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Speaker 1

00:00

The Joe Rogan Experience And you're gonna have to deal with that soon because I guarantee you there's gonna be some people that are making some CGI

Speaker 2

00:07

Oh there are? There already are? Oh yeah I'm sure

Speaker 1

00:10

What is that? I'm sure

Speaker 2

00:11

there are Yeah I haven't kept up with a lot just cause you know I'm doing So anything social media related right now or anything, any internet presence I have right now is coming from me off the phone just like before everything blew up. So I haven't invested the time to like look at everything circulating, but I've seen people like friends and family have sent me stuff and some of it's pretty funny but you know they've got all these different AI remixes of the song with different voices and overlay different faces and all and it's it's funny to see where it's gonna go you know.

Speaker 1

00:42

That is funny yeah you're gonna have to deal with that. My daughter sent me some advertisement she goes did you do this advertisement? I'm like, nope.

Speaker 1

00:49

Nope, that's not really my voice.

Speaker 2

00:51

I mean, it is my voice, but. Yeah, like the day after things blew up, 1 of the towing companies had an ad on Facebook that had, it wasn't really me, but it was a red beard and like the side profile of sunglasses looking out the window. I'm like, okay.

Speaker 3

01:03

How dare you?

Speaker 2

01:03

I guess I've made it anyway. That's when I realized like, people are already ripping things off. And what's crazy is like every shirt that I've worn anywhere in public, so there's a organization that I've, I'm not like officially related to or in any way have done anything with but it's a friend of a friend in the neighborhood It's called nets with vets and they take out veterans with PTSD and let him go deep-sea fishing And so he asked me last minute just to wear his shirt at 1 of the concerts And do you know now there's like

Speaker 1

01:32

1,500

Speaker 2

01:32

listings online for counterfeit Nets with Vets shirts And so the organization reached out like hey, are you like making shirts ripping us off?

Speaker 4

01:40

It's like it's not me

Speaker 2

01:42

So it's like it's just it's a weird. It's a weird thing Yeah, I've already experienced a lot of that stuff. Not so much on the AI side, but just, I don't know, the internet's just such a rowdy place,

Speaker 1

01:51

you know? Oh, it's so rowdy. The world's a rowdy place.

Speaker 2

01:55

It is, and maybe people bring their best and their worst on the internet. I've always tried to stay off social media as much as possible, but I've learned very quickly that Twitter and Facebook and stuff, you see comments and feedback from people, both overwhelmingly positive that maybe you wouldn't get in a personal conversation, but also overwhelmingly negative too. People just use that as a vent that just they just take whatever seething hatred they have inside of them they're like oh I'm getting that guy with it you know

Speaker 1

02:26

if you had a song just about love that resonated like that It would be almost impossible to hate you. But you have a song where you're talking about how people are fed up with shit, and it obviously resonated. I mean, I've seen songs go viral, but that's pretty banana, son.

Speaker 1

02:47

Your shit went to the moon right away and I'm not sure who sent it to me I have to find out who sent it to me because it's 1 of those things were like once 1 person sent it to me then it was like dozens of people were sent

Speaker 2

03:00

yeah it it's funny cuz originally that song wasn't in my it wasn't really even in my top 5 like it's not normally the type of song I've written songs with similar messages but as far as that sort of like I guess anthem format is what people are calling It's like an anthem like that's not something I would normally write, but

Speaker 1

03:20

but it's an unlikely anthem Yeah, insane time. It would be an unlikely anthem.

Speaker 2

03:26

Yeah, I had no idea that that song would react the way it did At least in my case. I think the 1 thing that's helped me too is it Some my singing isn't the best but I've never had any like vocal lessons or anything So the way I sing is just the way I sing and so like I think even the same way with her and other people It's like it's maybe rough around the edges It could be a little pitchy or it's you know You're not using the right part of your face when you project and whatever. And so like on paper, things aren't quite right.

Speaker 2

03:50

But to the, I guess to another human, it's like, it sounds like it sounds right. Cause it's, it's, it is, it is what it is, you know?

Speaker 1

03:56

It's authentic. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1

03:57

I don't think there's any right way to do anything. I mean, there's like, you see it in everything. There's a person who Violates the rules and they're the best at it

Speaker 2

04:09

and then the rules almost morph into whatever that is like It's funny like with music. Yeah music has country in particular but music in general has gotten way too wrapped up in like this algorithm of how many beats per minute it needs to have and how many verses and how they need to be layered and it's like they've almost created this sort of like industry standard like OSHA rule book of how music needs to be performed and so like you can only do that so many thousands of times before people Are like, okay, what else is there? You know,

Speaker 1

04:38

well people like that too. That's the thing. There's a lot of damn people There's a lot of people the problem.

Speaker 1

04:44

I think a lot of people is they want you to like what they like. And if you don't like what they like, what you like sucks. It's funny like that, man. We're so tribal.

Speaker 1

04:58

We are tribal with our cell phones. You know, we're an Android or PC, you know It's like we're so weird we're so weird but we're like that with our musical taste we're like that with our cultural sensitivities or cultural sensibilities rather like the way we feel about life and how life should be. We want everybody to kind of think along the ways that we think. It's very strange.

Speaker 1

05:25

And when a person like yourself gets labeled a right-wing, left-wing fanatic, like right out of the gate.

Speaker 2

05:31

Both in like a week and a half, then yeah, at least I know I'm doing something right.

Speaker 3

05:34

Like to me... Yeah, they're looking for your Biden campaign contributions now. They're going through your fucking taxes.

Speaker 3

05:41

The whole thing is so bonkers, man.

Speaker 1

05:43

Like, can't they just accept that you made a great song and people enjoy it. Yeah. Why does it have, you know, why do people have to attack?

Speaker 2

05:49

Well I think it's just for whatever reason I've been, there's, I'm the subject matter the last couple weeks and I, and you know, in everyone's defense I probably haven't, I've waited for this opportunity I guess to really have a real conversation with somebody about whatever it is I am. So people are just trying to find who's this Oliver Anthony guy and what is he and where does he work and who did he vote for and what's his family like and yada, because they want to sort of build this image of whatever it is that the person behind the song represents for better for worse people who agree with it want to you know I don't know it's it's really funny to watch on my end because obviously I know what's true and what's not and so like just even what I've skimmed through of people sending me like like this like singing at the Super Bowl like How many people have formed an opinion about whether or not I should be paid to sing at the Super Bowl like

Speaker 4

06:39

I'm not singing It's a Super Bowl. That's just somebody made up, but you know

Speaker 2

06:43

There's there's been hundreds of hours of people's time wasted probably talking about all these little like things that don't even exist It's just somebody made him up and put him on the internet, and so I'm just letting him ride I think they're I think it's I think it's great. I just think it's great like that at least the last couple weeks I've been able to entertain everyone and Get everyone's mind off like all the all the other horrible stuff that's going on in the world right now like At least everybody can have a good laugh. You know so well

Speaker 1

07:08

I mean It's it's a subject of discussion so like everybody is getting involved and and somehow or another became cultural And then there was Dwight from The Office.

Speaker 3

07:19

Oh yeah. He chimed in that if he was gonna write a

Speaker 1

07:22

cultural anthem, what did he say? Something like he wouldn't write about overweight people on welfare, he would write about billionaires and their taxes. There is nothing funnier than millionaires talking shit about billionaires.

Speaker 3

07:36

There is nothing funnier about millionaires pretending these billionaires are out of touch. And then, you know, Take Dwight from

Speaker 1

07:45

the office down to West Virginia, you know, take him through those coal mining countries, take him through those places in Appalachia where people have extreme poverty and pills have ravished those areas. Take him through there.

Speaker 2

07:59

And it's everywhere. Yeah, the sad thing is it's it's everywhere now. It's not you know, it's funny people right off the get-go I guess because it was radio WV that posted the original video But like I've never once advertised myself as being necessarily from the mountains My grandfather grew up in western part of Virginia in the mountains, but I've I'm from Farmville, which is technically Piedmont, but even in throughout rural Virginia, that poverty is a big issue and drugs are a big issue.

Speaker 2

08:23

And I mean, it's not just even in the rural areas. You go into downtown Richmond or any downtown anywhere for that matter, it's almost like, yeah, these problems exist everywhere now. And I think, I mean, obviously they are because that's why the song resonated the way it did the problem for me was well I knew that I needed to do this like I knew I needed to I procrastinated with music a long time. I mean, I'm 31.

Speaker 2

08:48

I've been playing guitar and singing on and off since I was a kid. Like my grandma was in a band years ago. And so like, I remember as a little kid, what got me interested in all of it was, going, you know, Dukes of Hazzard when I was a kid, I was like 5 and I used to sit with my grandma and we'd sit and watch Dukes of Hazzard and watch Waylon Jennings pick that guitar. Of course, I had no idea who Waylon Jennings was, but that just like, I just fell in love with that.

Speaker 2

09:10

And so grew up listening to like that 70s country and she loved all the old stuff, like the 50s and 60s. And even in the 70s, even, you know, Janice and all that. And so like, she really introduced me a lot into music when I was a little kid and so like I just kind of held on to it but never never pursued it the way I should and then I'd play at a bonfire party or I'd play it whatever it's a friend's house And everybody's like man you got to do something with this you're you know you don't want to waste this talent You've got and whatever and that would almost make me feel even shittier because I'm like oh man I suck like I'm such a piece of crap for not doing something with this and So yeah like when I was outside of work. It's like I would just I would just I drink I'd get just absolutely stoned and I would just sit around and try to think about anything But what it was that I really needed to be doing which was like and so and it's kind of like funny but that's ended up what kind of sparked me and they're like Writing all these songs and doing all this stuff Because it's like I I don't know just like with you probably with some what you do jujitsu or whatever It's like for me songwriting is it gets my head like you said getting your head clear You know because that's all you can and I songwriting is interesting for different people But I've now that I've been in it I guess I've been in the industry for 2 weeks and I've talked to like Now that I'm an industry expert it's like some of the other musicians I've talked to like the people I've looked up to over the Years they experience this too, but certain people when you songwrite.

Speaker 2

10:29

It's a very It's a it's dramatic like

Speaker 1

10:33

you write all your own songs

Speaker 2

10:35

Yeah, but it's it's Have you

Speaker 1

10:36

been accused of not writing your own songs?

Speaker 2

10:39

Very early on, yeah, because since my state, I guess it's not even my stage name, it's Oliver Anthony Music, and So it's supposed to represent music from you know, Oliver Anthony music is my my grandfather And so he grew up in the 30s in the mountains and used to tell all these wild stories about how life was back then but the music's just sort of a characterization of like that period in time and those people, you know, And that's so yeah when when so your real name is not all yeah, Christopher Christopher Anthony Lunsford is my real legal name and so that's what's on like like if you look up the songwriting

Speaker 1

11:09

side this thing is Oliver Anthony just in well, it's like

Speaker 2

11:13

I said, I have it. I just had the the YouTube channel listed as Oliver Anthony Music. Just because that's sort of the demeanor or the, like I said, the character I was, that older Virginia style music.

Speaker 2

11:28

If you go on YouTube and you look up that type of music from back then, like those old recordings of people, like that's what I just love, that type of stuff.

Speaker 1

11:36

Do you think you're gonna keep that name?

Speaker 2

11:38

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people still call me Chris, and I've posted on social media, call me whatever, I mean, I've been called a lot worse than either of those things, but yeah, it'll stay Oliver Anthony Music indefinitely. Yeah, it's a special name, And it's a special name to me not only because it was my grandfather's name But it's it's sort of like to me it reminds me of how much how different things were back then but He was born Oliver Anthony, but everybody called him Anthony growing up and so like he always thought his name was Anthony Oliver and Last name Engle and so like it wasn't until he was in his 60s and going to retire He realized that his name didn't match his birth certificate So he had to actually change his legal name when he was in the 60s But it's because back

Speaker 1

12:19

then was Anthony Oliver.

Speaker 2

12:20

Yeah, and so his whole life, but his legal name was and so it's yeah his parents named him so it's just like but all but all the paperwork back then was so scattered up because A lot of people were illiterate and of course documents weren't Tracked as well as they are now, you know And so it's like yeah There's people in the family that have a different spelling and it's the same last name But the few letters are different and stuff It's just kind of cool like but he just he just thought that was crazy He had to change his name when he was 65 so he could draw his retirement now because his social security and everything was under a totally different name but...

Speaker 1

12:50

That's crazy. So it's

Speaker 2

12:52

just special to me. He was, he's like the only other 1 in the family like me. Most of our family's like average height, 6 feet and under, but he and I were both, you know, 6'6", redheaded, left-handed.

Speaker 2

13:02

Like I just, I don't know, in a lot of ways I just, I thought it was special to kind of respect him. He passed away in 2019 and that's kind of when I, I guess that's when I first kind of adapted the name for the music. I didn't really get serious with anything until probably...

Speaker 1

13:15

2 weeks ago?

Speaker 4

13:16

Yeah, until a couple weeks ago. Probably until,

Speaker 2

13:19

I think I uploaded the first original like like when I was when I decided I was in it to win it and I really wanted to make this thing happen it was probably about it yeah probably May of last year when I uploaded Ain't got a dollar or it might have been rich man's goal was the first 1 I uploaded on YouTube But that's when I decided like all right. I'm I'm doing this thing, but

Speaker 1

13:37

yeah So you were just smoking too much weed drinking too much and just procrastinating.

Speaker 2

13:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and so that and you know like Anxiety is definitely something that's underestimated You know I used to laugh about her not laugh about but I used to just not really understand when people talked about mental health and anxiety, because everyone gets stressed out over stuff. And so you think of anxiety as being just like this normal phenomenon everyone deals with. But your mind can really put you in a dark place to where that thing, it just like, it just holds onto you like a, you know, and it just makes it very difficult for you to do anything.

Speaker 2

14:11

And so, yeah, I spent at least 2 years of my life almost constantly just having what felt like just a knot right here, just wrenching at me.

Speaker 1

14:18

Well, That's especially true for people that are pursuing a non-traditional life You know with that doesn't have any guarantees it's it's a wild life to try to be an entertainer like to just to choose to try to make it in this wild world of people that are singing and making songs and you want people to pay attention to you like you know how many fucking people are singing how many people can sing how many people are recording things and now with YouTube and the like, how many people are putting stuff up on the internet for other people to enjoy? It's a lot. The idea that you're gonna stand out so that you're filled with anxiety just because of that because you're this future's uncertain.

Speaker 2

14:57

Yeah I think for me a lot of it a lot of the anxiety came from me just feeling like I was running out of time.