Referencing Childers’ “In Your Love” controversy?
Out of all the success stories in country music over the past decade, there’s arguably none more fascinating than Oliver Anthony. Back in 2023, he’d catch fire with a video of his in-the-woods performance of “Rich Men North of Richmond,” which was originally uploaded to YouTube and quickly went viral, racking up millions upon millions of views before he was even able to release the song on streaming platforms.
Once it was released on streaming, it became one of the most successful independent releases of all time. In addition to racking up millions upon millions of streams (363 million on Spotify alone), it would shockingly debut at #1 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first artist in history to debut at #1 on the chart with their first song.
Now, a couple of years and over 300 million streams later, Anthony is still navigating his way through the music industry, dropping his debut album, Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind, in 2024 and singles such as “Scornful Woman” and “Only God Can Save Us Now” in 2025.
Given the fact that he’s been clear that he doesn’t want to be a full-fledged music star, Anthony has been fairly quiet in 2026, only dropping live covers of classics such as “Ole Red” and “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”. With that being said, the 34-year-old singer/songwriter has gotten back into the swing of things as of late.
In a video posted to Facebook, Anthony first let everyone see how he was spending his 34th birthday, which took place on June 30. He expressed his thankfulness to make it to 34-years-old and stated that he never thought he would have made it that far.
The Virginia native then told his followers that he’s doing well and that he had just bought a church in West Virginia. Though there’s still plenty of work to be done, he’s planning on doing a church service there in October. He then went on to talk about some upcoming shows that he’s doing at the end of August (Bluefield, West Virginia, on August 29, and Farmville at Longwood on August 30).
And at the very end of the video, he shared that he’s got new music coming very soon:
“I have new music coming out on July 21st. I love you all. I really appreciate you.”
Though it was a day late on streaming, Anthony returned today with a brand new single, “Hank.”
In addition to the studio version, Anthony would drop a live version of “Hank” recorded in a coal mine in West Virginia. According to Radio WV, it’s the first-ever song to be recorded live in an active coal mine, noting that they had to cut a 7-foot section in order for Oliver and Co. to perform for the miners.
“The opening underneath the mountain was only 38 inches high so the miners cut a special 7ft high section just so Oliver Anthony could perform for them.”
As for the song itself, it’s bound to cause some controversy.
For all intents and purposes, “Hank” starts out fairly innocuous. Backed by his standard slide guitar and fiddle, Anthony reminisces about his youth, recalling how he decided to pursue music after being “raised on the good words” of Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams.
“I grew up on the back of a Piedmont pine stand, strumming on guitar strings
Till one day I figured that I might ought to figure out how to play and sing
I strummed three-chord songs all night long on the back of a farm pond bank
I was raised on the good words of Waylon and brought up on Hank”
The second verse, however, is bound to raise some eyebrows. Here, Anthony appears to take a thinly-veiled shot at Kentucky legend, Tyler Childers.
“Them old songs about trotting lines and coal mines, and chewing on the hickory twig
In this world that I despise, I’m just trying to live life the same way that my granddad did
My songs might be missing two old boys kissing, but they ain’t going to miss that soul
Of a young man living in a world that’s forgetting all the things that the good Lord told”
The lyric “My songs might be missing two old boys kissing” paired directly with “Them old songs about trotting lines and coal mines” seems to point directly at the controversy surrounding Childers’ 2023 single, “In Your Love.” Of course, this appears to be referencing the fact that, despite the song itself being written about Childers’ wife, Senora May, its music video depicted a love story between two male coal miners in the 1950s. Anthony first teased the song last year, debuting it at a live concert, and fans quickly saw the line as a jab directed at Tyler Childers.
While it’s been made quite clear over the years that the song itself was written about his wife, the music video was dedicated to Childers’ cousin, who is a gay man, something Childers told NPR at the time of the video’s release.
“[One] reason that I wanted to do this music video was my cousin growing up, who’s like my big brother, is gay. And he graduated from Northern Kentucky, went to Chicago and never came back. He taught me so much about singing; he was my first tough critic. And just thinking about him not having a music video on CMT that spoke to him.”
Though the controversy seemed to die down over the years, it apparently didn’t sit well with Anthony, and he’s letting that be known here with the release of “Hank.”
“Hank”
