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 bullshit. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music
that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.
My legal name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford. My grandfather was Oliver Anthony,
and "Oliver Anthony Music" is a dedication not only to him, but 1930's Appalachia
where he was born and raised. Dirt floors, seven kids, hard times. 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.
In 2010, I dropped out of high school at age 17. I have a GED from Spruce Pine, NC. I
worked multiple plant jobs in Western NC, my last being at the paper mill in McDowell
county. I worked 3rd shift, 6 days a week for $14.50 an hour in a living hell. In 2013,
I had a bad fall at work and fractured my skull. It forced me to move back home to
Virginia. Due to complications from the injury, it took me 6 months or so before I
could work again.
From 2014 until just a few days ago, I've worked outside sales in the industrial
manufacturing world. My job has taken me all over Virginia and into the Carolinas,
getting to know tens of thousands of other blue collar workers on job sites and in
factories. 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.
In 2019, I paid $97,500 for the property and still owe about $60,000 on it. I am living
in a 27' camper with a tarp on the roof that I got off of craigslist for $750.
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.
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't let them take it away from you.