New Oliver Anthony Song Goes Viral Overnight - And It Ends with a Fitting Bible Verse
County music singer Oliver Anthony unleashed his new vision of a world gone wrong overnight, with 1 million people viewing “I Want to Go Home” on Anthony’s YouTube page in less than a day.
The video is shot out in the woods, with a backdrop of trees, dogs and a Chevy, as Anthony plays guitar and sings into a mic.
The video ends with the words of Mark 8:36 on the screen: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
“Well, if it [weren’t] for my old dogs and the good Lord; They’d have me strung up in the psych ward; ‘Cause every day livin’ in this new world; Is one too many days to me,” the song began, according to AZLyrics.
“Son, we’re on the brink of the next world war; And I don’t think nobody’s prayin’ no more; And I ain’t sayin I know it’s for sure; I’m just down on my knees,” Anthony sang.
The song makes a slight reference to the subject of Anthony’s first hit, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” in lyrics that go, “People just doin’ what the rich men say; I wanna go home.”
#OliverAnthony‘s – new song “I Want To Go Home” already has almost a million views on YouTube.
I believe ‘I want to go home’ is on the minds of many of us these days.
We want to go back to a time when life was worth living, not this corrupt world we are living in now. pic.twitter.com/dxwzZePwvA
— Ken Winsor (@nlmedia11) August 23, 2023
After citing the tragedy of generations of farmland turned into urban sprawl, Anthony captures what he sees as an underlying problem with the nation: “People have really gone and lost their way. They all just do what the TV say.”
According to Billboard, “Rich Men North of Richmond” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart, making Anthony the first to top the chart without any type of previous chart history.
In assessing the impact of the song, Anthony told Billboard, “The hopelessness and frustration of our times resonate in the response to this song. The song itself is not anything special, but the people who have supported it are incredible and deserve to be heard.”
Anthony ruminated about the nation and the times in which we live in a post on his Facebook page, on which he describes himself this way: “I play music and pet dogs.”
“Im sitting in such a weird place in my life right now. I never wanted to be a full time musician, much less sit at the top of the iTunes charts. Draven from RadioWv and I filmed these tunes on my land with the hope that it may hit 300k views. I still don’t quite believe what has went on since we uploaded that. It’s just strange to me,” he wrote.
“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,” he continued, adding that he sings in “[t]he style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.”
After summing up his life, Anthony turned to the world around him.
“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,” he wrote.
“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.
He concluded, “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.”
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