Oliver Anthony’s household are breaking their silence on the viral sensation, telling The Submit how he’s a high-quality father who give up his job promoting aluminum siding to pursue music — to spectacular impact.
Anthony gave his first main interview to podcaster Joe Rogan on Wednesday. In a free-wheeling two-hour look he laughed off makes an attempt to pigeonhole him politically and decried how exhausting life has change into for individuals in forgotten rural areas.
He largely stayed away from speaking about his circle of relatives and background, other than saying he’s hoping somebody will purchase his battered truck, and alluding to his personal private struggles with substance abuse.
However his spouse Tiffany’s grandfather, Arthur Brogdon, advised The Submit of their pleasure at his success, calling him a devoted household man.
The “Wealthy Males North of Richmond” singer’s actual identify is Chris Lunsford. He took his stage from his late grandfather Anthony Oliver Ingle, who died in 2019.
Brogdon advised The Submit that Anthony met Tiffany on-line, after troublesome occasions for each of them. Anthony had a “unhealthy first marriage,” Brogdon stated, whereas Tiffany had had a boyfriend who was badly injured in a automotive accident.
“She and Chris outline happiness. They’re completely satisfied. They’re one thing else,” he stated.
“Chris is a spiritual sort individual. He doesn’t cuss or make threats. He’s only a high-quality individual.”
Anthony has an 18-month-old daughter with Tiffany, 35, and the couple is anticipating a son in November. “Her identify is June. I name her Junebug,” the grandfather stated of the toddler. “She’ll be 2 in February.”
The 2 now dwell in Ingle’s former dwelling in south-central Virginia. Anthony, 31, has an older daughter from his first marriage.
Brogdon remembered Anthony and Tiffany’s wedding ceremony as a stellar affair – regardless that Anthony didn’t deal with the friends to a efficiency.
“The marriage was great. It was outdoors. Round 100 individuals have been there on a farm in Dinwiddie County,” he stated. Chris and Tiffany had their canine there and afterward, they went all the way down to the lodge and fed everybody. There was a meals truck. We ordered our meals forward of time; I had a Philadelphia cheese steak.”
When Anthony isn’t performing, he and his spouse do extra than simply hold across the dwelling or the trailer. “They’re an out of doors couple,” Brogdon stated. “They go kayaking; they’ve horses; they journey ATVs. They love one another.”
And there’s no stress in coping with the canine that populate the movies that Anthony has posted to social media. Tiffany, stated Brogdon, “desires to be a veterinarian. The canine are educated to the max. She feeds them individually. They don’t eat till she tells them to.”
Earlier than “Wealthy Males North of Richmond” topped the Billboard charts, stated Brogdon, Anthony “offered [materials] for buildings and stuff. He made dwelling. He’s devoted to every little thing he does.”
The singer give up his job with building provider Chesterfield Buying and selling Co., of Richmond, Va., final yr to work full-time on his music. He had been a part of its gross sales group, accountable for promoting aluminum siding.
Anthony turned an in a single day sensation in the beginning of August with “Wealthy Males North of Richmond” because of YouTube, though he advised Rogan he largely steers away from social media.
He attracted fierce help for his heart-felt lyrics and was embraced by conservatives for his demand for much less authorities dependency, however rejected being conscripted by one facet or the opposite after Republican presidential candidates have been requested about his tune finally week’s first main debate.
On Rogan’s present he stated he wished individuals to grasp that “All through rural Virginia, that poverty is a giant difficulty, and medicines are a giant difficulty, and I imply it’s not simply even within the rural areas, and also you go into downtown Richmond or any downtown anyplace for that matter.”
He additionally provided some perception into his personal psychological well being journey, saying he “went on a run with SSRIs” however the unwanted effects weren’t price it.
Anthony has stated he lives in a camper lined with a tarp which he purchased for $750. His grandfather-in-law stated he lived on the house he inherited from his personal grandfather, however had been so mobbed by followers he had been unable to go dwelling at occasions.
“As a result of all people is infringing on his privateness, he needed to put in a safety system. Hell, he couldn’t even go dwelling,” Brogden stated.
“Chris is a laid-back sort one that doesn’t say a lot. He says extra on stage than he does to us. When he comes right here, he doesn’t say a lot.”
Requested about how Anthony bought so good on the guitar, Brogdon isn’t positive that musicianship is an element to his success: “I don’t assume he can play good. In the event you pay attention, he mixes within the phrases with the plunking.”
As Brogdon sees it, the phrases are the purpose. “I hearken to Chris’s music each day. I didn’t prefer it at first,” he stated. However his view modified when he discovered extra about the subject material.
“It’s all true,” he stated. “He goes as much as Farmville to play and I hearken to it on the cellphone.”