AUSTIN, TEXAS: The smash song 'Rich Men North of Richmond' is now at the top of the charts and has sparked debates on both sides of the political spectrum. So it is no wonder that the song's creator, Oliver Anthony, was invited on The Joe Rogan Experience recently.
Pornography was one unexpected issue that was discussed by Anthony in his interview with host Joe Rogan. The topic came up after the two men discussed companies that didn't receive corporate bailouts.
Oliver Anthony talks about porn
During the podcast, Oliver Anthony said, “That’s stuff’s terrible for people. That’s one thing I had to give up because it does disconnect you from reality in many ways. I think a lot of the weird perversion we see coming out now at this point.”
He further added, “I even reference some of it in the song, of course, but you read about a lot of the weird things people are doing that maybe wouldn’t have been accepted 100 years ago. People go down these rabbit holes with porn.”
He went on to say that how porn is an addiction and people tend to get addicted to it quite easily.
“They start off with the video with the milkman and it’s almost like a drug," he said, adding, "people have to keep chasing that thrill, and it takes them down very destructive rabbit holes."
"I have no issue with anybody watching it, but I hate to read about the things that it does to people, ruins marriages and that kind of thing,” he said.
Oliver Anthony’s take on drug companies and prescribed medicines
Anthony bemoaned that he "went on a run with SSRIs" and the negative effects were "more powerful than any of the benefits" when the subject of drug firms advertising on television came up.
“I think there’s alternatives to pharmacy medicine in a lot of cases, maybe even if it’s just habits," he stated.
"It’s OK to prescribe a medication to keep somebody on course. For example, I’ve got a relative of mine, I won’t call him out, but he won’t change the way he eats at all, but he’ll take whatever medications every day to keep the diabetes away and keep his blood pressure low and all that,” he explained.
However, he added, “But there should be more integration of, ‘Hey, maybe this is a plan of what you should do to go alone with this medicine.’ They don’t want you to get off the medicine, though. If anything they want you to keep taking it. It’s weird.”
‘Rich Men North of Richmond’
The most startling information was revealed in the final moments of the conversation, when Anthony briefly discussed writing the lyrics for 'Rich Men North of Richmond'.
He claimed that he scrambled to finish the song around 3 pm on a Saturday as he was shooting the music video three hours later.
“It was very thrown together. I was a little reluctant to even record it, because I’m not really an anthem guy,” says Anthony, who prefers his songs 'Ain’t Gotta Dollar' and 'Doggone'.