Real Deal: Country Star Riley Green Leans Into Authenticity
Riley Green is the real deal.
A lot of country music artists sing about trucks, off-roading, duck blinds and tossing back a beer or two as a way to connect with listeners. But in the case of Green, it’s authentic.
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It shows in his songwriting, his love of family and country, his videos, even his Instagram handle: Rileyduckman. (Yes, he loves to hunt ducks.)
But Green is more than just a good ole boy toiling away on the family farm. The 35-year-old Jacksonville, Ala., native is also a rising star in country music. Since signing a record deal with Big Machine Label Group in 2018, Green’s celebration of small-town America has resulted in a number-one platinum hit, “There Was This Girl,” and a two-times platinum smash, “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.”
The sentiments of his first two hits are polar opposites—the first is a smile-evoking story of wrecking his father’s truck and working on the farm for six months to save up to buy a ring, all in the name of attracting a girl. But the second is a heartfelt ode to the man whose influence changed his life. His early success also resulted in Green being named the Academy of Country Music’s New Male Artist of the Year in 2020.
Raised on the sounds of traditional country, bluegrass and Southern gospel, Green was immersed in music from a young age. One of his biggest influences was his grandfather Buford Green whose front porch became a weekly Grand Ole Opry-style stage called the Golden Saw Music Hall where local musicians would gather to play.
That’s where Green developed the singing and songwriting skills that would define his future. “It was my great-grandparents house that Buford turned into a music hall,” he said. “When I was a little kid, they had live music every Friday night. I’d go over there and sit on stage with a bunch of old guys and learn how to play Roy Acuff and Merle Haggard songs. It was my first time performing in front of people and I got a lot of my influence from going out there.”
His path hasn’t led him too far from home. The avid outdoorsman and athlete attended the local college where he was the quarterback on the Jacksonville State University team, and today, he is one of the rare country artists who doesn’t live in Nashville. Instead, he’s still based in Alabama where his family and childhood friends help keep him grounded. In fact, one of the security guards he travels with on the road is a high school buddy.
It also helps his songwriting, which is still rooted in his rural, small-town upbringing. “I’ve realized that a lot of my success is because I tell stories about how I grew up, and real life,” he said. “I think fans are pretty good at deciding what is authentic, and when I’ve actually got an emotional connection to a lot of the songs that I write about my family or my hometown, I think that’s something that’s going to always come out in my music.”
“I think fans are pretty good at deciding what is authentic…”
And while he may have topped the charts on country radio, made appearances on “Good Morning America” and plays to an average of 65,000 people on any given night, he’s still the same guy he’s always been.
“The only way I can see someone really changing from success is if it is handed to you,” he said. “I’m appreciative to be able to play and sing country songs—it’s a pretty cool way to make a living—but for my writing to keep coming from a very humble place, it’s really important for me to keep my roots in Alabama and my farm there and not get too caught up in the industry of Nashville, and charts and everything like that, because writing songs for fans is what got me where I am.”
During the pandemic when he couldn’t tour, Green created a Golden Saw series that aired on YouTube and featured the singer with a variety of special guests in acoustic performances. Although the series has ended, Green hopes to one day revive it. “I’d love to keep it going,” he said. “It’s just really tough to find the time to go down and film it.”
Instead, Green is spending a lot of time on the road touring and promoting his new album, “Ain’t My Last Rodeo,” that dropped in mid-October.
“I toured long before I had a record deal and long before I had albums,” he said. “I was just recording songs and putting them out so I probably played half this album in shows for at least a year before the album came out. I love to play new songs and test them out on fans.”
Green co-wrote all but one song on the 12-track album and the title cut—one of his favorites—was penned following one of the final conversations he had with his grandfather Buford when he was in the hospital. The song, which is sad but uplifting at the same time, is sure to hit home with his fan base which knows every word—and sings along with him during every concert—to “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.”
Green said that experience is “very motivating” to him as a songwriter. “And it’s somewhat validating too—to write a song that is very personal that people find a way to make about their own life. It makes touring and all the long hours and travel worth it.”
Green said he actually prefers songwriting to performing. “Songwriting never felt like work to me,” he said. “If I didn’t tour as much as I did, I would probably do a lot more of it. But when you play three, four or five shows in a row, you put the guitar down in a corner and don’t look at it until the next week.”
He’s also learned the skill of co-writing in recent years. “I wrote so many of songs on my own before, so I had to decide what the best route was for me.” That means he needs to have a connection with the writers he works with. “I take some guys on the road, spend time with them so they get to know me, my family and what I believe,” he said. “I think the songwriting goes a lot smoother that way.”
Although both Buford Green and his other grandfather, Lyndon Bonds, have passed, he credits them as co-writers on “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.”
“I was very close with all my grandparents,” he said, “and I was very fortunate to have them for the majority of my life. My love for country music came from my granddaddy Buford and my love for the outdoors and sports came from my granddaddy Lyndon. That’s what I enjoy doing now and it comes up a lot in my writing. When my granddad Buford passed it was probably the most traumatic thing that happened to me in my life. Even now, it’s something I think back on daily. I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing about it in some way, shape, or form.”
As a tribute to his grandfathers, Green also created the Buford Bonds Charitable Fund where part of the proceeds from the tickets sold on his headlining tour will go to the organization that supports military veterans and other causes. “Both my granddaddys were veterans,” he said. “But I also want to leave it open-ended so we can find topics or things that are relevant.”
Although his grandfathers were integral to his life, Green has also found some other guys who mean something to him. This has resulted in some popular collaborations with other country artists including Thomas Rhett and Justin Moore. The new album features guest appearances by Luke Combs on a re-worked version of “Different ‘Round Here,” and Jelly Roll on “Copenhagen in a Cadillac.”
He describes these as partnerships with “people that I’m friends with, people that understand what I’m trying to do musically.” In the future, he said he’d like to find the right project for a duet with Jon Pardi.
“It’s such a great way to use each other’s fans to build momentum,” he said.
Another way to build momentum is to branch out beyond the music business. That’s just what he did when he became an ambassador for Gildan on National Underwear Day this summer. Although Green was initially reluctant to sign on, he was finally convinced to become an endorser for the brand. He even created a humorous video where he hit the gym hard to make sure he was in good enough shape to be featured in the underwear ads. The film ends with Green walking onto the set to film the commercial and being told to stand next to bales of hay behind the beefy models in their tank tops.
“Underwear modeling was not really something that I thought was in my future and certainly wasn’t something that I thought a lot of our fans would picture me doing,” he said. “So I wanted to make sure it was handled the right way. They had a great plan and came up with a great little skit for the commercial and I think it turned out great.”
Green is not exactly shy about the six-pack abs he’s managed to maintain even after his sports career ended. He admits it was a lot easier to stay in shape in college than it is now with his touring schedule. “It was a lot easier when people were making me work out,” he said with a laugh. “All this travel makes it tough but I try get in a routine and have a schedule. I certainly try to do my best to eat right on the road and find somewhere to work out when I can.”
That dedication also helps him look good on stage. Green said he’s partial to his “very broken-in” Carhartt jacket that he wears when it’s chilly. And he also likes the brand for its jeans. “I love jeans that I feel I can get out and work and run around the farm in.” He’s also a fan of lightwash Levi’s jeans. When it comes to denim, he’s pretty retro, and admires the stars of the old Westerns he watched growing up. “The John Waynes of the world just made a denim jacket look cool.”
But with nearly all his outfits, he opts to finish it off with either a baseball cap or a cowboy hat. “I feel naked without a hat of some sort,” he said.
So where does Green see himself in the future? “I definitely think I’ll be playing shows for the majority of the rest of my life,” he said. “Because the venues and the crowds keep getting bigger, there’s a level of excitement to it, but I hope to find a little more of a stable schedule so I can be home a little more and try to start a family. It’s just that we have a little bit of relevance in the country music world right now, so I have to go and spend time on the road.”
This article appears in Rivet’s winter issue. Click here to download.
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