Oliver AnthonyViral country music sensation Oliver Anthony has taken to YouTube and blasted conservatives for their efforts to “wrap politics into this” and “try to identify” with him.
“The one thing that has bothered me is seeing people wrap politics up into this,” he said, explaining that Rich Men North Of Richmond was never meant to express any particular viewpoint.
Anthony continued, “I’m disappointed to see… It’s aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me like I’m one of them.
“It’s aggravating seeing certain musicians and politicians act like we’re buddies and act like we’re fighting the same struggle here like we’re trying to present the same message.”
Confirming how bizarre he found it to hear his song played at a recent presidential debate, Anthony said his music is “a lot bigger than Joe Biden”. “I wrote that song about those people, you know? So for them to have to sit there and listen to that, that cracks me up,” he added.
“But it was funny kinda seeing the response to it. That song has nothing to do with Joe Biden! It’s a lot bigger than Joe Biden. That song was written about the people on that stage, and a lot more, too — not just them, but definitely them.”
Later in the video, Anthony continued, “Welfare only makes up a small percentage of our budget, you know? We can fuel a proxy war in a foreign land, but we can’t take care of our own. That’s all the song’s trying to say. It’s just saying the government takes people who are needy and dependent and makes them needy and dependent.”
Taking aim at conservatives and the left, Anthony expressed his displeasure about his song being “weaponised” by bad-faith actors. “It’s hard to get a message out about your political ideology or your belief about the world in three minutes and some change,” he explained.
Anthony went on to call out the right for “trying to characterise me as one of their own” and the left for “trying to discredit me” and offered both sides of political ideology a simple message: “That shit’s gotta stop.” You can watch the video below.
While Rich Men North Of Richmond has gained attention from political figures on the left and the right, Anthony has stated that he stands at the “centre of the road” regarding politics, per a separate YouTube video.
“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,” Anthony wrote on Facebook after his song went viral. “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.”
