It’s been just over a year since Oliver Anthony shot from musical obscurity into one of the brightest stars on the country-folk scene. On Sept. 1 he’s set to pack the Alaska State Fair’s mainstage for a concert that’s been sold out for months.

Last summer, few people had ever heard of the man who had been struggling with the bottle and his own demons for five long years. Outside a few, small West Virginia venues with sparse crowds, his music was unknown. All that changed in July of 2023, when Anthony knelt down before God and promised to sober up and make something of his life.

The very next month, a West Virginia YouTube channel posted his song, “Rich Men North of Richmond.” Within days, the hard-hitting song had struck a chord with millions of streams that fueled a national conversation about growing global control and governmental oppression over every-day working class folks.

Anthony then embarked on a 2024 international tour, without a record label and devoid of sponsors. That year-long journey is now drawing to a close, but not before Alaskans get a chance to hear his gritty, downhome and decidedly blue-collar anthems.

While still new to the global music scene, Anthony has already made history as the first ever artist to debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts without previously having a song on the charts. He is also the first living male songwriter to chart 13 songs simultaneously in Billboard’s Top 50 Digital Song Sales.

A few weeks ago, Anthony posted an 18-minute reflection on what the past year has meant to him, and what he hopes to accomplish with his newfound influence.

Walking through a torrential downpour across his rural West Virginia property on Aug. 8, Anthony expressed gratitude to God and the many supporters he’s met over the past year.

He said his musical success has ensured that he doesn’t have to work another day in his life, but that he felt an obligation to use his wealth to fight powerful forces that seem increasingly hellbent on destroying marriages, families and the time-honored traditions that have shaped American life.

“I despise this world, and I despise the way this world is headed, and I want to be out here – away from it,” he confessed, before adding that he feels indebted to his fans and followers to stand as “one of the few normal voices in this wicked world.”

Throughout his travels, Anthony said he’s met many likeminded souls, who have inspired him to press on.

“This is only the beginning,” he said. “I have learned that there are a lot of regular people left in this not so regular world.”

But he’s also learned that many people are desperately struggling amid inflation, high food prices and “the constant psychological warfare” of social media, manipulative news networks and AI.

In particular, Anthony lamented the fact that so many people are now addicted to social media through their phones.

“It is a machine of true psychological warfare,” he said, adding that the algorithms which keep people mindlessly scrolling is really “a form of hypnotism.”

Even in posting his video, Anthony said it feels like he’s “serving the machine he despises.”

Ultimately, he wants to help the world find its way back to a time when “we were really living.”

Social media, he said, has “taken us away from our own consciousness,” with the end goal of having “every square inch of this earth connected.”

“Where does it end?” he questioned. “I think the only way we ever return to normal is by exiting this dystopian technological nightmare.”

At times, Anthony sounded resigned to the fact that the world is lost and free falling into the darkness, with the lower classes suffering most.

But the entire system propping up American life is also weakening, he warned, and soon everyone will feel it.

“Imagine if you don’t get groceries for a week, or if the power grid goes down,” he mused. “The system is already so fragile, and now it’s so expensive and the food is so bad for you and our public education system is such an embarrassment.”

The old traditions and values that could revive the soul and empower people to live authentic lives seem to have fallen into neglect, he warned.

“People don’t grow gardens anymore – they don’t raise their own animals,” he said. “People really don’t do anything for themselves anymore. Everything is just a phone call away.”

He said marriages and households and families are all falling apart, “because we can’t stop looking at these stupid phones.”

While Anthony said he sometimes just wants to escape the word and give up on it, he won’t. He’s met too many good people.

In fact, Anthony said he is now using the money he made over the past year to buy land and abandoned farms around Richmond with the hope that the property can be used to help people learn how to run farms, grow their own food and find a way to exist “outside of the system.”

“I hope we can start to go back to the old way,” he said. That goes for people who live in the suburbs as well. They can begin to be more self-reliant and independent, too, he noted.

In the near future, Anthony is set to record about 12 new songs for an upcoming album. He’s also planning to play a dozen shows in struggling rural communities that have not had a major music concert for a long time. These concerts will be produced independently of major sponsors or corporate funding, he said, and may occur in abandoned parking lots or old farms with local vendors on hand. He doesn’t want people to have to pay $13 for a beer and $20 to park just to see him play.

“I’ve got to start doing it my way,” he said.

Click here to support the Alaska Watchman.