Oliver Anthony Music Is Trading the Industry for Ministry — But He’s Still Releasing Songs

Just over a year after Oliver Anthony Music earned a multi-week Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper with his independently released song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” the singer-songwriter says he is aiming at making some big changes and essentially walking away from the music business in order to focus on ministry — though he will still be making music.

In a YouTube video posted on Oct. 29, he noted that his grandfather was a traveling minister and said, “My plan is to change my entire focus to traveling ministry work.” He also added, “I want to create a routing schedule to exist parallel to Nashville that circumvents the monopoly of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, and goes into towns that haven’t had music in them in a long time. It stimulates their economy, showcases their culture, it uses local vendors and local musicians. You’re not having to drive out to Pittsburgh to a concrete amphitheater to see a show. It’s done out on a farm or on a main street that desperately needs the economic impact.”

Billboard has reached out to Live Nation and Ticketmaster for comment.

He also noted that the past year or so of music-industry involvement has “opened my eyes to how much control and how much visibility there is on the top down.”

While he plans to continuing releasing music, those songs would come as part of his The Rural Revival Project, which would “be set up legally as a ministry,” he noted, and would aid in revitalizing farming and other rural communities.

The website for his Rural Revival Project also notes its aim to provide a place where “people who have just gotten out of rehab, with PTSD, and people are are depressed and suicidal can come here and reconnect with nature and learn to exist outside of a system that has just kind of been placed on us as a generation.”

“Rich Men North of Richmond” first went viral in August 2023, when a video of Oliver Anthony Music (real name Chris Lunsford) performing the song was posted on the YouTube channel for Radiowv. Since then, the video has earned 173 million views. “Rich Men North of Richmond” quickly topped the Hot 100, and he became the first artist in history to debut at No. 1 on the chart without previously having a song on the charts. Following the song’s success, more of his music populated charts, with his track “Ain’t Got a Dollar” topping Spotify’s Viral 50 list. He eschewed signing with a major label, but did partner with booking agency UTA.

“Rich Men North of Richmond” also became a lightning rod for political tension on both sides, drawing praise from right-leaning pundits who championed the song’s sentiments, while drawing ire from left-leaning commentators. In August 2023, Oliver Anthony Music said in a Facebook post, “‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ is about corporate-owned D.C. politicians on both sides.”

In April, he released the album Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind, which featured Oliver Anthony Music offering a mix of music and scripture verses.

The first show he will play as part of the Rural Revival Project inititive comes on Nov. 2 with a hurricane relief concert in Morgantown, W.V.

Watch Oliver Anthony Music’s video announcing that he’s going to focus on ministry below: