Singer Who Went Viral Thanks to Joe Rogan Scores Another Massive Win

A week ago, no one had heard of Oliver Anthony. The country music singer's controversial single "Rich Men of Richmond" went viral seven days ago, receiving over 14 million views on YouTube and turning the Farmville, Virginia, resident into an internet sensation.

The singer-songwriter's star power is continuing to soar, with the former factory worker holding four of the top 10 spots on the iTunes song chart—with three of them taking the top slots.

Anthony first went viral after radiowv shared footage of him singing "Rich Men of Richmond" to its YouTube account on August 7. The song continued to blow up after podcaster Joe Rogan reposted the video on his X, formerly Twitter, account, with the post receiving over 1.7 million views. Rightwing political commentator Matt Walsh is also a fan of the track, calling it "raw and authentic."

"Rich Men of Richmond" is currently number one, followed by his tracks "Ain't Gotta Dollar" and "I've Got to Get Sober" sitting at second and third. His song "I Want to Go Home" also makes an appearance in ninth place.

The musician is having even better luck in the iTunes County Music Chart, taking up six of the top 10 spots. As well as the four songs taking over the top 10, his tracks "Virginia" and "Rich Man's Gold" are creeping up the country music hitlist.

"Rich Men of Richmond" is also number one on Spotify's Top 50—USA playlist, with over 1.4 million streams—even beating out Taylor Swift's mega-hit "Cruel Summer."

With lyrics such as "the obese milking welfare" and supposed references to Jeffrey Epstein, the song has received both praise and condemnation online.

"There's a reason this song is so popular. We all feel the same way," commented YouTube user @wasisabi5647.

"As a welder in southern Louisiana, this song hit me hard," said @johnpavalko707. "It feels good to know I'm not alone."

"Just like that you became the voice of 40 or 50 million working men," wrote @mpethybridge. "Amazing work, sir."

However, X user @zei_squirrel said the song was "laced with unhinged rightwing resentments" and criticized the internet for "clapping over it like seals."

"We do have too many people starving in the streets, but then he brings up the overweight person on welfare," wrote Chaplin Travis.

Nevertheless, Anthony's follower count continues to grow. At the time of writing, he has over 235,000 subscribers on YouTube, more than 560,000 followers on Instagram and a further 356,000 on X.

Although the song has become popular amongst Republicans, Anthony describes himself as "dead center" in a video posted to his YouTube account.

"People talk about epidemics in this country, and the homelessness and the drug use and the lack of skilled labor and the suicide rates, those things aren't problems, those are symptoms of a bigger universal problem," he says in the clip.

"It's common sense, but we don't talk about it enough, and maybe that is the problem today."