Oliver Anthony Rips Beyonce’s Cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘Jolene’

Oliver Anthony‘s latest YouTube vlog post takes aim at — well, pretty much everyone except God and Jamey Johnson.

The “Rich Men North of Richmond” singer is especially critical of Beyoncé and her cover of Dolly Parton‘s “Jolene.” He called it “complete trash.”

• Anthony burst into the public conscience in July 2023, when the RadioWV YouTube channel published an acoustic video of him singing “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
• The next month, the song debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
• Last Easter, he released his debut album, Hymnal of a Troubled Man’s Mind.

“I don’t need a bunch of nerds and coffee drinking freaks in Nashville to tell me how to live my life.”

Anthony’s video — titled “What I’ve Learned In the Music Industry So Far” — is unscripted and wide-ranging. The camera finds him in his truck and shots of him are interspersed with B-roll of farm animals, presumably on or near his property. At one point the camera pans past a trailer to find him using bolt cutters to get into a shed. He stops to pet a horse elsewhere.

“There is no way to create something that’s focused around God when you’re with people who are just focused on making money and just using you for whatever they can,” he says early on, setting the tone.

The video further explains why he’s distanced himself from the music industry, if not outright left to the degree that’s possible. There is a long section that finds him opining on human dependance on music and how certain parties manipulate that need to their advantage. He cites a Russian music festival controlled by the CIA, but doesn’t name it.

Related: 10 Best Country Albums of 2024 — No. 1 Is Obvious!

From there he goes into negative interactions he had immediately after going viral with “Rich Men …” in 2023. Certain parties (he doesn’t name them) wanted to change him, and several urged him to move quickly to not waste the moment.

One member of the expanded Team Anthony would later encourage him to post about Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album in a manner that could potentially lead to a collaboration down the line.

“Even though it was complete trash. It makes me wanna throw up,” Anthony says. “It represents how degenerative our society has become that a Beyoncé version of ‘Jolene’ can come out and anybody actually listen to it and think that it’s not complete trash.”

“Jolene” writer Dolly Parton greenlit and praised Beyonce’s cover of the song. She also appears on an album that features Willie Nelson, Linda Martell, Shaboozey, Post Malone and more.

It’s not clear which management-type entity asked him to praise Beyonce. The only announced signing for Anthony came in November of 2023, when he signed with United Talent Agency.

“I don’t need a bunch of nerds and coffee drinking freaks in Nashville to tell me how to live my life,” Anthony say.

It’s not a stretch to describe Anthony’s view of the music industry as cynical. He spends large portions of the video describing ways he went against what “they” wanted him to do. Jamey Johnson was an ally, however. Through him, he found people he could work with and avoided traps.

“I almost got screwed really bad, twice,” Anthony says.

Of course, Anthony and Beyoncé have two very relevant things in common. Both embraced being a country music outsider, albeit for very different reasons. Both also avoided traditional country music media (if they did any interviews at all). Both have been nearly shutout at country music awards shows despite having strong support from passionate fans.

The video ends with a conversation about concert ticket prices. Anthony champions affordable tickets and indicates that in 2024 he still made enough money to live the rest of his life while charging a small percentage of the industry norm for tickets. Live shows are another part of the music industry mirage, however.

Anthony was surprised to learn how many country artists use tracks and autotune during live sets. Specifically, he refers to an artist at the Carolina Country Music Fest last June who “had six autotune modulators on a pedal board on stage” to help with vocal pitch. He didn’t name the artist, but the schedule for that festival is available online.

Anthony was part of the kick-off concert, slotted between Larry Fleet and Parker McCollum.