Singer Oliver Anthony filed a cease and desist order against Tim Walz for playing his hit “Rich Men North of Richmond.”
In August 2024, a rumor circulated online that singer-songwriter Oliver Anthony had filed a cease-and-desist order against Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for using his song “Rich Men North of Richmond.” The hit had previously topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts for two weeks in a row in End of August And Beginning of September 2023.
Users shared this rumor in the days following US Vice President Kamala Harris announced that she had selected Walz as her vice presidential candidate for 2024. The allegations apparently referred to Walz playing the song at campaign events.
Numerous users on Facebook and X shared the rumor. One particular post (archived) on X showed a meme with the words “Oliver Anthony files cease and desist against Tim Walz: ‘Stop using my song.'” The caption read: “You have the nerve to just pick a song and go with it. “You never asked my permission,” Anthony said, “and I certainly don’t approve.” What do you think?”
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual retelling of real events. However, there was no evidence that Anthony sent Walz a cease-and-desist order, nor did we find any news of Anthony’s music being played loudly at Harris-Walz rallies.
Rather, the rumor about Anthony and Walz originates from America’s Last Line of Defense (ALLOD) – a network of Facebook pages and websites that describes its publications as humorous or satirical. For example, the description of America’s Last Line of Defense’s page displays a “satire/parody” label and adds: “The flagship site of the ALLOD troll network. Nothing on this page is real.”
Additionally, a Facebook user pointed out (archived): “This meme is a great example of bullshit used to try to influence people. Neither Walz nor any other Democrat uses this man’s song. In fact, it was used at the Republican National Convention.” This user was right, but with a correction.
Anthony had previously pointed out that Fox News had played his song before asking candidates a question in a Republican presidential primary. — no convention — in August 2023. In a YouTube video posted on his channel, he said, “It was funny to see that at the presidential debate because it’s like I wrote this song about these people.”
The rumor was shared at least ten thousand times
On August 11, a page manager of the Facebook page “America – Love It Or Leave It” wrote — a subsidiary of America’s Last Line of Defense network — posted the same meme and caption as the above X-user’s post. The post received over 55,000 reactions and was shared 10,000 times.
Meanwhile, on August 11, a contemporaneous post appeared on America’s Last Line of Defense’s main Facebook page with the caption: “Just like they stole ‘no taxes on tips,’ they tried to steal from ‘rich men north of Richmond.’ Oliver Anthony put a stop to it.” Memes from both sides featured small “satire” labels on the images themselves.
America’s last line of defense and “Taters”
America’s Last Line of Defense has a long history of making up stories to share and comment on, trolling conservative users they label as “taters.”
The Dunning-Kruger Times website – a website linked to the satire and parody network — describes “Taters” as follows:
“Taters” are the conservative fans of America’s last line of defense. They are fragile, frightened, mostly older white Americans. They believe almost anything. Although we try our best to educate them that not everything they believe is true, they are still old, typically ignorant, and – as I said – very afraid of everything.
Our mission is to do our best to show them the light, through shame if necessary, and have fun doing it, because… old and scared or not, these people are responsible for the patriarchy we rail against so fiercely. They don’t understand logic and they don’t care about reason. Facts are irrelevant. BUT… they understand shame.
Snopes has addressed other satirical claims about Anthony in the past, including the allegation that he once turned down a $100,000 offer to perform at the Super Bowl, instead saying he would do it for free.
As background information: Why We alert readers to rumors spread by sources that describe their publications as humorous or satirical.
