu, or other streaming giants. So Alpha News dropped it, free of charge, on Rumble. The film racked up north of 2 million views in under two weeks.
Dinesh D’Souza is one of the most successful documentary filmmakers of the modern era. Yet he embraced a hybrid approach to sharing “Police State” with the public. The film earned a brief theatrical release, shifted swiftly to a virtual/online premiere and then transitioned once more to Rumble and Locals.com, two free speech platforms.
Comedians also leaned into the year’s disruptive spirit. More comedians skipped the mainstream entirely, preferring to release comedy specials on YouTube, Rumble, and even OnlyFansTV. The latter let veteran comic Whitney Cummings weigh in on trans issues without fear of being censored.
Comic Shane Gillis enjoyed his biggest year to date, long after NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” hired, and swiftly canned him for a strained comedy routine aimed at Asian-Americans.
Even mainstream media outlets admitted Gillis <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/16/arts/television/shane-gillis-beautiful-dogs-netflix-comedy.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">emerged bigger than ever</a> following the “SNL” debacle, proving comedians no longer need the sketch comedy showcase to break out in a big way.
<blockquote>Since <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/16/arts/television/shane-gillis-snl.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">getting fired from “Saturday Night Live”</a> in 2019 after videos surfaced of him using Asian and gay slurs on a podcast, Gillis has built perhaps one of the fastest growing comedy careers in America …He regularly sells out theaters. Don’t be surprised if he becomes an arena act.</blockquote>
No one on the current “SNL” roster comes close.
<div id="attachment_660319" style="width: 816px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-660319" class="size-large wp-image-660319" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1779494358-806x576.jpg" alt="NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 06: Shane Gillis performs onstage during the 17th Annual Stand Up For Heroes Benefit presented by Bob Woodruff Foundation and NY Comedy Festival at David Geffen Hall on November 06, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Bob Woodruff Foundation)" width="806" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1779494358-806x576.jpg 806w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1779494358-300x214.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1779494358-768x549.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/11/GettyImages-1779494358.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 806px) 100vw, 806px" />Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Bob Woodruff Foundation</div>
Celebrated comic Louis CK lost his Hollywood career after he admitted in 2017 to exposing himself to multiple women. Unbowed, CK took a professional break and came back without any of the industry’s support systems to prop him up.
In January, he played to a sold-out Madison Square Garden, all based on working outside the usual gatekeepers and speaking directly to fans willing to look past his deplorable behavior.
We might look back at 2023 and see more than some isolated cases of pop culture rebellion. It might be the dawn of a content revolution.
* * *
Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic and editor of <a href="http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HollywoodInToto.com</a>. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/HollywoodInToto?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@HollywoodInToto</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>

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Renegades: The Pop Culture Disruptors Of 2023

Comedy

Entertainment

Sound of freedom

What Is A Woman

Overnight sensation <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/oliver-anthony" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oliver Anthony</a> abruptly canceled a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/music" target="_blank" rel="noopener">show</a> he had scheduled for September 27 at the Cotton Eyed Joe nightclub in Knoxville, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/tennessee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tennessee,</a> blaming the high cost of tickets. 
&#8220;Cotton Eyed Joe has been cancelled [sic]. Ultimately, it’s my fault for not being more directly involved with the venues who have reached out. My plate has been full and I delegated the responsibility to someone else to help me book,&#8221; the singer <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085643337139">shared</a> with fans on Facebook Monday night. &#8220;I am not pointing fingers at Cotton Eyed Joe, I don’t know where the miscommunication took place. I’m just upset seeing those prices.&#8221;
&#8220;We will find another place in Knoxville area that can do $25 ticket and free meet and greet,” Anthony continued. ”I will work to get your tickets refunded from my own budget if they can’t. This will never happen again. Thanks for your patience. I am still learning how all of this works.&#8221;
The “Rich Men North of Richmond” composer posted a similar message on his official Instagram page. 
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“Don&#8217;t buy $90 Cotton Eyed Joe tickets or $200 for a meet and greet. That&#8217;s not acceptable,” he wrote in a video caption explaining what happened. “Just saw the Facebook post and lost my s***. Miscommunication with my friend booking shows and I. My shows should never cost more than $40, ideally no more than $25. Hell, out of the 4 shows we have currently done, 2 of them have been completely free. This will get straightened out tonight. Hold off on buying tickets for now.”
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The event venue Cotton Eyed Joe fired back at the accusations of exorbitant ticket prices with a Facebook <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CottonEyedJoeKnoxville" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> of its own. The nightclub said the ticket prices reflected a “break even” amount, claiming it had made a deal with Anthony to play at the venue for an hour for $120,000. 
“Most times we say a show has been cancelled [sic] due to circumstances beyond our control &#8230; well we are cancelling [sic] the Oliver Anthony show under our full control. All refunds will be made in the next few business days to your original form of payment,” the post on the venue&#8217;s account said. 
“The North Man of Richmond contracted to play the Cotton Eyed Joe for $120,000 for 60 minutes &#8230;. after doing the math and knowing we can only hold apprx. 1500 people, paying the ticket website their fee to sell the tickets, paying the tax man, opening the JOE on a closed night &#8230; we set the ticket price to break even and bring our customers a show we thought would be fun. To our talent agency and promotor friends that follow us &#8230; be careful booking the North Man of Richmond.”

‘That’s Not Acceptable’: Oliver Anthony Cancels Tennessee Show Over High Ticket Prices

Oliver Anthony Cancels Tennessee Show Over High Ticket Prices

Music Industry

Tennessee

U.S.

Oliver Anthony, the singer who became an overnight sensation with his song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” said during an interview this week that God completely turned his life around and saved him from committing suicide.
Anthony, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, also read from his Bible during an interview on &#8220;The Joe Rogan Experience&#8221; on Wednesday.
&#8220;I was just so at peace being up there; it just felt like that’s where I was supposed to be. And with all of this, it has been [that way],&#8221; he said. &#8220;There’s no way that Chris from six months ago could handle what’s gone on the last two weeks, but I feel so empowered from all of it.&#8221;
&#8220;I’m telling you, like, again, I’m not anybody special, and I’m certainly not here to preach to anybody … but coming from somebody who was just in a really f&#8212;ed up place, and I used that word with discretion, but it just describes where I was. That guy found a lot of peace from [the Bible].&#8221;
He said that he was not attracted to religion when he was younger because he saw it as &#8220;theatrics.&#8221; He said that he suffered from anxiety and depression to the point where he considered suicide.
&#8220;I just felt hopeless, like almost the way a child feels hopeless when you can’t find your parent or something. Like a 4-year-old who can’t find his parents, I didn’t have anything left in me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don’t know, I just decided right then and there, I know I can’t do this anymore, but I know there are things I need to do. I just told God, let me do it and I’ll give all this s&#8212; up. I’ll give up the weed, and I’ll quit getting drunk, and I’ll quit being so angry about things … and I’ll start over again and I&#8217;ll make Him the focus and not me.&#8221;
He said that his faith allowed him to &#8220;quit worrying about me, and I started worrying about what it is that I was supposed to do.&#8221;
&#8220;I gave up my desire and my will and whatever it is that I want to do. It’s about trying to use what I have as a tool,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We all sin, and we all do stupid things; we’re all just people. Nobody’s special or righteous. People sometimes act like they’re special and righteous, but we’re all just the same thing … we all serve some master whether we realize it or not, so why not let it be the Master that is above all.&#8221;
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Anthony then read from Proverbs 4:20-27: &#8220;My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.&#8221;
Rogan responded to everything that Anthony had said by saying: “That’s pretty f***ing profound.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🔥 Oliver Anthony Shares His Favorite Scripture w/ Joe Rogan &amp; Gets Emotional Explaining How Giving His Heart to God Turned His Life Around
&quot;I feel like God is working inadvertently through certain people to get His point across&#8230;It talks in the Bible about being a… <a href="https://t.co/G2uFSKpZaQ">pic.twitter.com/G2uFSKpZaQ</a>
&mdash; Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/1696969298407772388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Joe Rogan Reacts To Oliver Anthony Sharing Faith, Reading Bible On Podcast: ‘Pretty F***ing Profound’

Joe Rogan

Media

Oliver Anthony, the singer who became an overnight sensation with his song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” said during an interview this week that people are effectively trying to paint him as belonging to one side of the political aisle or the other to fit their preferred worldview.
Anthony, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford, made the remarks during an interview on &#8220;The Joe Rogan Experience&#8221; on Wednesday.
“We want everybody to kind of think along the ways that we think,&#8221; Rogan said. &#8220;It’s very strange. And when a person like yourself gets labeled a right-wing, left-wing fanatic, like right out of the gate.&#8221;
Anthony noted that people had tried to label him both left-wing and right-wing over the span of a week after his song went viral.
“They’re looking for your Biden campaign contributions now they’re going through your f***ing taxes,&#8221; Rogan said. &#8220;The whole thing is so bonkers, man. Like, can’t they just accept that you made a great song and people enjoy it? Why do people have to attack?&#8221;
Anthony said people wanted to &#8220;build this image of whatever it is that the person behind the song represents, for better or for worse.&#8221;
He said it was funny to watch everything being said about him because he knew what was true and what was not.
&#8220;And so like just even what I’ve skimmed through of people sending me, like singing at the Super Bowl, like how many people have formed an opinion about whether or not I should be paid to sing in the Super Bowl,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Like I’m not singing at the Super Bowl. That’s just something somebody made up.&#8221;
He said people were wasting time speculating about who he was and what he would do.
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&#8220;It’s just somebody made them up and put them on the internet,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And so I’m just letting them ride. I think it’s great… At least the last couple of weeks, I’ve been able to entertain everyone and get everyone’s mind off all the other horrible stuff that’s going on in the world right now. Like, at least everybody can have a good laugh.&#8221;
Anthony also said he supported free speech and the Second Amendment.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Oliver Anthony on the Unexpected Success and Backlash from &quot;Rich Men North of Richmond&quot;" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hH75fQ3SVO8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Oliver Anthony, Who’s Song “Rich Men North of Richmond” Went Viral And Skyrocketed To #1 On Billboard Hit Chart, Performs In Farmville, Virginia

Oliver Anthony Addresses People Trying To Politically Label Him

Oliver Anthony, who skyrocketed to fame with his song “Rich Men North of Richmond” — which made him the first performer to hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart without any prior charting history — offered his own solution to the crisis of America seemingly coming apart at the seams.
Anthony, a farm worker in Farmville, Virginia, released his hit song on YouTube roughly two weeks ago. He was asked by The Free Press what he wanted to achieve for Americans with his song.
“What I want out of this for the general public?” he repeated. “It’s for people, I guess for one, to stop relying on somewhere, on someone 150 or 500 miles away from them to solve their problems for them. Like nobody in Washington, D.C., no one in the federal government is coming to save us.”
“The people that are going to save us is each other, local relationships,” he declared. “Even families are torn apart. Like I made an example in one post about — and I&#8217;ve seen this in my old household at times — where you&#8217;ll have a whole family under the same roof and instead of them spending time with each other and caring about each other, every one of them’s sitting there just looking at their own piece of technology, like completely self-absorbed in that and not in each other.”
“That&#8217;s the real problem,” he said decisively. “We are very disconnected from each other just on a community level.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The Free Press’s <a href="https://twitter.com/rupasubramanya?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rupasubramanya</a> with the man of the moment, <a href="https://twitter.com/AintGottaDollar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AintGottaDollar</a>. Story coming soon. <a href="https://t.co/AUO37ZeRC4">pic.twitter.com/AUO37ZeRC4</a>
&mdash; The Free Press (@TheFP) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheFP/status/1694780078322831414?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 24, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Anthony has also <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12419721/Oliver-Anthony-reveals-hes-turned-8-MILLION-offers-surging-Apple-Musics-global-number-one-saying-wrote-Rich-Men-North-Richmond-suffering-depression.html">stated</a>, “The universal thing I see is no matter how much effort they put into whatever it is they&#8217;re doing, they can&#8217;t quite get ahead because the dollar&#8217;s not worth enough, they are being over-taxed. I want to be a voice for those people. And not just them, but humans in general. &#8230; As long as you&#8217;re above the dirt, you&#8217;ve got a fightin&#8217; chance.”
He wrote on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085643337139">Facebook</a>:
<blockquote>
There&#8217;s nothing special about me. I&#8217;m not a good musician, I&#8217;m not a very good person. I&#8217;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&#8217;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.
When is enough, enough? When are we going to fight for what is right again? MILLIONS have died protecting the liberties we have. Freedom of speech is such a precious gift. Never in world history has the world had the freedom it currently does. Don&#8217;t let them take it away from you.
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&#8217;s a damn shame.
</blockquote>

ENTER-MUS-ANTHONY-BILLBOARD-VP

‘No One In The Federal Government Is Coming To Save Us’: Oliver Anthony On Family, Self-Reliance

Country Music

Family Values

Federal Government

Rich Men North Of Richmond

The singer-songwriter in Virginia who performs as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-is-oliver-anthony-the-songwriter-behind-the-viral-anthem-rich-men-north-of-richmond" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oliver Anthony</a> has made Billboard history with his working man anthem &#8220;Rich Men North Of Richmond,&#8221; which debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the top spot.
The singer, born Christopher Anthony Lunsford, has become the first artist ever to debut in the number one spot on the all-genre music song chart with no prior chart history of any kind, <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/oliver-anthony-music-rich-men-north-of-richmond-number-one-debut-hot-100-1235396681/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Billboard magazine</a> reported.
Anthony&#8217;s song is the 1,153rd song to top the Hot 100 over the the charts 65-year history, the outlet noted. It is also the 69th hit to debut at No. 1.
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Who is Oliver Anthony? Unknown musician rockets to No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 chart <a href="https://t.co/qYNutPcG6v">https://t.co/qYNutPcG6v</a> <a href="https://t.co/ibFf1sLq5H">pic.twitter.com/ibFf1sLq5H</a>
&mdash; New York Post (@nypost) <a href="https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1694038834328043897?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2023</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Rich Men North Of Richmond,&#8221; was released on August 11, drawing nearly 18 million streams with 147,000 downloads in the week ending August 17, according to Luminate. A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouTube video</a> of him singing the song has earned 33 million views at the time of this publication.
Anthony&#8217;s song also scored 553,000 radio airplay audience impressions, despite not being promoted on the radio, the outlet noted.
Speaking to the outlet, Anthony reacted to the response to his viral hit and said, &#8220;The hopelessness and frustration of our times resonate in the response to this song.&#8221;
&#8220;The song itself is not anything special, but the people who have supported it are incredible and deserve to be heard,&#8221; he added.
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His entry makes him just the sixth artist ever debut a first solo Hot 100 entry at No. 1, following such stars as Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, Zayn, and more.
&#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unknown-singer-songwriter-receives-praise-for-viral-anthem-for-the-american-working-man" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rich Men North Of Richmond</a>&#8221; debuted on the Billboard&#8217;s Hot Country Songs chart in the number one spot as well, the outlet noted.
The song from Oliver Anthony has also generated headlines because for the second time in history, country music artists dominate the all genre music chart, with &#8220;Rich Men North Of Richmond,&#8221; followed by Luke Comb&#8217;s cover of Tracy Chapman’s &#8220;Fast Car,&#8221; and Morgan Wallen&#8217;s &#8220;Last Night&#8221; in the third spot. In July, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jason-aldean-thanks-fans-for-support-of-try-that-in-a-small-town-says-the-people-have-spoken" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jason Aldean&#8217;s</a> &#8220;Try That in a Small Town&#8221; led a takeover of the chart for the first time by country music when he scored the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jason-aldean-lands-in-number-one-spot-as-country-artists-dominate-music-chart-for-first-time-ever" target="_blank" rel="noopener">top spot</a> followed by &#8220;Last Night&#8221; and &#8220;Fast Car,&#8221; <a href="https://variety.com/2023/music/news/rich-men-north-of-richmond-oliver-anthony-billboard-chart-history-1235701262/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Variety</a> noted.
At the time, it was the first time in the history of the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/jason-aldean-try-that-in-a-small-town-number-one-hot-100-country-hits-top-three-1235382220/?tum_medium=social" target="_blank" rel="noopener">all-genre music chart</a> that country music artists scored the top three spots in a single week, dating back to the start of the chart in August 1958.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oliver-anthony-says-hes-turned-down-offers-worth-millions-after-going-viral-doesnt-want-spotlight" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oliver Anthony Says He&#8217;s Turned Down Offers Worth Millions After Going Viral, Doesn&#8217;t Want &#8216;Spotlight&#8217;</a>

“Rich Men North of Richmond” by Oliver Anthony

Oliver Anthony Makes Billboard History With ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’

Oliver Anthony Makes Billboard History With ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond'

Billboard

Morgan Wallen

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-is-oliver-anthony-the-songwriter-behind-the-viral-anthem-rich-men-north-of-richmond" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oliver Anthony</a> said he&#8217;s turned offers worth millions of dollars after going viral with his song &#8220;Rich Men North Of Richmond,&#8221; emphasizing that he doesn&#8217;t want to be in the &#8220;spotlight.&#8221;
In a post on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100085643337139" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a>, the singer-songwriter from Virginia shared that his real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford and that the name Oliver Anthony is a dedication to his grandfather (who bears the name) and the &#8220;1930&#8217;s Appalachia where he was born and raised.&#8221; Oliver said he never wanted to be a &#8220;full-time musician.&#8221;
&#8220;People in the music industry give me blank stares when I brush off $8 million offers,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oliver-anthony-shares-bible-verse-during-first-public-performance-since-going-viral" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lunsford</a> wrote. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want 6 tour buses, 15 tractor trailers, and a jet. I don&#8217;t want to play stadium shows, I don&#8217;t want to be in the spotlight.&#8221;
&#8220;I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression,&#8221; he added. &#8220;These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they&#8217;re being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung. No editing, no agent, no bulls***. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
NOT ABOUT THE MONEY: Oliver Anthony reveals why he&#39;s turned down multiple million-dollar offers from stunned music reps. <a href="https://t.co/ztuChm9vN1">https://t.co/ztuChm9vN1</a> <a href="https://t.co/aMeZoDj5Ws">pic.twitter.com/aMeZoDj5Ws</a>
&mdash; Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1692380572260114600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;There&#8217;s nothing special about me,&#8221; the singer continued. &#8220;I&#8217;m not a good musician, I&#8217;m not a very good person. I&#8217;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&#8217;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.&#8221;
At one point in his lengthy post, Lunsford shared that he dropped out of high school at the age of 17 before getting his GED and spending the next few years working in multiple plant jobs in western North Carolina.
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Over the last year, he&#8217;s occasionally shared videos of his songs on his various social media accounts, where they have gotten anywhere from a couple thousand to several hundred thousand views. At the time of this publication, the &#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/AintGottaDollar/status/1689826860971008000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1689826860971008000%7Ctwgr%5E9463553db8a1e5b8c8d21a94a8ee4946adc10a5e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2Fwho-is-oliver-anthony-the-songwriter-behind-the-viral-anthem-rich-men-north-of-richmond" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> has 25.8 million views on X.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oliver-anthony-and-the-normal-people-uprising" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lunsford</a> wrote that he never expected one of his songs to top the iTunes charts and said he figured if &#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond&#8221; might hit &#8220;300k views. I still don&#8217;t quite believe what has went [sic] on since we uploaded that. It&#8217;s just strange to me.&#8221;
He closed out the post with a religious message, &#8220;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&#8217;s a damn shame.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/who-is-oliver-anthony-the-songwriter-behind-the-viral-anthem-rich-men-north-of-richmond" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Who Is Oliver Anthony, The Songwriter Behind The Viral Anthem &#8216;Rich Men North Of Richmond&#8217;?</a>

Oliver Anthony Says He’s Turned Down Offers Worth Millions After Going Viral, Doesn’t Want ‘Spotlight’

Celebrities

Seven years ago, for one night, the attention of the national political class in this country was on a small town in the middle of Virginia called Farmville. The occasion was the vice presidential debate between Tim Kaine and Mike Pence. A handful of Farmville&#8217;s 8,000 residents were in attendance. Most of the debate focused on issues that no one even pretends to care about anymore, like Donald Trump&#8217;s tax returns, and the fact that Trump called Rosie O&#8217;Donnell a fat slob. There was also a lot of talk about the internal politics of faraway countries like Syria.
What didn&#8217;t come up, in any meaningful way, is what either party would do to help towns like Farmville. And that&#8217;s odd, when you think about it. By the time Tim Kaine, Mike Pence and the national press corps showed up in 2016, Farmville had been bleeding population for many years. The median income in Farmville was an obvious cause for concern — it was less than half the median income in the United States, and dropping. Thousands of residents lived in poverty. And yet, despite that, all that the residents of Farmville heard during the debate were vague promises and cliches about an economy that would soon &#8220;work for everyone,&#8221; and leave no one behind.
Seven years later, both major political parties have had a chance to run the White House. The decline of Farmville, Virginia has only continued. Four years after that vice presidential debate, the one with all the promises, Farmville ranked as the single poorest town in all of Virginia, with nearly a third of residents living below the poverty line. In 2021, the median household income in Farmville was under $36,000, compared to more than $70,000 in the United States.
What&#8217;s happening in Farmville isn&#8217;t unique. Multiply the story of Farmville, Virginia by the thousands of small towns all over the country that have deteriorated in recent years, and you get some sense of the scale of the American decline that&#8217;s been completely ignored in Washington. Politicians use these towns as props, or as picturesque backdrops for their televised debates. But once the cameras leave, so do the politicians.
One of the Farmville residents they left behind is named Oliver Anthony. He&#8217;s a former factory worker who lives with his three dogs in the town. Last week I briefly talked about Anthony&#8217;s breakout song, &#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond.&#8221; The song isn&#8217;t just about the failings of this country&#8217;s political leaders, who long ago abandoned people like Oliver Anthony. It&#8217;s also about dignity, personal responsibility, and spirituality — all verboten topics in the music industry. You&#8217;ve probably seen the song on social media; it&#8217;s everywhere now. We played it on the show on Friday.
For context, Anthony was completely unknown and recording songs with his iPhone for an audience of a few dozen on YouTube as recently as last week. At this time seven days ago, nobody had ever heard of him. Here he was on August 7th:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="It&#039;s a pleasure to meet you" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tmxyMJd7IQ8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
A few days later, this guy had three of the top ten songs on iTunes and was performing for a crowd of thousands in North Carolina, who were all singing along as if they’d been singing his songs for years. Here he is performing &#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond” for the massive crowd:
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Big crowd singing along to Oliver Anthony&#39;s &quot;Rich men north of Richmond.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/UyVerCNY4t">https://t.co/UyVerCNY4t</a>
&mdash; Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) <a href="https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1690811057445777408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
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Oliver Anthony, and the many people cheering him on, are not supposed to exist. Or at least you’re not supposed to know that they do. You’re not supposed to hear from any of them. They don&#8217;t belong to any of the perpetually oppressed classes you&#8217;re told, endlessly, to grieve for. They don&#8217;t go around identifying as LGBTQ2S+ or whatever. These are people who have actual, useful skills. People who want to work for a living. These are people who don&#8217;t think their sexuality or race is a substitute for personality or ethics. These are religious people — men and women who despise sexual degenerates, who appreciate good music, and who understand that they&#8217;re not all-powerful, or all-knowing. They are not the controlled opposition that the Left has grown familiar with. These are, in a word, normal people. It’s as simple as that.
Anthony made much of this very clear this weekend. Moments before the performance you just saw, he delivered an important message to the crowd that had gathered. As you watch this, put yourself in Anthony&#8217;s position. Just a few days ago, you&#8217;re a complete unknown. No one listens to your music. Now, all of a sudden, you&#8217;re getting all kinds of offers — for interviews, for record deals, and so on. You&#8217;re one of the top trending topics across all social media platforms. How would you begin your first show after all this attention? 
Here&#8217;s how Oliver Anthony did it:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
STOP what you’re doing and watch <a href="https://twitter.com/AintGottaDollar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AintGottaDollar</a>’s first message on stage since his viral song…
With all the labels watching. POWERFUL 🙏🙏🙏 <a href="https://t.co/O2AFHxifr4">pic.twitter.com/O2AFHxifr4</a>
&mdash; Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) <a href="https://twitter.com/jason_howerton/status/1690800466160967680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2023</a></blockquote>
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He opens his concert not with a plug for his Instagram, or with any kind of narcissistic celebration of his own success. Instead, he quotes Psalm 37. &#8220;The wicked will perish,&#8221; he says. The crowd erupts. It’s quite an applause line. They’ve probably never seen anything like it, at least not from a famous musician. This isn&#8217;t Sam Smith&#8217;s satanism, or Cardi B&#8217;s sexual perversion. In fact, most of the people in that crowd probably haven’t even heard a message like that in their churches, where most pastors would consider it insufficiently “welcoming” to quote the Bible’s warnings about the punishments doled out to evildoers. I don’t think Anthony was trying to do anything revolutionary by reading that particular passage. It just means something to him, it resonates with him, so he read it. He’s a normal and authentic guy, which is the appeal.
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That simple fact makes him a clear and present danger to the many talentless and eternally bitter members of the so-called entertainment industry, along with their friends in the equally joyless news media. That&#8217;s why, predictably, Rolling Stone just published the first hit piece on Oliver Anthony. More will surely follow. For its part, Rolling Stone chalked Anthony&#8217;s success up to, &#8220;right-wing influencers,&#8221; who have artificially promoted Anthony&#8217;s song. The piece mentions me, and a few other people. For the record, though, I very much object to being called an influencer.
Is that really the explanation for the success of &#8220;Rich Men North of Richmond?&#8221; Well, you saw the clips we just showed you. That crowd didn&#8217;t look like a bunch of influencers to me. They didn&#8217;t even look like the sorts of people who pay very close attention to influencers. They seem, again, like normal people.
TMZ managed to miss the point even more, implying that Anthony wrote the song in order to make money. Here&#8217;s what they wrote. &#8220;This is a pretty fascinating trend we&#8217;re seeing — it appears when right-wingers perceive something (like a song) they think addresses their grievances/perspectives, they lean into it &#8230; and, from the small sample size we&#8217;ve noticed, it can be effective in the marketplace. Capitalism, baby &#8230; it reigns supreme.&#8221;
In other words, he&#8217;s just trying to make a quick buck. “Capitalism, baby,” they sneer, as if it was so obvious that a song like this would instantly go to number one on iTunes. As if Anthony stood in the woods next to his deer stand and played an acoustic song about his troubles as a working man all in some cynical ploy to make millions of dollars from an audience who, at that point, didn’t even know he existed. No, It&#8217;s pretty obvious that what happened is this: Anthony was singing from his heart about his own experiences. He assumed that the song would be heard by the same few dozen people who heard his other songs. And he was fortunately quite wrong in that assumption.
As weak as these hit pieces are, the truth is, we know that Rolling Stone and TMZ are just firing the warning shots here. We already know that the media will set to work to destroy Oliver Anthony. No doubt they’re digging through his past and looking for skeletons as we speak. Maybe they’ll find some. Everyone has a few. And honestly, who cares?
As the Daily Beast and Huffington Post ghouls scour through Anthony&#8217;s social media feeds and start interviewing his high school friends looking for dirt, let&#8217;s take a step back. What we&#8217;re seeing here, as remarkable as it is, shouldn&#8217;t be viewed in isolation. Consider this. All of the biggest hit songs that have gotten the buzz and attention in recent weeks have been country songs. Recently the top three songs on Billboard were country songs. Before Anthony it was Jason Aldean, with a song centered around similar themes. &#8220;Try that in a small town,&#8221; Aldean sang. That touched off, what, a two-week news cycle?
The media freaked out about the Aldean song, just as they’re starting to freak out about Anthony’s song, because it’s music that attacks the elites and gives voice to the normal concerns of normal people. Americans who aren&#8217;t demented, as it turns out, don&#8217;t like it when hordes of BLM rioters torch small businesses and courthouses in their communities. They don&#8217;t like it when politicians send billions of dollars to Ukraine, while towns like Farmville fall apart. Normal people have been told to shut up about all of this, for years and years. But now these normal people have a voice.
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A moment ago, I scoffed at the idea that Anthony would make a song like this as some sort of marketing or self-promotional strategy. And it is an idea that deserves to be scoffed at. It’s totally absurd, given the context. But we should note that, yes, there is indeed a huge market for this kind of thing. Just like here’s a huge market for movies like &#8220;Sound of Freedom.&#8221; Millions and millions of people — normal people — are starving for art that speaks to them and their values and concerns. There are in fact many millions of dollars to be made here. That wasn’t Anthony’s motivation, but the money is there to be made, and now he’ll make some of it whether he wanted to or not. This just makes it all the more remarkable that the mainstream music industry, just like the mainstream film industry, absolutely refuses to cater to this audience or give them art that will actually resonate with them.
Sure, you can make plenty of money by churning out another demented rap song with that talks about female genitalia in graphic terms, and openly encourages the listener to act in depraved, lawless, and self-destructive ways. You can make plenty of money with another mindless, soulless pop song that might as well have been generated by AI. But the songs that have set the world on fire recently, the ones that have topped the charts and gotten people talking, are songs that connect with an audience that despises all of that stuff. Anthony sings that he’s an old soul living in a new world. And those of us who relate to that lyric are made to feel this way in large part because of the sort of “art” that the entertainment industry vomits out. We see this stuff, and listen to it, and our souls are crushed just a little more each time. It grieves us to be surrounded by such ugliness and stupidity, and to think that so many people are just marinating in this filth without realizing what it’s doing to them. There are many of us who feel that way. So many, that we made a literal overnight superstar out of one simple, authentic guy strumming his guitar in the woods.
So the question is: given that this huge market exists, and that it is hungry for this kind of content, why won’t the entertainment industry serve it? Even if it is just for the sake of “capitalism, baby” as TMZ says, why don’t they produce songs like “Rich Men North Of Richmond?” The answer is exactly what we’ve already established — they hate normal people who read their Bibles, and have “traditional” values, and care about things like hard work and honesty. They want us all to become lazy, helpless, degenerate parasites. They want to create a population of stupid, weird, hollow people. They’ll even forgo profit to make that happen. That’s how deeply they hate normalcy. That’s how badly they want to destroy it. Which is fine with us — if they don’t want our money, no problem. We’ll give it to guys like Oliver Anthony instead.

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Oliver Anthony And The Normal People Uprising

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