Country sensation Oliver Anthony leaving industry one year after meteoric rise to start traveling ministry

Country sensation Oliver Anthony has decided to leave the music industry.

In a lengthy YouTube video this week, the 32-year-old, whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford and who rose to fame a year ago with his hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” sat in a wooded area with his two dogs opining on life and his career. 

“I’ve decided that moving forward, I don’t need a Nashville management company. I don’t even need to exist within the space of music. So, I’m looking at switching my whole business over to a traveling ministry,” Anthony revealed after discussing how he believes “our system is broken.”

He added that he wants to “kind of keep things in the family business,” noting that his great-grandfather had been a traveling minister. 

OLIVER ANTHONY STAYING TRUE TO HIMSELF AS HE GRAPPLES WITH STUNNING RISE TO FAME, FRIEND SAYS

In a lengthy YouTube video this week, Oliver Anthony, who rose to fame a year ago with his hit song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” said he plans to leave the music industry to become a traveling minister. (Getty Images)

“I have this vision for this thing that I’m calling the Real Revival Project, and it’s basically going to start as a grassroots music festival, but hopefully it grows into something that can literally change our landscape and our culture and the way we live,” he said in the video posted Tuesday. 

Anthony said he’s doing his first “thrown together” show on Saturday, but he wants to create something that exists “parallel to Nashville that circumvents the monopolies of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, and it goes into towns that haven’t had music in them in a long time.”

Anthony said he wants to stimulate the economies in these small towns, showcasing their culture while using local musicians and vendors, “so, you’re not having to drive to Pittsburgh to some concrete amphitheater to see a show.”

Oliver Anthony said in the video this week that he wants to “make an impact” and help people. (Oliver Anthony/Instagram)

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Earlier in the video, Anthony revealed he’s made enough money with his music success that “I never have to work another day in my life. I have everything that I wanted.” 

But he said he’s feeling “this calling” to “this voice from God that keeps putting this vision in my head of a way to make a real impact in this world, to make a real change, to help light a fire that no one really can extinguish in my lifetime or after.”

Reflecting on his political views, Anthony said, “I’m a conservative because I believe in the First and Second Amendment,” but he said he doesn’t know if he’s a Republican. 

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“I’m just somebody who thinks the whole way we live is a–backward and so stupid, and it serves nobody but the people at the top of the hierarchy that we no longer really need to serve,” he explained.

Oliver Anthony warms up with guitarist Joey Davis before a surprise performance at the Rock the Block street festival in Farmville, Virginia, on Aug. 26, 2023. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

Spending the last year in the music industry “has opened my eyes to how much control and how much visibility there is on the top down,” he added. “Like, the analytics that I can pull on just my fan base is terrifying. It’s information that I feel the FBI shouldn’t even have, much less me.”

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Anthony said he knows he’s not doing anything revolutionary: “I just want to help bridge the gap between millions of people who all believe in the greater vision of us all just getting back to living a normal life.”

Anthony, who lives with his wife and three children in Virginia, had a meteoric rise last year after “Rich Men North of Richmond” went viral online, propelling him to stardom. The song criticizes Washington, D.C., politicians who want “control.” 

Before making the video, Anthony said he was “in the process of getting out of the music industry. It’s a big joke,” while responding to a fan on Instagram, according to Rolling Stone. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Anthony as well as reps for Live Nation and Ticketmaster for comment.