now I like him even more.
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 #mentalhealth 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.
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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.
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In 2010, I dropped out of high school at age 17. I have a GED from #SprucePine, #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.
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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. Ive spent all day, everyday, for the last 10 years hearing the same story. People are SO damn tired of being #neglected, #divided and #manipulated.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Just like those once wandering in the desert, we have lost our way from #God and have let false idols distract us and divide us. It's a damn shame.
