Since he burst onto the scene with his debut single ‘There Was This Girl' back in 2019, Riley Green has been carving out a path for himself as part of the new wave of country stars.
With strong neotraditional influences to his sound, he's already scored two top 15 albums – ‘Different ‘Round Here' and 2023's ‘Ain't My Last Rodeo' – as well as two top 5 singles, and won over a slew of fans in the process. Now, after wrapping up his own headline tour in the US, next month he's crossing the pond for the first time to play as part of Morgan Wallen's show at BST Hyde Park.
Whilst Team EF were over in Nashville for CMA Fest earlier this month, I caught up with Riley about his upcoming trip to the UK, his duet with Ella Langley ‘You Look Like You Love Me', latest EP ‘Way Out Here', life on tour – and of course Carl the dog…
How's your CMA Fest been so far?
It's been good. It's always a really busy and exciting week for everybody.
You're also out on tour yourself at the moment. How's that been going?
It's been great. I've got a girl named Ella Langley out with me, and Tracy Lawrence. We're just finishing up. It's called the ‘Ain't My Last Rodeo' Tour. Gonna continue playing fairs and festivals for the rest of the year so it's gonna be a busy year on the road.
And speaking of Ella, I saw the video of the two of you singing her song ‘You Look Like You Love Me' on tour – tell us a bit more about that…
Yeah, it was a song that Ella had and she kind of toyed with the idea of it being a duet, so I wrote a second verse for it. It's one of those things that it just kind of naturally happened. We're out on tour together and pitching songs back and forth, so I'm glad that I got to be a part of it and it definitely turned out great.
You're also coming over to London next month to make your UK debut at BST Hyde Park! Are you excited about that?
Very. I've been to Canada, that's the closest thing I've been to out of the country, so it's exciting to me. It's gonna be the longest trip I've ever had, and it's just great to see these country music fans all over the place. It's gonna be a huge show and I'm excited about getting over there for the first time.
And what can people coming to see you at that show expect?
Well, you know, there's a lot of songs that I put out over the years, like ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died' and ‘There Was This Girl' that have been out for several years now. They're kind of the beginning of my career. And then newer songs like ‘Damn Good Day To Leave' and ‘Worst Way' and ‘Hell Of A Way To Go'. So a combination of a lot of old and new and also just a lot of high energy. We have a great show.
How have you found the response from UK fans when you announced you were coming over?
It's been great. You really can see how big of a venue that is and how big of a show by just the social media presence and how much everybody's talking about it.
I also wanted to ask you about the experience of playing at festivals compared to your own shows – how do you find that?
Every stage is different. You know, we did stadiums with Luke Combs last year, and that's such a big venue, to try to reach the person all the way in the top at the back. There's really a learning curve, you gotta really figure out how to do that. And then playing smaller more intimate venues or amphitheatres or festivals – every night is different and it's fun to try to reach those fans from the stage.
And are there any songs you've particularly been enjoying playing live lately?
Well I'll never get tired of playing ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died'. That's just such a big song for me. And I've got a song called ‘Jesus Saves' that came out a month or two ago. It's been really fun to see the fans' reaction to that song. It's a very emotional song, and that's what I think is so great about country music is the storytelling.
Speaking of ‘Jesus Saves', which is on your new EP ‘Way Out Here' – tell us a bit more about that project…
It's really something I'm really proud of, just because it's got a lot of different types of songs. ‘Jesus Saves' is that more ballady, emotional song, ‘Worst Way' is a little more of a love song and ‘Damn Good Day To Leave' is kind of a fun breakup song. ‘Way Out Here' is that kind of small town anthem. It's just been really cool to have something like that that I think's got a lot of different types of songs on it.
Did you find any of the songs on the EP particularly easy or particularly challenging to write?
You know, when you have a title like ‘Jesus Saves', for me that's kind of my bread and butter. That's the kind of song I like to write, and that was a really easy one for me to write. I wrote it by myself. ‘Worst Way' is another one I wrote by myself. ‘Damn Good Day To Leave' is one… you know, a fun breakup song's not really a normal thing, so that was a little more difficult to figure out. But I think it came out great.
You've also got a cover of Bruce Springsteen's ‘Atlantic City' on the EP. What was it that drew you to that song in particular?
That was a favourite song of mine since I was a kid, and I don't really know what it was about that song. It just spoke about things that I knew nothing about. You know, I'm from a small town in Alabama, I'd never been up to Atlantic City, and it was The Band's version of it, Levon Helm, that cut that song, that I really kind of modelled mine after. I played it at shows for so many years and it was just awesome to get to record it.
Is there a song you wish you could have written?
Yeah, there's several! [laughs] I always loved ‘Great Day To Be Alive', Travis Tritt. ‘Where The Green Grass Grows', Tim McGraw. There's a lot of songs like that I think'll be around forever, just 'cause the story and it just kind of makes you miss home, no matter where you're from.
What's still on the bucket list for you – places you'd want to play, people you'd like to work with and so on?
Well, I've been really fortunate to get to do a lot of collaborations. I had Luke Combs on my last single, ‘Different ‘Round Here'. Obviously did stadiums with Luke Combs last year. We did Red Rocks a few weeks ago which was a great experience. So I think going over to the UK's gonna be a pretty big check mark for me, going over there and playing a show like that with Morgan.
What does the rest of the year look like for you? Obviously the UK show and you've mentioned you've got shows over the summer…
Yeah, we're gonna be touring, doing fairs and festivals all over the country, and then some brand new music coming out in the fall. So we've been in the studio finishing up and next year there'll be a finished record.
Can you tell us anything about the new music yet?
Well, there'll be maybe a couple of collaborations on it and some songs I've never even played live, which is not normal for me. I usually play everything out and kind of test it, so it'll be some brand new songs.
Have you got plans to come back to the UK after the show with Morgan?
We need to make some if we don't! Yeah, I don't usually look at my calendar too far in advance. It stresses me out trying to figure out how I'm gonna get everywhere. But definitely excited about playing this show and being out there for the first time, and we definitely need to make plans to go back and headline a show.
And lastly, I've got to ask– is Carl the dog coming over to the UK with you?
He's gotta come out there! Carl's the star of the show.
Riley Green's latest EP, ‘Way Out Here', is out now on Harbor Nashville Records & Entertainment/Big Machine Label Group. His duet with Ella Langley, ‘You Look Like You Love Me', is out today.
See Riley live in the UK at BST Hyde Park on Thursday 4th July with Morgan Wallen, ERNEST, Ella Langley, Alana Springsteen, Alexandra Kay, Zandi Holup and more. Tickets are on sale now at https://www.bst-hydepark.com/tickets/.
