We caught up with Riley Green backstage at his recent Birmingham show during his sold out ‘Damn Country Music' UK tour. Our review of that show can be found right here. Currently on an incredible hot streak, Green's new single ‘Change My Mind' also hit the number one slot on UK Country radio this week. We were thrilled to grab 10 minutes or so of his time to talk about his career, the media portrayal of him and lots more besides.
Thanks for your time tonight Riley, we really appreciate it and, just to let you know, we're going to focus on your music and songwriting so we hope you enjoy the chat too!
You know what, then, I might not know the answers to what you are going to ask me! (laughing) I haven't been asked about that it a long time.
In the first verse of ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Die' you sing, ‘I wish every state had a Birmingham' so I'd like to officially welcome you to Birmingham, UK, the original one!
Pretty fitting isn't it? This is the only other Birmingham I've ever played in! It's gonna be really tough to pronounce ‘Birming-um' the way you guys say it over here with an Alabama accent! (laughing)
It's lovely to have you back over in the UK. When you came over for the Morgan Wallen show in Hyde Park las summer were you nervous for that show? What were your expectations of the fans and do you think differently about us now?
I wasn't nervous but I certainly didn't expect what happened! I thought that there would be, maybe, a handful of folks that knew a couple of my songs but they knew every word to every song. To see the size of the crowd……. especially when you go to another country and Canada had been the only other time I had played outside the States….. things are usually gradual in building up a fan base, right? It was shocking to see how passionate people were about Country music over here.
And now this leg of your tour has sold out – so there's the justification for coming back.
It was a great opportunity to play a big venue, the Hyde Park show with Morgan. I also enjoy the smaller, intimate settings though and when you can play your own show to your own crowd…. We had three sold out nights in London, man, that's awesome!
You've done some really interesting interviews this week if the footage I've seen on Instagram is anything to go by and been put in, what looks like, some uncomfortable situations……..
Yeah – I appreciate you not wearing lingerie for this interview! (laughing)
…… Do you ever get frustrated having to do press and not talk about music but instead have the focus on you, your physique and your personal life or is that all a bit of fun and all part of the job?
It's rare that people crawl across the table at you in an interview! I knew what to expect with that bunch – they're pretty funny and pretty creative. I wouldn't say I get frustrated….. for every interview where somebody focuses on my personal life or other non-music things there's 10 more where somebody actually talks to me about music so it kinda evens out after a while. It's the world we live in today – it's a social media driven world and those kinda clips are what live forever out there so I get it, it's nice to have that kinda attention although, at times, I don't care too much for it.
Let's talk music then now! What factors were at play behind you choosing the six particular tracks you did for the deluxe version of ‘Don't Mind If I Do' because all six are simply superb meaning the album elevates and evolves rather than just being padded out.
Some of those songs were written for the original release but just didn't make it. ‘One to Willie' was one of those songs – I'd planned on it being on the album originally but I had to wait on him to be able to record it. Some were wrote after but I was still in the same creative headspace and felt like they belonged on this release rather than saving them for my next album.
I'm always writing – that process doesn't ever really stop. When you have songs that do well people might think that you have this successful song like ‘Worst Way' or ‘Don't Mind If I Do' and then you can kinda relax but for me, that success is more motivating and challenges me to write more. When things are going well and you feel creative you wanna go and write more – so that means we had more material for the deluxe album.
Songs like ‘As Cowboy As It Gets' and ‘Bet They're Biting' are really evocative, very personal songs. Is writing songs like that cathartic to you? A form of therapy, if you will?
It must be because I think that's where I naturally go as a writer. My favourite songs are songs like those and things like ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died' and ‘Hell of a Way To Go.' Those songs mean something to me and seem to be easy songs to write once we get down to it.
When you know you want to write a song like ‘Bet They're Biting' do you have a trusted writer that you call on in that type of situation rather than a writer that you'd sit down with and write a song like ‘Alochol of Fame?'
Yes and no. What happens a lot of the time is that I'll start something, work on an original idea and then think of who to call on to take it further. Take a writer like Erik Dylan, who is out here on tour with me – we've written together for so long now – I know he gets what I'm doing so there's no back-and-forth or getting to know you with him, we know each other inside out and know what we are trying to accomplish.
Sometimes I'll bring up titles that I've started in a writing room and people will be, ‘Meh, what else you got?' (laughing) What I try to do is find the people who are as passionate about the music as I am – those are the people you want on your side.
Is there a song on ‘Don't Mind If I Do' that hasn't got enough attention from the likes of people like me? One that's going under the radar a little? I feel like ‘Alochol of Fame' might be one of those songs.
That song is certainly a great idea! I did think, man, why did Brad Paisley not write that song ten years ago! (laughing) I've kinda got to a place where I think I had so many songs, before I signed a record deal, that did really well for me that still live in a place that fans love that it's made me realise that not all songs have to be a hit.
‘Numbers on the Cars' was one of those songs – early on for me: that song is probably second only to ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died' in terms of people coming up to me and telling me how much it means to them and it wasn't a big hit and so for me, a song like ‘Alcohol of Fame' may not be getting a whole load of attention but if there is somebody, like you, that loves that song and plays the hell out of it with the window open and a smile on their face, that's all I need from it, you know?
You've probably heard this about the UK but people over here love album tracks and deep cuts – not just the hits. Are you picking that up from the shows and press you are doing?
Definitely. I noticed it the most the first night in London. I do an acoustic set during the show and people really listened to that, the lyrics, and they enjoyed listening to the new songs too, which doesn't always happen elsewhere.
Picking up on that acoustic set which Hannah McFarland has been joining you on – ‘I Just Need You,' the duet on the deluxe version of the album that you do with her is a fabulous song. As good as any other duet you've ever done in my opinion. Could you see that song going to radio at all?
I wouldn't be against it at all. I've been surprised at what songs do well at Country radio. ‘Don't Mind If I Do' did amazingly and I wasn't sure it would! It just jumped off the page, people really ran to that song and made it a big hit. There's always room for me to be surprised – I never act like I'm the smartest guy in the room! (laughing)
What was it about Hannah for that track that made her perfect?
Well, she's from Alabama and we've played a lot of the same venues and have a lot of the same influences. I love her voice – I saw her singing a cover of ‘Don't Mind If I Do' and then I invited her out to a couple of places to sing it with me. I was thrilled to be able to get her out on tour with me, much like Ella Langley, and when it came time to record ‘I Just Need You' I played it for her and she loved it as much as I did. Man, she did a great job on that song.
How do you keep yourself fresh, engaged and not on auto-pilot when you have to play the same songs night after night out on tour?
It's changing the set lists sometimes. With the acoustic set I never tell Hannah which song we are going to play, which she gives me a hard time about sometimes! (laughing) I like to keep her on her toes. Sometimes even just changing the venue makes a difference, sometimes some songs go over better, regionally, than others. It's hard to know what's going to go over the best when you are in a different country, though, I can tell you! (laughing)
You mentioned ‘One to Willie' earlier. I was listening to that song on the way in tonight and it made me think about the Charlie Kirk shooting and made me wish that more people lived by the words of that song. Have you had time to process that or have any thoughts and reaction to it?
It's awful, so awful. Anyone who watches the footage and the aftermath will feel like I feel, a kind of heaviness, right? My prayers go out to his family in this horrible time. There's no way to see what happened as anything other than awful.
‘One to Willie' certainly has got a good message for folks and I really appreciate that about the song, for sure.
Which song on ‘Don't Mind If I Do' best represents where you are in your life and your career right now?
That's tough. I would say that maybe my favourite song on the record is ‘Jesus Saves.' It's a really powerful song and you can see the crowd react to it every night. Those are my favourite songs to write and if I could write one of those songs for every record I do I'd be happy with myself.
I feel like you've really leaned into your music and writing since the pandemic. I also think you're singing better: richer, deeper. Was there a moment in the last five years where you made a conscious decision to lean into your creative side more or is this success you're having all part of a natural evolution for you as a writer and artist?
Those are very kind words about my voice. I've never considered myself a great singer, I just try to find songs that are really in my wheelhouse, vocally. Me writing my own songs helps me with that a lot.
There hasn't been a moment where something changed, per se. I just think that songwriting and performing is something that you can improve at all the time. Knowing that, it's really easy to go into a studio or a writing session with a lot of motivation. Even on the days where you don't come away with a hit you've got to accept the mindset that you've probably learned something from the session and the other people you've been around.
I've also learned a lot from the shows I've played and the crowds I've been infront of in terms of knowing what sort of thing goes over well live – that experience, both in writing rooms and in concert halls, is what has helped me to improve as an artist I think.
Is there a songwriter or an artist that you haven't written with or sang with yet that you'd love to do something on your next album with?
I've written with Jamey Johnson a little bit but I don't think I've written with him enough. That's another thing, too, you can't force it when you are writing with someone like that. If you write a song that's OK, that's great but you really wanna write something you really love with an artist like him and we haven't quite got there yet so Jamey would be someone I'd really look forward to working with again.
Check out Riley Green's new deluxe version of ‘Don't Mind If I Do' which is out now in all the usual places.
