#469 – Oliver Anthony: Country Music, Blue-Collar America, Fame, Money, and Pain

The following is a conversation with Oliver Anthony, singer songwriter from Virginia, who first gained worldwide fame with his viral hit, rich men north of Richmond. He became a voice from many who are voiceless, with his songs speaking to the struggle of the working class in modern American life. His legal name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford. Oliver Anthony was his grandfather's name. And so Chris used this name as a dedication to his grandfather and to 19 Thirties Appalachia, where his grandfather was born and raised. Dirt floors, seven kids, hard times, as Chris says. He's happy to be called either one, by the way. I've gotten to know Chris more since the recording of this conversation. He truly is, as he appears online and in his songs, down to earth, humble, and a good man who deeply feels the pain of the downtrodden. And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description or at lexfredeman.com/sponsors. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got MasterClass for learning, Shopify for selling stuff, Oracle for computing, Tax Network USA for taxes, and Element for electrolytes. Choose one of my friends. And now onto the full ad reads. I do them differently than most podcasts do. Usually, I barely talk about the sponsor and instead just take this quiet moment to talk about things I'm reading or thinking about. A little Bob Ross like heart to heart between you and me. Also, unlike most podcasts, I don't do ads in the middle. So, they're all bunched up here in one place. You can skip if you like, but if you do, please still check out the sponsors. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. If you want to get in touch with me for whatever reason, go to lexfreeman.com/contact. Alright. Onto the ethereal realm of sponsor land. Let's go. This episode is brought to you by MasterClass, where you can watch over 200 classes from the best people in the world in their respective disciplines. You know I know so little about filmmaking. This Scorsese MasterClass was instructive. It's Scorsese himself, his approach, his, deliberate, passionate, almost bipolar approach to, filmmaking into editing. It's inspiring to watch madness manifest into genius. I think about the hand drawn storyboards for Taxi Driver. Haven't seen them, heard about them. And that I think is the birthplace of great films is the storyboards. Right? Really, it's the vision in the mind of somebody like Scorsese that then is projected onto the storyboards. So the storyboards is just a slice, but that's the first time they take shape in, visual physical reality. I should do that more. I should think in the space, in the realm of storyboards, especially when I try to do sort of vlog, documentary, filmmaking type of stuff. Really inspiring. Anyway, get unlimited access to every master class and get an additional 15% off an annual membership at masterclass.com/lexpod. That's masterclass.com/lexpod. This …