October 13, 2023 • 10 mins
Riley Green is a rising star in Country music who's already gotten the chance to write and record with the top of the Country music pyramid from Thomas Rhett to Luke Combs. Now, Riley is dropping a new album and proving again, he is here to stay! Great music and a really funny guy too!as evidenced in his new underwear ad!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Here we go again on the MichaelJ Podcast. You never know who's going
to be calling in from Nashville nexton the Country Star Hotline, but I'll
tell you it's supposed to be RileyGreen here in just a moment, that's
him. I love it. Ilove when big country stars call, and
I wanted to let you know,Michael Jay here, although you and I
(00:20):
have not met face to face,I feel like a stalker because I'm a
fan of yours and I know everythingabout you, like I know your birthday
is next Wednesday, the eighteenth.That's right. Yeah, it's just getting
into the ages now where you don'tlook forward to him anymore just means you're
getting older. Oh come on,dude, you still have to enjoy your
birthday. Isn't there anything that youlook forward to doing. I imagine I
(00:43):
might have a cold beverage of somekind and kickback. I think I'll enjoy
a little a little evening off ifI can, well, that would be
cool. So look here he isRiley Green born in Jacksonville, Alabama.
Raised on traditional country, bluegrass,and southern gospel music, he learned the
spirit of songwriting and performing at theyoung age of I don't even know what.
(01:03):
But your granddad taught you very young, right, that's right. Yeah,
My grend Daddy Bufford was a bigcountry music lover, and uh,
that was kind of our way ofbonding, was was listening to old Roy
Cuff songs and George Jones and MerleHaggard and all that. So my granddad
taught me all about country music.The difference between you and me is I
can't sing, but he did.He did. He did share a lot
(01:27):
of country insights. We used towatch he Haw together and he loved him
some Dolly. Did your granddad loveDolly Parton? Too? I think everybody
loves Dolly Parton? That's it.Do you have a specific memory of,
you know, your granddad when Italk about him, something that takes you
back to your granddad? Yeah,definitely. I mean we would. Uh
(01:49):
we spent about every evening we couldtogether sitting on the porch of his parents'
house. We had an old epiphoneguitar and we just sit around and try
to play old country songs. Andneither one of us could play or sing
very well, but that was justkind of how we spent our time.
And I think a lot of whatI learned sitting around trying to play with
him is probably influenced my music quitea bit. So did you know your
(02:12):
great grandparents if he was at theirhouse, they weren't living. When we
used to sit out on the porch, it was kind of a falling in
type place, and we ended upremodeling it and turned it into a little
miniature grand old opera. It wasa weird call out there for several years,
and there'd be a couple hundred peoplecome out and people out there playing
country music to old ladies, wouldbring snacks and all that. It was
(02:34):
a pretty unique way to grow up. Wow, And that was the Golden
Saw music Hall, right, that'sright, very cool. So listen,
Riley Green, you were the onlyunderwear model who was begging to show off
your underwear that I've ever met.Are you sure you don't even take my
shirt off? Look at you.You're begging. You're begging to take your
shirt off because you worked out.You worked out to show everybody you're a
(02:54):
physique, didn't you. Yeah,all that hard work and then they didn't
even let me get nicked. Solook, uh, you know, talking
about underwear is great, but Iwant to get to the country music because
that's what we're all here to talkabout. Uh, And you know you've
got a great song. It's climbingthe charts right now. Here's a hook
with Luke comes. I mean weirles say about where you're from head day
(03:25):
and Mama, Oh, I lovethis song. Can you tell me what
it means to you and what itwas like to work with Luke? Well,
it's a song I wrote about howwe did things in the small ten
and I grew up in northeast Alabama, and it's, Uh, it's becoming
pretty obvious that a lot of peoplegrew up kind of the same way all
over the place. It's it's obviouslyI'm a huge fan of Luke. We
(03:47):
had the Stadium tour together this year, so it worked out great that we
got to do this song together andhaving him on it really just made it
that much more special. It's anawesome song, it really is. And
Luke's not the only collapse that you'vedone, I think o Allan Jackson said
it missed It's twelve o'clock, soI love that. With Thomas Rhett too,
(04:13):
that was a good song and youdidn't get enough, I know it
says, featuring Riley Green. Butwhenever I play it on the radio,
I always say it's Thomas, Rhettand Riley Green. I just want you
to know that, Well, Iappreciate that you might be the only one,
but I appreciate it means a lot. Well, you know a lot
of the people that were in countryradio or knuckleheads. To be completely honest,
h and you know what it is, You and I both, I
(04:35):
think, relate to our granddad somuch now is high school hall teams never
lost and backgroad drinking kids never gotcalled now we used to passic guests love
and cat was ha. This isa song that really caught my attention now
is Holsey Thomas didn't have no cluesin town? First time I heard this
(04:57):
line, Riley, now he's grandpasnever die. That is such a good
song and it's so powerful. I'dnever heard a country song put it quite
like that before. Well, Iappreciate it, man, that was obviously
it's been a really big song forme, and thanks to y'all, and
it's a really meaningful song to me. And I don't know if you know,
(05:18):
but I was able to put bothof my granddaddies as co writers on
this song. I wrote it bymyself, but I think a lot of
the things they taught me growing upprobably helped me come up with a lot
of those lines. So their namewill be on that song forever. You
you gave me goosebumps, you reallyreally and people always say that, but
I mean you really gave me goosebumpswith that song. Literally, that's that
(05:41):
was just so good. And youknow what, you wouldn't be a country
star Riley Green without singing about awoman. You know, that's what country
music was really invented for, sowe could we could sing about girls.
Isn't that right? I'm sure thisWiFi up a guitar in the first place.
(06:03):
No, I think that's a prettyrelatable topic to be doing something stupid
or something you shouldn't do to tryto win a girl over, right.
And And speaking of song, soyou've been working on this new album which
I want to mention, and youwent out and you played this this song.
I don't know if this was thefirst time you sung it. No,
it's just time this o this showloud those you off you said,
(06:30):
don't think you lost a man orjust lound man up a turn another road.
Good lord, Mom, wanna callthis campbell? Or at home?
This same my last You know what'sironic about this? And I'm sure I'm
not the only guy who's whose wifeor girlfriend or significant others says this all
the time. Well, this ain'tmy first rodeo. I've heard that a
(06:55):
million times. So now you've gotthis, this ain't my last rodeo.
Tell me where the inspiration came from. Well, I love writing songs that
are that are common phrases like that, especially what I would consider a kind
of Southerner country phrase. This ain'tmy first rodeo, and that was a
Verne Goslin song, and I justit came from something my grend Debutford told
(07:17):
me when he was in the hospitalbefore he passed away, and it was,
you know, to put my mindat ease about our time together being
over, and it was this ain'tmy last rodeo, and it stuck with
me. That was twenty ten,so it took me thirteen years wout the
song, but it's definitely a meaningfulsong to me, and I hope people
can kind of relate to it inthe way that I wrote it. Well,
everybody will and it's also the titletrack on the album, right,
(07:42):
Yeah, the song is called MyLast Rodeo, but I didn't think I
could call my album my Last Rodeo. Yeah, it inspired the title,
is what I meant to say?That's right, Yeah, but it's yeah.
I think that song really is verytell us a lot about the project
as a whole, and love thethe idea of the same my last Rodeo
or something cool about this saying itis. Hey, so, who decided
(08:05):
that this album was coming out onFriday the thirteenth? Was that intentional on
your part? I like to thinknot. But there's people that are smarter
than me to come up all thesedays, how to do all this stuff?
I just make the songs up.Are you superstitious about Friday the thirteenth?
Finny chance all? I guess we'llsee you after this week. And
(08:26):
it's not an homage to Taylor Swiftthen, because everybody else is talking about
tailors. You know, thirteen's hernumber. I didn't know why it was
the thirteenth. I just thought,you know, maybe you just said eight.
Roll it out, for gosh sakes, it's been long enough. Let's
get it out there. Yeah.I just assume somebody else wouldn't put in
an album out. That was theonly day that was open, so we
took it. Why is it thatnew country always comes out on Fridays?
(08:48):
Who picked Friday? Has Friday alwaysbeen released day? Or what is it
that makes Friday the day? Well? People who just got to be in
a better mood on Friday? Youknow you want to roll your windows down
and leaven and you know, gogo to the house and sit down on
the launch here and listen to countrymusic and drink cold beer. All right,
Well, let me ask you onemore question. You've recorded with Thomas
Rhett and Luke Combs and a bunchof others, I'm sure, But who
(09:11):
is that one artist that we wouldknow that you would love to do a
collaboration with that you haven't done yet. Well, I'm pretty open to anybody
who wants to do a song withme. But I'm taking Tracy Lawrence out
on my tour next year, startingin February, So he would be he
would be a dream collaboration. Ohthat would He had so many good songs,
(09:33):
so many good songs to march on. Oh man, I love time
marches on. Grandpa he's talking abouthis grandpa too under the tree right,
Riley, Thanks for checking in withme on my Country Star Hotline. We
keep you connected to Nashville. Thebest way to never miss a thing is
to click the follow button and subscribe. Whatever you need to do to make
(09:54):
sure you keep in touch with meon the Michael Jay podcast. We're always
available everywhere get your podcast and righthere on the iHeartRadio app as well
Here we go again on the MichaelJ Podcast. You never know who's going
to be calling in from Nashville nexton the Country Star Hotline, but I'll
tell you it's supposed to be RileyGreen here in just a moment, that's
him. I love it. Ilove when big country stars call, and
I wanted to let you know,Michael Jay here, although you and I
(00:20):
have not met face to face,I feel like a stalker because I'm a
fan of yours and I know everythingabout you, like I know your birthday
is next Wednesday, the eighteenth.That's right. Yeah, it's just getting
into the ages now where you don'tlook forward to him anymore just means you're
getting older. Oh come on,dude, you still have to enjoy your
birthday. Isn't there anything that youlook forward to doing. I imagine I
(00:43):
might have a cold beverage of somekind and kickback. I think I'll enjoy
a little a little evening off ifI can, well, that would be
cool. So look here he isRiley Green born in Jacksonville, Alabama.
Raised on traditional country, bluegrass,and southern gospel music, he learned the
spirit of songwriting and performing at theyoung age of I don't even know what.
(01:03):
But your granddad taught you very young, right, that's right. Yeah,
My grend Daddy Bufford was a bigcountry music lover, and uh,
that was kind of our way ofbonding, was was listening to old Roy
Cuff songs and George Jones and MerleHaggard and all that. So my granddad
taught me all about country music.The difference between you and me is I
can't sing, but he did.He did. He did share a lot
(01:27):
of country insights. We used towatch he Haw together and he loved him
some Dolly. Did your granddad loveDolly Parton? Too? I think everybody
loves Dolly Parton? That's it.Do you have a specific memory of,
you know, your granddad when Italk about him, something that takes you
back to your granddad? Yeah,definitely. I mean we would. Uh
(01:49):
we spent about every evening we couldtogether sitting on the porch of his parents'
house. We had an old epiphoneguitar and we just sit around and try
to play old country songs. Andneither one of us could play or sing
very well, but that was justkind of how we spent our time.
And I think a lot of whatI learned sitting around trying to play with
him is probably influenced my music quitea bit. So did you know your
(02:12):
great grandparents if he was at theirhouse, they weren't living. When we
used to sit out on the porch, it was kind of a falling in
type place, and we ended upremodeling it and turned it into a little
miniature grand old opera. It wasa weird call out there for several years,
and there'd be a couple hundred peoplecome out and people out there playing
country music to old ladies, wouldbring snacks and all that. It was
(02:34):
a pretty unique way to grow up. Wow, And that was the Golden
Saw music Hall, right, that'sright, very cool. So listen,
Riley Green, you were the onlyunderwear model who was begging to show off
your underwear that I've ever met.Are you sure you don't even take my
shirt off? Look at you.You're begging. You're begging to take your
shirt off because you worked out.You worked out to show everybody you're a
(02:54):
physique, didn't you. Yeah,all that hard work and then they didn't
even let me get nicked. Solook, uh, you know, talking
about underwear is great, but Iwant to get to the country music because
that's what we're all here to talkabout. Uh, And you know you've
got a great song. It's climbingthe charts right now. Here's a hook
with Luke comes. I mean weirles say about where you're from head day
(03:25):
and Mama, Oh, I lovethis song. Can you tell me what
it means to you and what itwas like to work with Luke? Well,
it's a song I wrote about howwe did things in the small ten
and I grew up in northeast Alabama, and it's, Uh, it's becoming
pretty obvious that a lot of peoplegrew up kind of the same way all
over the place. It's it's obviouslyI'm a huge fan of Luke. We
(03:47):
had the Stadium tour together this year, so it worked out great that we
got to do this song together andhaving him on it really just made it
that much more special. It's anawesome song, it really is. And
Luke's not the only collapse that you'vedone, I think o Allan Jackson said
it missed It's twelve o'clock, soI love that. With Thomas Rhett too,
(04:13):
that was a good song and youdidn't get enough, I know it
says, featuring Riley Green. Butwhenever I play it on the radio,
I always say it's Thomas, Rhettand Riley Green. I just want you
to know that, Well, Iappreciate that you might be the only one,
but I appreciate it means a lot. Well, you know a lot
of the people that were in countryradio or knuckleheads. To be completely honest,
h and you know what it is, You and I both, I
(04:35):
think, relate to our granddad somuch now is high school hall teams never
lost and backgroad drinking kids never gotcalled now we used to passic guests love
and cat was ha. This isa song that really caught my attention now
is Holsey Thomas didn't have no cluesin town? First time I heard this
(04:57):
line, Riley, now he's grandpasnever die. That is such a good
song and it's so powerful. I'dnever heard a country song put it quite
like that before. Well, Iappreciate it, man, that was obviously
it's been a really big song forme, and thanks to y'all, and
it's a really meaningful song to me. And I don't know if you know,
(05:18):
but I was able to put bothof my granddaddies as co writers on
this song. I wrote it bymyself, but I think a lot of
the things they taught me growing upprobably helped me come up with a lot
of those lines. So their namewill be on that song forever. You
you gave me goosebumps, you reallyreally and people always say that, but
I mean you really gave me goosebumpswith that song. Literally, that's that
(05:41):
was just so good. And youknow what, you wouldn't be a country
star Riley Green without singing about awoman. You know, that's what country
music was really invented for, sowe could we could sing about girls.
Isn't that right? I'm sure thisWiFi up a guitar in the first place.
(06:03):
No, I think that's a prettyrelatable topic to be doing something stupid
or something you shouldn't do to tryto win a girl over, right.
And And speaking of song, soyou've been working on this new album which
I want to mention, and youwent out and you played this this song.
I don't know if this was thefirst time you sung it. No,
it's just time this o this showloud those you off you said,
(06:30):
don't think you lost a man orjust lound man up a turn another road.
Good lord, Mom, wanna callthis campbell? Or at home?
This same my last You know what'sironic about this? And I'm sure I'm
not the only guy who's whose wifeor girlfriend or significant others says this all
the time. Well, this ain'tmy first rodeo. I've heard that a
(06:55):
million times. So now you've gotthis, this ain't my last rodeo.
Tell me where the inspiration came from. Well, I love writing songs that
are that are common phrases like that, especially what I would consider a kind
of Southerner country phrase. This ain'tmy first rodeo, and that was a
Verne Goslin song, and I justit came from something my grend Debutford told
(07:17):
me when he was in the hospitalbefore he passed away, and it was,
you know, to put my mindat ease about our time together being
over, and it was this ain'tmy last rodeo, and it stuck with
me. That was twenty ten,so it took me thirteen years wout the
song, but it's definitely a meaningfulsong to me, and I hope people
can kind of relate to it inthe way that I wrote it. Well,
everybody will and it's also the titletrack on the album, right,
(07:42):
Yeah, the song is called MyLast Rodeo, but I didn't think I
could call my album my Last Rodeo. Yeah, it inspired the title,
is what I meant to say?That's right, Yeah, but it's yeah.
I think that song really is verytell us a lot about the project
as a whole, and love thethe idea of the same my last Rodeo
or something cool about this saying itis. Hey, so, who decided
(08:05):
that this album was coming out onFriday the thirteenth? Was that intentional on
your part? I like to thinknot. But there's people that are smarter
than me to come up all thesedays, how to do all this stuff?
I just make the songs up.Are you superstitious about Friday the thirteenth?
Finny chance all? I guess we'llsee you after this week. And
(08:26):
it's not an homage to Taylor Swiftthen, because everybody else is talking about
tailors. You know, thirteen's hernumber. I didn't know why it was
the thirteenth. I just thought,you know, maybe you just said eight.
Roll it out, for gosh sakes, it's been long enough. Let's
get it out there. Yeah.I just assume somebody else wouldn't put in
an album out. That was theonly day that was open, so we
took it. Why is it thatnew country always comes out on Fridays?
(08:48):
Who picked Friday? Has Friday alwaysbeen released day? Or what is it
that makes Friday the day? Well? People who just got to be in
a better mood on Friday? Youknow you want to roll your windows down
and leaven and you know, gogo to the house and sit down on
the launch here and listen to countrymusic and drink cold beer. All right,
Well, let me ask you onemore question. You've recorded with Thomas
Rhett and Luke Combs and a bunchof others, I'm sure, But who
(09:11):
is that one artist that we wouldknow that you would love to do a
collaboration with that you haven't done yet. Well, I'm pretty open to anybody
who wants to do a song withme. But I'm taking Tracy Lawrence out
on my tour next year, startingin February, So he would be he
would be a dream collaboration. Ohthat would He had so many good songs,
(09:33):
so many good songs to march on. Oh man, I love time
marches on. Grandpa he's talking abouthis grandpa too under the tree right,
Riley, Thanks for checking in withme on my Country Star Hotline. We
keep you connected to Nashville. Thebest way to never miss a thing is
to click the follow button and subscribe. Whatever you need to do to make
(09:54):
sure you keep in touch with meon the Michael Jay podcast. We're always
available everywhere get your podcast and righthere on the iHeartRadio app as well
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