Oliver Anthony — The Virginia singer-songwriter who went viral with 'Rich Men North of Richmond.' He remains fully independent, owns 100% of his music, and is releasing new songs like 'Scornful Woman.'
The gist
Joe Rogan and Oliver Anthony pick up from Anthony's first appearance, focusing on how he stayed independent after viral fame, turned down labels, and keeps a tiny four-person team. They range across AI hollowing out music and human creativity, social media and data harvesting, political theater and how the left and right are manipulated against each other, immigration and ICE raids, and the corruption of organized protests. Anthony lays out his vision of using his Richmond earnings to buy land and build nature-based 'healing center' sanctuaries and non-predatory music spaces. The back third turns to feeding dogs real food, raising chickens, Alex Jones, and a long MMA appreciation segment. Anthony will perform at the Comedy Mothership over the weekend.
Big reveals
- Anthony says his first check from 'Rich Men North of Richmond' was $800,000 and he nearly cashed out and walked away.
- He reveals his viral first live show at a farm market drew about 12,000 people, a date he had booked before the song blew up.
- Anthony says he wants to step back from the spotlight and instead find and develop unknown TikTok artists, essentially starting a non-predatory label.
- He recounts paying his attorney about $4,000 just to force Warner Chappell to whitelist fan reaction videos for 30 days.
- Anthony says a Nashville management company dropped him after he joked about gender and trans kids at the Ryman.
- Joe argues a Hillary Clinton clip shows she was 'more MAGA than MAGA' on immigration, illustrating political 'zebra stripes.'
- Joe highlights RFK Jr. firing the 17-member vaccine schedule panel and hiring Robert Malone.
- Anthony says he plans to adopt the old toothless shelter dog from the Austin Humane Society.
Things worth remembering
- The new song was recorded live in a West Virginia house during an ice storm, powered by a Honda inverter generator after the power knocked out.
- Meat chickens are bred so heavy their legs break under their own weight at around two months old.
- A 2010 study tied modern chicken size to a single gene variant of the thyroid-stimulating-hormone receptor that swept through domesticated birds.
- The Catholic Church's medieval fasting decrees banning four-legged meat across ~130 days a year are cited as a driver of chicken consumption.
- Anthony owns 100% of his publishing; Warner Chappell only administers overseas collections for a 9% cut.
- Joe claims Michael Jackson's doctor said he was chemically castrated young to preserve his voice, likening it to historical castrati.
- Romania's 1989 Christmas Revolution saw the dictator go from power to public execution within roughly two days.
- Morab is described as a cardio 'freak' whose conditioning coaches say should be studied in a lab.
- Alex Pereira became a two-division UFC champion within about three years despite only fighting MMA for five or six years.
- Joe says becoming a real standup comic is essentially a 10-year grind with no shortcut.