Riley Green Stops By The Bobby Bones Show

Riley Green stopped by The Bobby Bones Show to talk about his new album, share what he collects, tell us what life on the road is like and more!

Green’s life is busy right now. Between the release of his new album, Don’t Mind If I Do, and touring, he feels fortunate but also admitted it’s hard to be away from home for a long period of time. It’s made him realize he’s more of a homebody than he thought. Something about being the center of attention has made him more reclusive so he really values it when he can get away and be out of the spotlight. It’s a good problem to have because when he used to do construction work, no one wanted a picture with him. Now, he’s so well known that even his parents get stopped for pictures and everyone knows who his dog is, Carl the Cowboy Corgi.

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On October 18th, he celebrated his 36th birthday and released his new album, Don’t Mind If I Do. On that day, he flew to LAX and played a show. He also had an album release party at the new bar he opened in Nashville called The Duck Blind. His bar is in the Midtown neighborhood in Nashville, opposed to where most artists open their bars on Nashville’s lower Broadway. Green never spent much time on Broadway and would usually go to the bars in Midtown, so opening one there felt more right for him. The bar used to be Winner’s, and the owner was remodeling the place and Green had a conversation about it with him, and then he went in and got to design the inside and lay it out how he wanted it. He admitted he certainly didn’t need another hobby, but he enjoyed having a hand in the design. He recalled how recently he found an apron behind the bar and started helping out with Post Malone, and he thinks that’s what makes it fun for bars like that, you never know who’s going to be there.

Don’t Mind If I Do, has 18 tracks on it, the most he’s ever put on an album. Earlier this year, Green released an EP called Way Out Here and two songs on it “Worst Way” and “Jesus Saves” had a lot of success so he decided to include them on the new album. He’s playing a lot of international shows, and the crowds keep getting bigger so he realized that a lot of new people are just now finding his music so Don’t Mind If I Do will be the first thing they hear from him, so he wanted to put his best foot forward. With all that Green has going on right now, he does try to be intentional with his mental health. He realized that a small disconnect for a few hours helps him get back on track. These days, Green’s only facial hair is a mustache. He did it to be funny but then kept it a little longer and now he likes the look.

Green collects cars and has a bunch of old broncos and square body trucks. He also revealed that he wrote his first Christmas song recently and said it has a “white trash family holiday” type of message. Green, has not met the baseball player, Riley Greene. He has been playing at a bunch of baseball stadiums and sometimes before the shows he’d do batting practice. He first did at the show in Philly and then Bryce Harper came out and he thought he would not hit well because he was nervous in front of him, but he did, and it surprised him. His goal is to hit a homerun in every Major League Baseball stadium.

In 2019, he got his first number one song “There Was This Girl.” When he sat down to write the song, he was thinking about the movie Footloose and thought it was relatable how they tried to impress girls to win her over. “Half Of Me” with Thomas Rhett, he thanked him for because he did not have a single on country radio for over a year, and that welcomed him back.

“You Look Like You Love Me” with Ella Langley has become a huge hit for them. When she’s not on tour with him, he’ll play it on his own and sometimes bring a fan up to sing Langley’s part. His current single, “Damn Good Day To Leave," is a fun breakup song. Inspired by his grandfather that loved to fish and the biggest decision he would make every day was whether he would go golfing or fishing that day. Green loved that mentality that everything in the world could be going wrong, but as long as the fish are biting, then it’s okay.