The Oliver Anthony episode of The Joe Rogan Experience is finally here.
Rogan has been praising Anthony (whose real name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford) since he dropped his viral hit “Rich Men North of Richmond” a couple of weeks ago.
“I love this song. You can’t fake authentic, and Oliver Anthony has it in abundance.”
Rogan also discussed the song with Hulk Hogan during a recent episode of his podcast, with the former wrestler praising Anthony as speaking for average Americans:
“He’s saying what people think.”
Then last night, Anthony made a surprise appearance at Rogan’s comedy club in Austin, setting off speculation that Anthony would soon be making an appearance on the country’s most popular podcast.
And well, it didn’t take long – because today’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience just dropped, and sure enough, Oliver Anthony is the guest.
Obviously during the conversation the two discussed the criticism that Anthony’s song has received, including from The Office star Rainn Wilson, who played Dwight Schrute in the hit series, and said recently that the anger in the song is misplaced:
“If I were writing a song about “rich men north of richmond” I wouldnt talk about obese people on welfare, I’d sing about CEOs who make 400 times their average workers salary (up from 50 times 30 years ago) & corps that pay zero taxes & offshore tax shelters for billionaires.”
Now obviously it’s a little ironic that a millionaire is criticizing a song attacking the powerful that was written by a guy who, at least up until a couple weeks ago, was living in a camper on property that he hadn’t even paid off yet. (Although all that’s probably going to change soon, if it hasn’t already, with Anthony reportedly making $40,000 a DAY from the song despite turning down multi-million dollar contract offers).
And Rogan was quick to point out the hypocrisy of a rich man calling out other rich men as being out of touch:
“There is nothing funnier than millionaires talking shit about billionaires. There’s nothing funnier than millionaires pretending these billionaires are out of touch.
Take Dwight from The Office down to West Virginia. Take him through those coal mining countries. Take him through those places in Appalachia where people have extreme poverty, and pills have ravished those areas.”
For his part, Anthony is taking the criticism in stride, telling Rogan that he understands people are still trying to figure him out:
“It’s really funny to watch on my end, because obviously I know what’s true and what’s not…
There’s been hundreds of hours of people’s’ time wasted talking about all these little things that don’t even exist, just somebody that made them up and put them on the internet.
So I’m just letting them ride. I think it’s great. I just think it’s great that at least the last couple weeks, I’ve been able to entertain everyone and get everyone’s mind off all the other horrible stuff that’s going on in the world right now. At least everybody can have a good laugh.”
The whole episode is worth a listen, and gives some pretty good insight into who the man behind the viral moment really is.
