Riley Green
Appearances
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
But I learned like how that works, like how much goes into a production. And we would do these exit interviews after we'd filmed two or three episodes. We'd go sit in this room with a lady and she'd basically go over a script of what had happened. And I realized that I could get out of that room faster if I just said, hey, what's the storyline here? What are you trying to get me to say?
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Well, yeah, even in like, you know, the middle of Illinois and stuff like there's a little community and then there's 40 miles of cornfields and nothing like Alabama. You know, Georgia is the same way. There's just communities all over the place. We drove to Birmingham. That was an hour from me. Atlanta was an hour and a half. And. Birmingham was a big city before I got on a plane.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And so I got good at kind of playing a part a little bit, which I think probably helps me in a lot of interviews and those type of things. Because there's a lot of stuff about touring and having a life in country music. I was not prepared for the media training that I didn't have. So that was a little helpful in that world, I guess.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, I know what B-roll is. At least you can say it now.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
But it was a while. They were all coming out to shows. A lot of them were. I think a couple of them were from Alabama.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Oh, they weren't asking me. They were showing up.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
But it was a cool experience, I guess. I certainly wasn't, like, calling trying to get somebody to get me on another one after it was over. But I did. It was something I had no idea what all goes into a show like that. So it was really eye-opening for me never having any experience like that.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Well, I first heard it from a promoter that kind of helps manage her. This is a buddy of mine and... He was the first person that ever told me about Ella. You know, I was touring in Alabama and he would put her on some shows of mine. And, you know, I liked her voice. She's obviously from Alabama, very country, which I liked.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And he played the song for me and it wasn't really pitched to me like it needed to be a duet. He was like, what do you think about this? And I was like, man, that's cool. Like there's something cool about the girl picking up the guy or whatever. And the second verse kind of was like more of the first verse. And I thought, well, Ella's going on tour with me next year.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I was. I got home for about four or five days and then I went up to Kansas and I've got a little farm up there. I went deer hunting for a few days. Mostly just slept in the woods.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Like maybe if the second verse, like the guy's perspective or something like that might Then we'd have a song to play on tour. I had no idea it would be a hit at all. Really? I thought that might help the song a little bit, you know? Yeah. It just goes to show you. I don't know. Cause it was, I think one day I opened my phone and you couldn't not hear it.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, I mean, Ella's probably too smart to date me anyway. But I think that's kind of the country music fan, like they love the Tim McGraws and Faith and the George and Tammy, and I think that people want to believe that.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And when we first started having the success we did with that song, I kind of told Ella, I was like, you know, there's going to be a lot of things said, but I mean, you don't really got to play into it or not play into it. It's going to be something that people enjoy in the same way that we do when we go listen to those songs.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
So it's cool to have that one and have that moment on stage with her, you know, every night. And the title track of my album is called Don't Mind If I Do. And that's a really big song. So it's cool to have that one with her. And that's a completely different type song.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, and that was very accidental too. I wrote that song on the road and I wrote it as a duet. And I was in the studio and I asked Ella to come by just to put a female vocal so I could make sure the key was right. And I was thinking about getting somebody else because we already had that song together. And she just crushed it in the booth. She did so good.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I was like, well, I can't think of anybody who's going to do it better than that. So it's been cool to have two very different songs that are working really well.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I opened a bar in Nashville. I'm sure you've been to Nashville. You know where Losers is? Yeah. Well, Winners was connected to Losers. It's now Riley Green's Duck Blind.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Mm-hmm. My whole family lives in Jacksonville, Alabama, where I'm from. Okay, yeah.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I thought that might make people want to show up at my bar. We just jump up and play every once in a while.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It is, yeah. Okay, nice. Yeah, it's, what, around October, I think we opened it? September, I don't know. It's open now. But, yeah, it's cool. That's one of the things I loved about that part of Nashville and Midtown is when I was going up there, that was where you saw, I mean, every artist or celebrity I've ever met. It's like a rite of passage. Yeah, it really is.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It's such a local hangout, you know, and I think it's cool for country music fans to go in there and maybe see somebody up there playing. I think Jamie Johnson was playing background guitar for us that night. That's cool. It's been fun.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
That might be the only one I can get in at this point.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I didn't. Somebody look that up. What does that mean? Make fun of yourself?
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It's not that I don't, it's not the appeal. First of all, I don't see any appeal of it. Cause I know what that lifestyle is like and how tough that would be. I think what I search for outside of my career is like a sense of normalcy. Yeah.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I love going home. I'm kind of a homebody. You don't really realize it until you start traveling. And I think having a career that's in the public eye will probably make anybody a little bit reclusive. I think some people are cut out more for it than others. But one reason I love to go home now is it's the exact same. Life moves so much slower.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
My Uncle Wayne still pulls up at my house and he says, Hey...
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
a lady down at the huddle house's daughter listens to your songs like that's a huge deal he has no clue what's going on like mom i want a cma where she's like that's great you want macaroni and cheese like nobody cares and that's a really easy way to stay grounded and also a really good way to find inspiration for songs because i don't have a lot in common with the nashville country music star lifestyle and that's certainly not what my fans have in common with me
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
My friends and family have to pry information out of it. My mom doesn't even call me. She calls me. my managers or my tour managers and they show up at my shows. They didn't even tell me they were coming, you know?
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was really into sports when I was in school. And then when I quit playing ball, I think it was like my way of being competitive still, like everybody going out and trying to trick a deer or ducks or whatever it was.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And like I said, that's, I think creatively, that's a really important thing to have, but it's, it's been a very helpful to keep you sane, to be able to slip back there and kind of disconnect. That's a pretty good way to do it.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, there's a lot of, you know, and like I said, I'm very fortunate because things are going well and that's why we're so busy. But it's a lot of like, I get off the road on Sunday and I want to put my guitar down and not look at it again until I have to, you know.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
So when I have a little time to kind of unwind, I can sit back and look at, you know, for one, how awesome this is that I'm getting to do. And then also... You know, think about songs like Georgia Time and like, man, what was I thinking when I wrote that? You know, I'm sure you're familiar with Corey Smith. I always think about him because I was such a big fan of Corey Smith.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
A lot of my stuff that I cut years and years ago was very much like that. And I even had some songs where I kind of like rapped in the verse a little bit like he did. But I always think about he wrote those songs and it was talking about wishing you were 21. How do you go back there mentally when you're 40 years old?
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
You know, so going back and living with some of those songs and visiting those places that kind of gave me that inspiration, I think helps me to write from a place that at least got me somewhat successful.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
A Christmas song? Yeah. I feel like every record deal in Nashville has a clause that says they can make you do a Christmas song.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And I think everybody dreads it. I was going... I had a really busy travel week, like West Coast to New York, did like Good Morning Today or something. And...
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
No, we got a couple of meetings and then we're rehearsing tonight. We're performing on The Voice. Oh, nice. Tomorrow. Very cool. And then we're in Vegas and then Denver and then I'm wrapped up until New Year's. Okay.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It's a new show. It's really good. You'll love it. And it's a late night show.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And they called me and my manager was like, hey, man, I hate to even ask you this, but could you go do this thing? It's kind of a favor. Christmas special somewhere. And I had travel planned to go home and like catch a ball game at my, where I went to school at, you know, I was really excited about it. And I was like, well, you know, like I'm supposed to go do it. What's the song?
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And it was the most awful, like, it wasn't Jingle Bell Rock, but it was worse than that. It was cheesy. A lot of Christmas songs are cheesy. And I thought. All I want for Christmas is you. I kind of like that one. Yeah. But if I thought if I can write a Christmas song, I'll never I'll always be able to play if I like it. I can like people ask me to do that.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
yeah that one stuck around for a while and now i think i like it because it's quiet and my phone doesn't work you know i can slip off in the woods and hide from everybody for a few days so you're a big sports guy when you're younger you play your quarterback you play football yeah i played football baseball and basketball and then i went to jacksonville state and played quarterback for a little while were you binging the music then
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I can always have a song that's like decent to play. So I sat on the bus and wrote a Christmas song and I like it. It's great. I cheated a little bit.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I think it's a country song that I made a Christmas song.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Well, it's me. It was Christmas in my grandmother's little jeans house.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. My granddad Buford sitting in the corner. It's a little me with a Troy Aikman jersey on. Stamp. It's one of those songs that I can see it. Like, it was the easiest song for me to write. I think me and Eric Dillon wrote that song in like 15 minutes on the bus.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Like, and he couldn't type it fast enough when it was coming out because it was just me singing about what Christmas was like growing up, you know?
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I gotta come at our guests like that. That was my best Rihanna impersonation.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
No, but there's a video of her singing it and it's just like her out there. I don't know. I like this. I watch that video a lot. It makes me feel good when I'm in a bad mood.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I didn't get in. I don't know what outfit she has on.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It might have been earlier. Now we're testing. No, no, no.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
that and there's a movie called 10 cup great movie my favorite movie ever and the last 20 minutes of that movie when he hits it in the water so many times that's uh the seven iron yeah that's uh that i watched that a lot just the last bit of that movie why it just puts me in a good mood like you fast forward to that or you just like watch it like kind of your meditation almost in a way i don't know just like i can't help but like kind of smile makes me feel good okay i don't know what's your favorite food
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
You said surprise, so you're surprised. Yeah, yeah. Meatballs. I love some good meatballs.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Where are you from? You lost the, oh yeah, don't even have it. You don't have a Wisconsin accent.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
When I say roof, when I say locker. You look like you were born in Georgia. You got some things like you went down there, they were expecting a certain level of.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
They took me to, so I'd never been to like really nice restaurants or anything. And when I was getting, like my record label was trying to sign me, I had four record labels offer me a deal. So they had to like court me. It was like getting recruited.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
No, not really. My older sister, Lindy, was a really good singer. She was like Sandy in all the Grease plays and then went to college on a music scholarship. I never really thought I was a good singer. My granddaddy, Buford, was a big music lover. He loved old country music, George Jones and Merle Haggard and all that.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And so they were taking me out and like pretending they liked to drink beer, bush light and all this stuff with me and trying to like look through my hunting pictures and act like they knew what I was talking about. And so we would go to these nice restaurants and I found this place in Nashville. They took me, had meatballs.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And that was where like anytime I had like a number one or something good happened, we all went there and I made everybody eat meatballs. We just ordered them off the appetizers. There was three in there. It's that Tratatouille place next to Bridgestone. Put a link to that up there, too.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I don't like a lot of ingredients. I'm like a kid. I like cheese and sauce. And I could just eat one thing. That's kind of how I was. But I'm also respectful, so I get everybody's stuff.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I went over to my grandmother's house the other day and she had, she made beef stew and that has too many ingredients for me. Like I don't do onions and I don't even know.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. It's just like everything in there. It's literally like she just puts whatever she has in there. And I, I mean, I had to eat some of it, you know.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
She always has these little bitty miniature Welch's grape juices.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Are you kidding me? I'm trying to get beat. This is an Alabama grandmother we're talking about. She still cuts her own grass.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I went home in the summer and she was weed eating. It was 100 degrees and she's out there weed eating. I pulled up and I said, grandmother, let me do that. She's like, no, I want to do it. I said, let me do it. I said, I'm going to take my shirt off out here and let the neighbors see and get a little sun.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
She went up to her house and I got around to the other side and she was back down there with the other weed eater doing the other side. She weeded off the side of her golf cart.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Like a stick. If a stick falls off a tree, it doesn't sit in the yard long. She picks it up. It's getting picked up.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I don't remember. Somebody came down and was filming like a little content thing or like where you're from or something. And they were like, you know, you can't make up where I'm from. Obviously, you know, being from where you are, you know what that small town life's like. And there's one flashing light. There's one store. It's called Green Store.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
When I was with him, we'd sit around and play an old guitar and try to sing songs. Maybe that was a little bit of a hobby, but I started playing lead guitar in a band and started writing songs, and people started requesting them, and then I started playing on my own. It was really accidental. I was framing houses during the week, and I'd play on the weekends, and here we are.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
All four of my grandparents knew each other when they were kids. So like everybody's from right there. And like the old men go to the store in the morning and play dominoes and, you know, talk about all the gossip and
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
camera guy was sitting there like and i'm giving an interview i said oh my grandma was calling why she about to cuss me out because i bought her a lawnmower she was getting a new lawnmower and i talked to the john deere guy and i said let me pay for it he said no she told me don't i was like come on man so she i answered the phone and she said riley you little shit and they were like it was your grandmother yeah not having it got a mouth
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Oh, yeah. I mean, I've already been so fortunate to have collaborations with people I'm such a big fan of. And they've all worked out really well, too, which is awesome to have hit songs with people that you're friends with. ACM Award was pretty crazy. We won a CMA Award the other day. Me and Ella did.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I think there's probably a lot of people that had like dreams of a country music career, like always grew up doing it and like, and they've had more time. I never really had that. I thought I would grow a long gray ponytail and play at the floor of AMA and do construction during the week. And like, that would be the extent of my career. So I don't know.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I mean, if you live at the beach, I hope you're okay with me saying you got beautiful hair. I was hoping somebody would.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
no i'm glad you said that though because it's like i didn't have any visions of the success i've already had so for me it's like if i never had another hit i would be blown away by how awesome my career has been but at the same time like not yeah my anxiety or whatever my worry and my career is just that i don't get as much as i can out of it okay and i'm like for me to like sit around when i should be going to write a song or you know management calls me say hey man you've had a really busy week we're gonna not do this one show i'm like oh let's just do it you know
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
maybe i'll be a huge giant country music star there wasn't one really i mean i can't think of any like big break moment it was just like somebody said hey man why don't you come play at my bar you can drink for free okay and i did it and he was like man that was that was good do it next week and so i did that for about six years at every bar in the northeast alabama i had a little business card with my phone number on it i would hand out people started calling me and
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
There'll be a time when I start saying no, but right now it's like, I just want to, I know how fortunate I am. I want to try to get as much as I can out of it.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
There's a little bit of what's been tough for me is like the bigger you get, there's a little bit of a disconnect with fans that you have. Like when I was playing songs and like I would go in a barbecue restaurant, I would have to win over people. They didn't come to see me, you know, like.
The Viall Files
E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
they were eating and they probably thought my music was too loud so I had to like do something to set me apart from somebody else I wasn't that great of a singer so I started writing songs and I thought that was how I learned how to write like oh this line they turned around you know this one made them like raise their beer up so you lose that a little bit when you're you got a sold out show somewhere you're we did stadiums with Luke Combs last year you know I'll be at an arena tour that I went on this year and and
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
everybody seems so far away now so it's nice to when you write songs be able to do something on a level that's a little more intimate and go man that that works you know yeah every once in a while you got to be worried that somebody might not like it i think that's what keeps you working sharp yeah yeah that makes a lot of sense can't sit there and look at all the tiktoks of old ladies saying that your forearms are pretty you got to do something to keep yourself motivated and you know
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Forearm workout. I'm like Papa. That's all I do. Eat spinach and work out my forearms. Bails ahead. Yeah. No actual work.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
You know, in Alabama, we don't have a pro team. Everybody's a Braves fan and everybody's a lot more college. I've kind of been like that.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
You know, it's not because you just don't care. Yeah, that's true. When I think Auburn should be really good, it's tough for me because I'm like biting my nails at every game. This year I didn't expect that much and they didn't disappoint me.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I don't know. I always, I think growing up, my sister Casey's two years older than me. My sister Lindy's 10 years older than me. Me and Casey fought all the time. I thought Lindy was cool. So every guy that she dated, I thought was the coolest dude ever. You know, like I remember like khaki pants with the little frizzle, the little shorts, like New Balance shoes. Like I had to have.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
So, I mean, I think maybe one of her boyfriends was an Auburn fan. And that was, that was why.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, but, man, Alabama can have the best team in the country, and Auburn can be the worst team, and they can still beat them any year. Like, it's the craziest thing.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
See, that's the thing, too. When you have a game like that, it doesn't matter if Alabama wins 50 national championships. You can go, that kick six game, though, man. I can't take that back.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
As little as I can get away with. I'm going to almost head home and... Hang out with the family a little bit. We still very traditionally go over to my grandmother's and eat and take a nap and get up and eat again and nap and open presents.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I remember there was a venue in Birmingham, Alabama called Iron City, and I was playing at a Mexican restaurant in Jacksonville every week for $150, and a guy called me and said, would you come play here? And I'd just seen Chris Stapleton play there, and it's like 1,300 people, and I was like, nah, dude, it'll be empty, you know?
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I got a lot of nieces and nephews, so that's fine. Yeah. You know?
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. Yeah. You know what was one of the best years I had was I just took them to like the store and just let them all pick out what they wanted.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. You know, that always happens to me. And it was like something to do. You know, they enjoyed that. That was fun for me.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, of course. There's not a Target where we're at.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It's so hard to believe that any stores exist anymore with Amazon. Yeah. I mean. Online shopping. I found out what that was like three years ago.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Somebody, one of the ladies that works for my record label was telling me, I was like, I just built my house in Alabama and then I signed my deal, went on the road and I was getting furniture delivered and all this stuff. And I was like, I didn't even see it. My mom was sending me pictures of like furniture. And I was like, man, I got to get plates and cups and boxes.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Well, you can order them on Amazon. I'm like, what are you? And so she showed it to me. And now I'm like, you know, I just order all kinds of junk. I don't think I'm like, what's it called when you see something like by the register and you impulse. I don't like impulse buy stuff. I just like having packages when I get home. So it doesn't matter what it is.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
There's so much stuff I've opened that I've never touched. You two would get along just fine.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Matter of fact, I don't know that there's been many things I've opened in the last few years that didn't disappoint me when I got inside of it. Like I was more excited about having it. Of just opening it. Just like having, is it like the free stuff? I think so.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I don't think you're saying beer and then mail. It's a lot of hunting stuff. I've got five billion hats with a duck on them somewhere in my house. Yeah. It's funny, too, because I'll see people in my little community out there with them on because my dad goes and gets all that stuff and gives it to people. And there's a thing called Trade Day in Collinsville. It's like a big flea market outside.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And we always went there when I was a kid. Me and my dad would go like trade case pocket knives with people and set up and sell stuff. And I took some of my buddies up there and we bought a bunch of miniature goats and pigs from my farm. It was just something to do when I was home. And I saw my dad there and he was set, had a booth set up and selling stuff.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And I went down there, and it was like, we sold 1,200-something tickets. Like, I had no idea anybody knew who I was in Birmingham, so...
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And I went over there and there's like, like a real tree vest with the tag still. I'm like, that's mine. And he said, $15. Like he's going to sell it back to me. He's just taking all the stuff that people send me and selling it at trade day. He's making a killing. My sister sells bootleg Raleigh green merch. Yeah.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Okay. So I just remember that I didn't know there was like such a bachelorette party thing and down there until that show.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It was cool. My grandparents came. My grandmother, Nancy, we all had dinner there before. And they opened the doors and all these people came running in. And my grandma said, why are all these people here? I was like, because I'm playing. She said, yeah, but who else is playing? I was like, well. That's a good point.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Step right up, folks. For me, it's tough to really grasp because it was so gradual. It happened like it went from this little place to a little bigger and like the music vault. And we did the arena in Savannah last year, the year before. In March. Yeah. And also it was very regional to start with. So like I was a big deal in like Cowan County for a while, you know, in Alabama.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And then it kind of, the circle has grown and now people... That's the biggest thing. I mean, like, we went to Australia and had, I don't know how many sold-out shows. We headlined two big festivals out there, and I flew my parents out with me. And they sang it. It was like we were playing in Georgia. Like, they sang every word.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, that kind of thing is hard to really comprehend, I think, that it can travel like that.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, that was in Montreal. Do they speak French? Somewhere in Canada in that area, Boots and Hearts Festival or Lasso Festival or something. And I noticed they sang every word, but when I would do my in-between song banter, it was just like.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I thought I wasn't funny. Thank God I am. It wasn't me, it was them. Yeah, yikes. I can barely speak English. I don't speak French.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
They did a, they filmed a like where you're from piece on my farm. And it was right when I signed a record deal and my mom was sitting in my house making CDs, putting my label on them. I told her when I was playing those shows, like that she could make CDs and sell them and she'd keep the money. For me, it was good advertising. I didn't want to fool with it.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And the label's like, you know, you can't do that anymore, right? Like that's like piracy or whatever. She's like, what? And my dad was on the porch, like staying in the porch. And they went out there and talked to him. They were interviewing him. And they had to use subtitles for my dad because he's mumbled so much.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, man. That's right. He called me the other day. He was at Trade Day. And he said, hey, listen.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, he figured out how to work my phone. He's got a phone, and so he takes pictures with it now, and he calls. And he was like, hey, man, listen, I'm at Trade Day, and I found this trailer, man. It's bad. It's badass. Like, you think I can get it? He works for me on my farm. My mom has, like, the farm checkbooks. We used to call me and check. I was like, how much is it? He's like, $750.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I was like, yeah, you can get it. He's like, man, you're not going to believe it. And he's telling me all about it. And I went home for Thanksgiving, and he drug me out there to go see it. And it's literally like, you know those trucks at, like, Alagasco? Like a utility work truck with the white ones with the big toolboxes on the back and all that? Yeah, yeah.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It's like one of those, somebody saw it in half and they just put a tongue on the front of it so you could hook it up. It's like the most rinky, it'll fall apart. And he was so excited about it.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
You wouldn't even ride it. Did you drive it? Drive the truck? You mean like pull it somewhere? Sure. No, I don't want any part of that.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I don't know what he's going to do with it. He doesn't need it. He just was so excited it was a deal. I guess.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Favorite cereal versus like the one I eat because I feel like it's okay. You know? Sure.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, but I mean, I eat like protein cereal stuff now. I like, I don't remember the brands of them, but they're kind of like cardboard. Like it's got enough that it makes me feel like I'm. True. I don't know how you beat like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That's tough to beat. Fruity Pebbles. Over Coco. Yeah, I'm not. You're talking about Coco Puffs? Pebbles. Pebbles. Yeah, I don't know.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I'm not a big chocolate guy. Really? Pops. Pops. You know what's the slip on cereal? Apple Jacks.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. And that feels kind of healthy too. It is slept on too. Doesn't it? I feel healthy eating Apple Jacks. Sure.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, quite a bit. Like, I always say it was very accidental success. I didn't think I was a songwriter because I've never been to Nashville and written songs with anybody. Nobody I knew wrote songs. I started writing songs because I got tired of playing the same covers every week and played three shows a week. And so people started going, Hey man, play that one song you played last week.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Well, if I told them anything about it, they wouldn't want to know anymore. They'd be like, boring. I don't, I don't think there's really that much of one. I mean, like I can't convey the amount of travel that has been this year. And I just think sometimes the last thing I want to do when I got two days off is go on a blind date or like, I mean, I don't know.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I think I'm pretty far from, from, from the schedule that it's going to take for me to settle down. So, Hey, I don't know what they're saying on other podcasts or, uh,
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I did. Yeah. That seemed like a no brainer to me. They said I couldn't say myself. So that wasn't self-deprecating, was it? Went the other way on that one.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It's not annoying. My mom used to tell me I was the cutest one in my football uniform all the time after every game. Win or lose.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
If I ever get down on myself, I'll just go home. And call mom.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
No. No. I did. Well, I mean, isn't that probably more of a girl thing? What's your dream wedding? Yeah.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
That would have been my answer to the what would surprise people question. I might have an app like a notes app of just like names for like a dog that I might get one day.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It's nice. People names. Carl and he's got a girlfriend now. Her name's Carol Ann.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
love that yeah where did he meet her like on the apps or something no I mean she's not his girlfriend yet she's like still like young you know but when she you know we're gonna do the thing or maybe they will if they want to and I got a yellow lab named Jazz that's my duck hunting dog so they all run around on the farm and chase the goats and animals
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I thought Jazz was a good dog name because if it was a girl, it'd be Jasmine. And if it was a guy, it'd be Jasper. There you go.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I wasn't sure. I let the dog pick me when I went to get the dog, you know? Oh. You're supposed to get it. If you want a dog for hunting, this is just so y'all know, you're supposed to get the dog that likes people more than other dogs. So when you go and they're like little puppies and they walk around, this is not scientific. For anybody that's like dog people out there, don't.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
This is what I think. So, like, the one, like, Jazz was, like, over there by me, and the other ones were, like, jumping on each other and stuff. And, like, really, in real life, if you went to a park right now, she's not, like, around a lot of other dogs a lot. She would, like, go smell of another dog, and then she would run back to you.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And somebody said, man, you should record that song. So I went and paid like some guy named Bob, you know, $500 to record in his basement. And I put an EP out. I don't even know how to do any of this stuff. I didn't have a manager or book an agent or anything. A song called Bare Me and Dixie did really well. A song called Georgia Times started doing really well.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
She would never, like, go chase another dog or something. I think that makes her, like, want to, like, do what I want her to do, so.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Because you just give her a bunch of treats all the time. I feed her coconut and powdered donuts all the time.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Coconut donuts and powdered donuts. You know, like that's what he gets from the store.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And he like brags about it too. He's like, look, when I'm driving, I'll open up that pack and she'll put her head right there on my shoulder. I'm like, yeah, dad, she wants it. Yeah, I know.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I bought a bunch of chickens and I had to tell dad, like, she's a bird dog. Like, you can't have her around. She'll eat them. You know, he's like, no, she wouldn't do that. And I feel like the first baby chick that got like, I feel like there was nothing but just the feet smoking, like on a cartoon.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Probably easier to get powdered donuts than chickens, I guess. I don't know.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I wrote a hell of a way to go about her dad, Margrende Linden. So that one, I remember he had recently passed away when I wrote it. So I think that one's probably up there. They liked the Christmas song. I kind of wrote it with her mom and dad's house in mind. Oddly enough, she likes Worst Way.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
That's something people always ask me in interviews when that song came out. It was like, what does your mom think of it? She likes it.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
We have a relationship that's kind of a don't ask, don't tell where I come up with my whether something really happened or is fictional when I write songs. But I do tell her all the time when I was young and I was like sneaking out of the house and going to the bars and all this stuff. That's where I got all the stories that I wrote these songs from.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
So she can't be mad about it now if I tell her that I got arrested before Easter Sunday one year and bailed myself out and made it to church. That didn't really happen.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I didn't even know that I was making money on streaming, but I had like a little account that was like, you know, I thought I was getting rich. Yeah, eventually record labels and publishing companies started coming down from Nashville and coming to shows and it just kind of grew from there.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. Especially this episode. She'll like this one.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I was the favorite before I, like, had success. So, like, you can imagine now. My mom and dad live in my house.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Well, yeah. I mean, like, I bought everybody, like, cars and stuff. You know what I mean? And y'all know this from being successful. Like, there's nothing I've ever bought myself that gave me as much enjoyment as, like, buying my dad a truck.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
he's never had anything nice yeah this truck that was nice i bought him isn't nice now because he's back into everything i have with it yeah i bought my mom her dad's lake house back and it was the coolest isn't that cool yeah i mean it just and i i honestly don't do it for people to think i'm a good person and i don't even say it for that reason like it's just like it it really is like when i'm on the road thinking about getting my niece's nephew something or like sharing what's really awesome that i get to do and what success i have with them's pretty special but
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. But I didn't give my parents my house. They stole it. They just squatted on it.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. They like loitered and then... I built a house, went on the road. They just moved in the basement and then slowly moved upstairs into the master bedroom. You didn't come back. And I came home and my mom was like, came out and was in a nightgown on the porch. She saw me and she... She's like, what are you doing here? She ran back in the house and I thought, oh, it's not going to be good.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And I got in there and it was just like, my whole room just had stuff, all of my... And I literally went in. I was like, listen, I'm going to go.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I'm going to stay at the barn. But like, you know, we need to talk about this tomorrow. And I just moved into the barn.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I know the answer. When I go to the Chinese restaurant, I'm a dragon. On the placemat. Nailed it.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Okay. So wait, let me ask you this. Do you think that people... are responsible enough to pick their own? You think they should be able to? People are going to say what they want you to think they are.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I don't think you should be able to pick what you think. That doesn't seem fair.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Y'all have only been here for like an hour. What do y'all think?
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I don't like being touched all that much. There you go.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Like, I mean, like, you know, like a girl, like I don't mind being like touched, like sitting on the couch, watching a movie or something. But I don't like people just touching me all the time. Like my guy friends, like kind of like patching my cape. I don't like that. Okay. Yeah.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
you know from alabama yeah it's like well i mean and you know it's funny because i mean barryman dixie's obviously about growing up in alabama yeah it's a very regional idea and georgia time is probably more regional than that because it's talking about just the side of alabama which includes auburn that we call the eastern time zone georgia time
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Like breathe on your neck. I wouldn't. I've dated girls that like to be just like back scratched all the time. I'm not like that. I don't care. That's a lot, right? I'm like, yeah, I'd rather you didn't. If you're doing it for me, don't. You're wasting energy. As a matter of fact, I'll get you a back scratcher and do it to yourself. Then I don't have to do it.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Does that mean we can take that one off the list? Yeah.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I've bought a lot of back scratchers and massagers and stuff over the years.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
The little thing that goes around here, all kind of stuff. She's hooked up to all kind of stuff.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I think that I would have to have a little more in my normal lifestyle. I think I don't mind being around people. I think I'd have to have a little more of a regular schedule to be less introverted. But I think now I am a little bit.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And I would sit her down and not touch her. Exactly.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I would make her the best cup of coffee and take it to a room that I was not going to be in and put it down and coax her into that room and not say anything to her and not even say one of my favorite things would be to like turn on a movie that I know is going to be kind of boring and then just like coax them to sleep so I can watch whatever I want to watch there you go after they fall asleep that's really fun for me that's awful
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Oh, surely you got like a good segue out. Do that better. Can you say oil for me?
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
So for people to be singing that in California was insane to me, but they sing both those songs everywhere.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. You do? It's hard for me not to. I mean, and that's, I wrote those songs when I was like 24, you know what I mean? That's crazy. So it's been a while, but I have no idea why that worked.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Well, not even my voice. I play guitar on them. I remember going in the studio and the guy, I didn't have a producer, and I was like, I played it and the guy's in the room with the buttons and I go, how was that? He said, I don't know. Do you like it? I was like, I guess. He's like, okay. I did it like once. Now you spend like weeks recording a song.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
So the production is awful, but it's also a little bit of something too. It's like, I didn't sound better. in my recordings yeah so i think when people came to shows like oh he's not that bad i think people just grew up a lot like i did in the in in that part in the things i wrote about and maybe relatable is what i could say about it and it was you know it's those kind of things still work today
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, it's been a busy year. I signed a record deal in 2018 and I was, you know, I traveled a lot touring, but it was pretty regional. I was driving everywhere. I'd never even been on a plane. And of course, the last few years, you know, we played in Europe this year, Australia, done several tours in Canada and obviously all over the U.S. So we're pretty well traveled now.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. Well, I mean, I wish grandpa was never died is, you know, my biggest song by far. And it's, you know, I've heard people tell me stories about maybe they didn't even know their granddad or they were related to it because of their dad or this or this line. Of course, that song has a lot of, a lot of different lines in it. So it's, it's cool to see how people relate to it differently.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
But I just think, people just take those songs and relate them to their own life in some way. And that's what's so great about country music is you see people crying in the crowd, you know, about something I wrote just as a tribute to my two granddaddies. So that part of this lifestyle, I don't get tired of.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It's hard not to laugh at most of it. You know, I mean, I know it's probably hard for a lot of people that have had some success to not dive into that and let it affect you. But, For everything I see that seems accurate about me, there's 10 things that are completely made up.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
There's no telling. I mean, there's several old ladies on Instagram that think we're having a relationship that are getting catfished. I probably block or delete 30 fake accounts a day. And I just can't imagine how...
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
No. Oh, yeah. Well, it'd be hard to find my front door. You got to go down the driveway that's a mile long. Because I had that, too.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
So it really was you. So my thing's like this. If these scammers are making that much money pretending to be me, why would I just quit singing and I'll start doing it? Because I can pretend to be me better than anybody.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I don't know how these people have $10,000 just give a fake Riley Green. She's like, I sent you money.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I'm ready to spend a little time at the house for the holidays.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Well, I can promise it's not from lack of it being out there or things that I've done. But I think I was really lucky that my like, I don't know what you would call it, like big level of success didn't come in my early 20s. And I was in my late 20s and I kind of had a business mindset about my career because I framed houses until I signed a record deal.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I did construction work for five hundred dollars a week till 2018. I signed the deal and went on the road. And I knew how fortunate I was to have the opportunities I had. So I started thinking about like, okay, well, I need to be a person that I would want to go see a show. You know, not just the songs I write or the performance I do. I was being like, now you have all the social media.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah, I'll tell you about like that. Yeah. This is me amped up right here.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Everybody knows everything about you. Or at least they think they do and they want to. So, you know, how I display myself, I tried to be mindful of. And I think if I'd had that success or that magnifying glass on me at 22, it would be a different story.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I think I was rowdy, yeah. I remember when I started playing guitar and, I mean, I was, you know, quarterback in my hometown and played, you know, country music at the bars and they were letting me drink for free. I thought that was a pretty cool time. I was running pretty hard then, but it's a lot different now. 30s are different.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
yeah most of them yeah uh i don't i don't think it would like my success hasn't made it worth putting up with me though you know they're not like trying to get back with me they're just mad i'm successful maybe i don't know yeah well what was a bad habit you had in relation like i don't close cupboards like you know oh you're talking about like you were in there like you were like not taking the trash out and stuff i don't think i got that far
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
i didn't get to having a shared cupboard stage we had our own separate cupboards i think my problem was when i when i was actually old enough and like mentally i thought i wanted to like settle down was when my career really started to take off and that was a time when like i couldn't focus on one thing you know it was like i think a lot of people especially in you know that kind of entertainment line of work or whatever there's a it's hard to
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
have a relationship especially with the travel and and just the million distractions there are so i kind of thought i'd put my nose down and kind of grind for a couple years and try to get you know as much out of as i could out of a country music career and it's just continued for about six years that makes sense i mean i was i was like in my 20s when i was just like working regular job i was just like relationship guy after relationship guy and then you know i was like
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. Well, I mean, I looked at it like if I had enough time to go out to dinner, I have enough time to write a song and that's what I should be doing right now, you know, for a while. And the other thing too is like, I barely have time to like see my dog, you know? So, I mean, it would take a really special girl to be okay with the amount of travel and time I'm going to be gone.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. Well, and I mean, you know, aside from the issues they might have, my life has changed so much over the last handful of years that I'm trying to kind of figure out where I'm going to end up at, you know. I mean, I've got a place in Alabama, my farm, which is where I thought I would spend the rest of my life at.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
And I think I went home five times this year, you know, and that's three hours from Nashville. So it's just, it's a, it's tough to kind of picture your life and find somebody that you're really thinking about settling down with.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
It's not really that I'm in Nashville. I'm just on the road.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
We've been, it's been a crazy busy year, but you know, like, so my farm in Alabama is three hours from Nashville. So let's say I get in at, you know, Sunday morning at eight o'clock. First thing I need to do is go sleep for a day. And then I wake up and it's Monday and I got to go back out Tuesday night. I get on the bus.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I was probably afraid like everybody else, a little nervous about it. But of course, now I sleep better on a plane than I do in my bed. So I used to.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
So I'm like, well, I might as well hang around town and try to ride or go have a meeting or whatever. Yeah, that's true. It's not that I have the greatest work ethic ever. I just feel like I'm trying to kind of wring out this career while I have the opportunity that I do. And that's my excuse for, you know, hanging in town.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
I don't regret doing it because I didn't do anything stupid on there.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
So I was playing a show at a bar called the floor bound. So you're familiar with, and a guy comes up to me after the show and he said he was a casting agent for the show on CMT with Stone Cold Steve Austin. And he thought I'd be good on it.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Gave him my number, figured that was the end of it. Somebody called me from California and, you know, they said, we're going to fly, we're going to take you to Atlanta, put me in a hotel. And we did all these like stress tests and psych about, you know, all this stuff. And so I remember like asking my mom, I was like, you think I should go do this?
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Like, I've never watched a reality show and thought, man, that guy looks really smart. You know, I mean, they make you look so crazy. You have a lot more insight in this to me. My thing just like there's there's always some theme or something going on. I couldn't figure out what to go on there.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
Yeah. Yeah. So I thought, well, if they mentioned that I play music, I was very early in my career and I don't do anything stupid, then it might help me a little bit. So I went on there. Also, it was a competition show. So I knew that at least half the episode would be that not just like the real world drama of the house. So I went on there and I was extremely boring. I slept the whole time.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
The producer was constantly coming in to wake me up. Like, hey, we need B-roll. Go do something, you know. And I didn't drink the whole time I was there. We filmed for a month and a day. We were stuck in this house with a bunch of crazy people. And I think they, I couldn't figure out why they cast me. And I think I was like the love interest. That was what they had planned.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
So they would make all these like, it looked like girls were fighting over me kind of stuff. And you know how it is. Like a girl would look across the room and she'd have like a weird face. They'd make it look like she was looking at the other girl. All that stuff was going on.
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E853 Going Deeper with Riley Green
But I will say if there was anything positive that came out of it, well, I mean, I won the show, won $50,000, which I found out what taxes were really quick.