Oliver Anthony Begins Recording His Debut Album: “I Promise Not to Disappoint”

Country musician Oliver Anthony has started work on his first album.

The small-town Virginia singer, who rose to prominence in 2023 following the success of his viral single “Rich Men North of Richmond,” made the announcement on Instagram, noting that he was recording the album in a church in Georgia.  

“I don’t cry very often, but I have this week,” he wrote in a statement on Instagram. “This is such an incredible opportunity. I have been so blessed to be given the chance to share my music with the world. I pray that these songs will help people get through the hard days to come. I love y’all. I won’t let you down.”

Last year, Anthony made a shock revelation on social media that he had declined $8 million in offers from music industry executives because a lavish lifestyle did not appeal to him. Instead, at the time, he said he was living in a “27′ camper with a tarp on the roof” that he got off Craigslist. 

“I don’t want six 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,” Anthony continued, adding that he wrote the song because he had been struggling with 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 wrote. “No editing, no agent, no b*******. Just some idiot and his guitar. The style of music that we should have never gotten away from in the first place.”

Anthony added that his previous job, working outside sales in industrial manufacturing, took him across Virginia and the Carolinas, and through it, he got to know “tens of thousands of other blue-collar workers on job sites and in factories.”

“I’ve spent all day, every day, for the last 10 years hearing the same story. People are so damn tired of being neglected, divided, and manipulated,” he said.