Rich Men North of Richmond about More than You Think

The name Oliver Anthony was virtually unknown until a couple of weeks ago when the Virginia singer/songwriter dropped his viral “Rich Men North of Richmond” and became a nationwide sensation. Like Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town,” which I wrote about previously, the song was quickly politicized.

The right hailed the song as a working man’s anthem calling out over-taxation, inflation, and government spending. The song was even the basis for a moderator’s question at the recent Republican presidential debate. On the left, Anthony was criticized for a lyric that they say “body shames” plus sized people and demeans the poor.

While each side can fashion a seemingly reasonable argument, they, and most of the rest of us, may have missed the point. In a recent Facebook post from Anthony, he said this:

“It’s been difficult as I browse through the 50,000+ messages and emails I’ve received in the last week. The stories that have been shared paint a brutally honest picture. Suicide, addiction, unemployment, anxiety and depression, hopelessness, and the list goes on.”

He continues.

“I don’t want to play stadium shows, I don’t want to be in the spotlight. I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression. The songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they are being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung.”

Old Dogs and the Good Lord

Underscoring Anthony’s message, are his less well-known compositions and another Facebook post, in which he said,

“There’s nothing special about me. I’m not a good musician, I’m not a very good person. I’ve spent the last 5 years struggling with mental health and using alcohol to drown it.”

In his song, “I’ve Got to Get Sober,” Anthony sings about his battle with the bottle. In “I Want to Go Home,” he laments life on this earth and his desire to be with the Lord.

Well, if it weren’t for my old dogs and the good Lord
They’d have me strung up in the psych ward
‘Cause every day livin’ in this new world
Is one too many days to me

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness:

• 20% of adults in the U.S. experience mental illness each year
• 1 in 6 youths ages 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year
• 75% of all lifetime mental illness begins by age 24, 50% by age 14
• 19 million Americans had a co-occurring substance use disorder and mental illness in 2021
• Suicide is the number 2 leading cause of death among people ages 10-14

Hitting Close to Home

Certainly, there are many blue collar, underpaid workers who feel forgotten and underrepresented but heard in the lyrics of the song. However, the 50,000+ messages and 23 million streams of “Rich Men North of Richmond” may have as much to do with the fact that we have all been touched by mental illness as it does the simmering populist desire to stick it to “the man.”

Mental health struggles have been a part of our family since before we were a family. To maintain an appropriate level of privacy for my family, I won’t share specifics. But it is safe to say that our battles with mental illness have altered the course of our lives. My personal battle with depression and anxiety began at age 21. It came seemingly out of nowhere and has continued at various levels of intensity for the last 30 years. I can admit that now because much of the stigma and judgment surrounding mental illness has subsided, though it still exists, but our country’s progress in addressing it is woefully inadequate.

Bearing Their Burdens

Fox News recently reported that Anthony was afraid he might die in his 30s. He was concerned that his body might shut down because of the stress he endured – a concern that motivated him to release his music.

“I was feeling like my body was starting to fall apart, and it got to a point where I was questioning how much longer I’d be able to be around and sing these songs and do this stuff, so I was like, ‘Well, let me just go ahead and start getting everything uploaded, so at least if, God forbid, I die of a heart attack in my thirties, there’s some legacy there.”

If you have experienced long, intense bouts of depression or anxiety, or if you have ever had an in-depth discussion about what it feels like with a person suffering from it, you can likely identify with at least some of what Anthony describes. Mental illness, in whatever flavor one tastes it, is a disease that now infects millions of American adults and children.

With so many of our family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers suffering daily, it would make sense that each of us would go about our daily lives with a little more patience, understanding, and compassion, but we know that’s not happening on a broad scale. We are starkly divided over all sorts of issues that cloud our ability to relate in meaningful, positive ways with each other. Even the issue of addressing mental health is politicized by those “Rich Men North of Richmond” from both parties who weaponize the issue to score points against the other.

I was reminded this morning of my charge toward others as I read Galatians 5 and 6. In Galatians 5:14, the Apostle Paul says,

“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

And in Galatians 6:2, he tells us one of the ways to love our neighbor. He says,

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Whether you’re an Oliver Anthony fan or not, maybe we can agree that there are too many of us who need help, too many bearing our burdens alone. Like Anthony, I’m not a “very good person” either, but I can try to love my neighbor better than I am right now.