#469 – Oliver Anthony: Country Music, Blue-Collar America, Fame, Money, and Pain
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Who is Oliver Anthony and what is his background?
The following is a conversation with Oliver Anthony, singer-songwriter from Virginia, who first gained worldwide fame with his viral hit, Rich Men North of Richmond. He became a voice for many who are voiceless, with his songs speaking to the struggle of the working class in modern American life. His legal name is Christopher Anthony Lunsford. Oliver Anthony was his grandfather's name. And so Chris used this name as a dedication to his grandfather and to 1930s Appalachia, where his grandfather was born and raised. Dirt floors, seven kids, hard times, as Chris says. He's happy to be called either one, by the way. I've gotten to know Chris more since the recording of this conversation. He truly is, as he appears online and in his songs, down to earth, humble, and a good man who deeply feels the pain of the downtrodden. And now, a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description or at lexfriedman.com slash sponsors. It's the best way to support this podcast.
We've got Masterclass for learning, Shopify for selling stuff, Oracle for computing, Tax Network USA for taxes, and Element for electrolytes. Choose wisely, my friends. And now, on to the full ad reads. I do them differently than most podcasts do. Usually, I barely talk about the sponsor, and instead, just take this quiet moment to talk about things I'm reading or thinking about. A little Bob Ross-like heart-to-heart between you and me. Also, unlike most podcasts, I don't do ads in the middle. So they're all bunched up here in one place. You can skip if you like, but if you do, please still check out the sponsors. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. If you want to get in touch with me for whatever reason, go to lexfriedman.com contact.
All right, on to the ethereal realm of sponsor land. Let's go. This episode is brought to you by Masterclass, where you can watch over 200 classes from the best people in the world in their respective disciplines. You know I know so little about filmmaking. The Scorsese Masterclass was instructive. Scorsese himself, his approach, his deliberate, passionate, almost bipolar approach approach to filmmaking into editing. It's inspiring to watch madness manifest into genius. I think about the hand-drawn storyboards for Taxi Driver. haven't seen them, heard about them. And that, I think, is the birthplace of great films, is the storyboards, right? Really, it's the vision in the mind of somebody like Scorsese that then is projected onto the storyboards.
So the storyboards is just a slice, but that's the first time they take shape in a visual, physical reality. I should do that more. I should think in the space, in the realm of storyboards, especially when I try to do sort of vlog, documentary, filmmaking type of stuff. Really inspiring. Anyway, get unlimited access to every Masterclass and get an additional 15% off an annual membership at masterclass.com slash lexpod. That's masterclass.com slash lexpod. This episode is also brought to you by Shopify, a platform designed for anyone to sell anywhere with a great-looking online store. I got a chance to talk to DHH, the creator of Ruby on Rails, for many, many, many hours. What a wonderful human being. Genius, but also fun and aggressive in his opinions. and holding those opinions, not in a personal kind of way, but in an almost backyard football kind of way. Just seeing who wins with a particular idea, for the explicit purpose of learning something from the interaction, from the tension between the ideas, from the debate. Such a fun person to talk to.
Anyway, I mention it because I think about 10,000 or 100,000 times we give a shout out to Shopify because Shopify is really an exemplary execution of a system used by a very large number of people that is built on Ruby on Rails. That conversation, by the way, is just an homage to programming period. You can think of Shopify as an homage to Ruby on Rails, which DHH really explains well why it's such a beautiful programming language. Anyway, a lot of love for Shopify to go around. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash lex, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash lex to take your business to the next level today.
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