“That is 100% a Lie”: Parker McCollum Responds to Oliver Anthony's Auto-Tune Accusations

Parker McCollum has addressed the high-profile accusations of Auto-Tune and drum loop use during his live performances, which were levelled by Oliver Anthony during a social media video shared by the outspoken up-and-coming artist last week.

During Oliver Anthony's clip, the ‘Rich Men North Of Richmond’ singer-songwriter expressed that he had “a lot to get off my chest”, before launching into a lengthy attack of the contemporary country music industry and a number of artists. During the 15-minute video, Anthony referenced his shock at seeing the act performing after him at a Myrtle Beach festival using vocal enhancement technology.

Oliver Anthony alleged, “ I’ll never forget, I won’t say who the act is, but I think it was at South Carolina at the Myrtle Beach one, the band who played after us, that dude had six Auto-Tune modulators on a pedal board on stage, just to help him with vocal pitch live. And they had backing tracks running, drum loops running...”

Anthony went on to dismiss this a “fake performance”, and to underline his dismay at fans paying hundreds of dollars for this kind of show. It didn't take long for followers to put two and two together, and work out that Oliver Anthony must have been talking about his appearance at Carolina Country Music Fest in June.

Anthony's set was followed by Parker McCollum's headlining show, so it appears he was claiming McCollum was the artist supposedly using Auto-Tune and drum loops.

Parker McCollum has wasted no time in responding to Oliver Anthony's startling comments, sharing a video of him astride a horse, while stressing that he has never used any kind of vocal modulation, drum loops or other similar accessories when performing.

The Texan crooner explained, “Hey guys, per the Oliver Anthony interview - or whatever it was - claiming that he saw drum loop modular or whatever he called it, I don’t even know what that is…100% fabricated lie. Never ever, ever, ever one time have I ever used Auto-Tune or a drum loop or anything fake of any kind on stage”

The ‘Pretty Heart’ hitmaker expanded, “Me and my guys are ripping it the real deal every single night. There has never been one single part of our show, not one note, that was not live, raw and in the moment. A 100% fabricated story. That is 100% a lie”.

Parker McCollum doubled-down with a message to fans, “And that will never change. We will always be out there swinging it as a real band, trying to do our best to respect country music. So, that’s all I’ve got to say on it, and that’s where it needs to end”.

Oliver Anthony is yet to clear the air and confirm whether he was indeed talking about Parker McCollum in the video, but it's not the first time Anthony has openly criticised other artists.

Elsewhere during the video shared last week, Oliver Anthony decried Beyoncé's debut country album, COWBOY CARTER, and revealed he'd been asked to make a social media post praising the project. After declaring that the record made him want to “throw up”, Anthony took aim at the global megastar's COWBOY CARTER cover of Dolly Parton's ‘Jolene’, “It represents how degenerative our society has become that a song like a Beyoncé version of ‘Jolene’ can come out and anybody actually listen to it and think it’s not just complete trash”.

In addition, the Virginia up-and-comer lamented how hard the modern industry makes it to craft the God-centric music he's always set out to make, “There's no way to create something that's focussed around God when you're working with people who are just focussed around making money and just using you for whatever they can”.

In October, Oliver Anthony announced he was shifting his attention towards ministry, with Anthony setting up The Rural Revival Project aimed at helping those struggling with PTSD, suicidal thoughts, depression and those who were recently in rehab.

Anthony detailed frustrations with how he's been treated by the music world's powers-that-be, “Those people look at you like you're a fuel source, like you're an oil well, and they just want to see how much oil they can get out of you and then whenever they're done with you they just spit you out, and you don't matter anymore. The problem is, the music doesn't matter to them. I think a lot of times, the music ends up not even mattering to the artist, because they have them singing songs and doing things that aren't even theirs. So there's not even any heart anywhere”.

Oliver Anthony released his debut album, Hymnal of a Troubled Man's Mind, a couple of days after Beyoncé dropped COWBOY CARTER in June, with the fast-emerging artist embarking on a sprawling world tour throughout the first few months of 2025.

Meanwhile, Parker McCollum is honing his follow-up to 2023's Never Enough, with McCollum dropping the lead single from his next musical chapter, ‘What Kinda Man’, in September.

For more on Parker McCollum, see below: