Oliver Anthony Drops Video For ‘I Want to Go Home’ Single in Wake of Historic ‘Rich Men’ Chart Success
The acoustic ballad — which was originally uploaded to TikTok in March — got a new video on Tuesday (Aug. 22).
It is another meditation on what ails the nation, which in Anthony’s telling includes mental illness, fears of war, urban spread, the loss of family farms and the lack of prayer in our lives.
Oliver Anthony Drops Video For ‘I Want to Go Home’ Single in Wake of Historic ‘Rich Men’ Chart Success
“If it won’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,
” Anthony sings in the first verse in his signature about-to-break voice in lines that appear to allude to the singer’s talk of pre-fame struggle with mental illness and alcohol use.
The clouds grow darker in the second verse, where he sings, “Son,
we’re on the brink of the next world war/ And I don’t think nobody’s prayin’ no more/ And I ain’t sayin I know it for sure/ I’m just down on my knees,”
before breaking into the chorus, which closes a circle by alluding to his breakthrough hit while providing a more personal perspective.
“Beggin’, Lord, take me home/ I wanna go home/ I don’t know which road to go
The final verse laments the loss of long-held family farms sold to out-of-town speculators who clear-cutting trees to make room for more asphalt jungles.
As the final note rings out in the video, the screen fills with a bible quote from Mark 8:36 about the folly of choosing material riches over salvation:
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the world, and lose his own soul?”
Previously unknown former factory worker from Virginia Anthony (born Christopher Anthony Lunsford) made a historic jump to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this week,
leaping past such pop megastars as Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Dua Lipa in addition to more established country stars Morgan Wallen and Luke Combs.
In doing so, the singer became the first unsigned artist to make that jump directly to the top,
as well as the first to run straight to No. 1 without any prior chart history in any form thanks to the song that has been embraced and boosted by right-wing pundits and Fox News.