Just weeks ago, the musician - real name Christopher Anthony Lunsford - was a relative unknown with just a few hundred social media followers.
His viral overnight success was sparked by blue collar ballad 'Rich Men North of Richmond', where he rails against working 'overtime hours for bulls*** pay' and slams woke politicians for only caring about 'minors on an island somewhere.'
But before his fame, the 31-year-old - real name Christopher Anthony Lunsford - was a struggling former factory worker from Farmville, Virginia. He dropped out of school aged 17, and worked a series of menial plant jobs, most recently at a paper mill in McDowell County, North Carolina.
After a devastating skull injury, he moved into industrial manufacturing in 2014, and says hearing the heartbreaking stories of workers 'damn tired of being neglected, divided and manipulated' has fueled his music.
While brushing off lucrative recording contracts and amassing legions of everyday fans, Anthony says he still lives in a 27-foot camper covered in a tarp on the roof.
Anthony's blue collar roots have led the music industry to give him 'blank stares', he said Thursday, after he rejected multi-million-dollar deals and claims he 'never wanted to be a full time musician.'
'I wrote the music I wrote because I was suffering with mental health and depression,' he said.
'These songs have connected with millions of people on such a deep level because they're being sung by someone feeling the words in the very moment they were being sung.'
Known as Chris to his friends, the singer performs as Oliver Anthony as a tribute to his grandfather who struggled in the 1930s Appalachia in a home marked with 'dirt floors, seven kids and hard times.'
'At this point, I'll gladly go by Oliver because everyone knows me as such,' he said. 'But my friends and family still call me Chris. You can decide for yourself, either is fine.'
In 2013, he was working a backbreaking job in a paper mill in North Carolina, where he worked six days a week for $14.50 an hour in what he described as 'living hell.'
While working a shift he suffered a horror accident and fractured his skull, which forced him back home to Virginia. He said that due to complications from the injury, he was out of work for six months.
Until his viral hit allowed him to pursue music, he worked the last decade in industrial manufacturing, which took him 'all over Virginia and into the Carolinas.' While roaming America's heartland, he met countless struggling workers that fed into his lyrics.
'I've spent all day, everyday, for the last 10 years hearing the same story. People are SO damn tired of being neglected, divided and manipulated,' he said.
Despite his viral hit, Anthony says he still lives in a 27 foot camper with a tarp on the roof, which he bought off Craigslist for $70.
Following the release of 'Rich Men North of Richmond', he has been the focus of music producers looking to cash in on his cultural moment. In response, he turned down stadium shows, tour buses and jets - claiming instead: 'I don't want to be in the spotlight.'
While millions listen to his raspy tones, Anthony instead thinks of himself as 'an idiot with a guitar,' who has overcome severe mental health battles.
He has also notably caught on with conservative audiences, but has seemed to try and shun the politicization of his music and claims to hate the cultural divides seen on social media.
'The Internet is a parasite, that infects the minds of humans and has their way with them,' he said this week.
'Hours wasted, goals forgotten, loved ones sitting in houses with each other distracted all day by technology made by the hands of other poor souls in sweat shops in a foreign land.'
In a heartfelt update on his life released on Thursday, Anthony said he has been overwhelmed by the viral success of his music after a decade of struggle.
He says the song has sparked a wave of over 50,000 messages in the week since it went viral, where listeners have related to the heartbreak and struggle in his lyrics.
'The stories that have been shared paint a brutally honest picture. Suicide, addiction, unemployment, anxiety and depression, hopelessness and the list goes on,' he said in a post to his Facebook, which now has over 420,000 followers.
When he recorded the song with a local radio station, he said he hoped it might draw a few hundred thousand views. In the nine days since he released the song, it has over 20 million views.
'I still don't quite believe what has went on since we uploaded that. It's just strange to me,' he said, feeling he clearly isn't meant for a rock star lifestyle and doesn't want to be in the spotlight.
As a former factory worker, Anthony's lyrics have reached millions of American men who relate to how 'all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down.'
Comment: See also: Oliver Anthony sticks it to the Man - and Rolling Stone can't stand it