10 Questions with ... Riley Green

BRIEF CAREER SYNOPSIS:

Rising singer-songwriter Riley Green grew up in Jacksonville, AL, where he began performing music in his town's local venues while attending college. During that time, Green began to hone his songwriting skills, writing music that connected with his audience. From there, Green grew a fan base, which led him to a record deal with Nashville-based label BMLG Records.

In April, Green hit #1 with his debut single, "There Was This Girl," which he co-wrote with songwriter friend Erik Dylan. His current single, "In Love By Now," is on his new EP, "Get That Man A Beer," that released on Friday, June 14th. Green is currently on the Brad Paisley "2019 World Tour," and will join Jon Pardi's "Heartache Medication" tour in the Fall. A full album is due later this year.

You co-wrote your current single, "In Love By Now," with Rhett Atkins, Marv Green and Ben Hayslip. Can you give us the story behind that song?

I'm a fan of Rhett, Marv and Ben. They are such great songwriters, and it was the first time I was writing with any of them. I said I would like to write something with a '90s Country, Shenandoah-type sound, and they all just grabbed their guitars and were fired up about it. It was their era [of music]. Of course, it was an easy song for us to write. We all knew it was going to be special.

Was it a hard transition to co-writes after writing songs on your own for a few years?

It definitely wasn't a hard transition. I jumped in my first [writing appointment,] where I wrote the song "Outlaws Like Us" with Erik Dylan, and it was a big song for me. The second one we wrote together was "There Was This Girl." There's a handful of guys I write with really well, including Randy Montana, Jonathan Singleton, and Tyler Reeve. What I've noticed is it's actually much harder to go back to writing by yourself, because it's so much easier to write with great minds who are sort of thinking on your behalf.

Were you surprised at your out-of-the-box success at Country, and do you feel like they have invested in you as an artist?

Yeah, without a doubt I got spoiled a little bit. I haven't been in this town, and around the music business, long enough to know how tough it really is for new artists. One thing that helped me [as a new artist] was when I went on radio tours and played shows that radio stations hosted. Most of the time, I already had fans [there from] back when I was releasing music on my own and touring ... It's crazy how fans can get a hold of music and find people on social media. That really helped me on the radio tour, because it was a good look to go into a radio station and have people singing your song back to you before you even [had airplay.]

Is it still exciting to hear one of your songs on the radio?

I don't think that feeling ever gets old. Having a #1 is probably a bigger deal on the songwriter side of things. It makes you want to keep writing better songs. It is motivating.

You released a song, which is personal for you, titled "Numbers On The Cars." Talk about the inspiration behind that poignant song about Alzheimer's disease.

"Numbers On The Cars" was a song I actually recorded and released a few years ago. When I signed my record deal, that song came up quite a bit. People were already drawn it for some reason, and it's the same reason why I cut it. I played it at an acoustic show -- the day after I had written it -- at Eddie's Attic in Atlanta. These ladies came up to me after the show and were in tears because the [lyrics] made them think of their mothers or grandmothers.

The song was inspired by my granddaddy Lendon and his love for NASCAR. As a kid, I would go over to his house, and he would be sitting there watching the race and reciting who drove what car, the car's number and who the sponsor was. [Lendon's] brother, my great uncle Jess, got Alzheimer's pretty bad. I saw his personality change as [the disease progressed]. I wrote about [Lendon] in Jess' place because I knew that [NASCAR] would be something he would hold onto [if he had that disease].

The cool thing about that song is, even though it's personal to me and my situation, fans will still relate to it and think of their own [aging relatives]. I went back into the studio and re-cut the song with [producer] Dan Huff, and [the track] is even better now. It's good to have those kinds of songs out, because even though the song may not be a radio hit, or hit #1, it means a lot to the fans.

Your music is very relatable. Does your songwriting inspiration draw mostly from your personal life experiences?

Definitely. I don't know how to write about anything else but the stuff I already know. I'm lucky that I get to travel around the world and see different things, because I feel like my songwriting would be pretty boring if I didn't. I've always written about what I knew, and how I grew up, and I guess many people can relate to that.

How has the tour been going with Brad Paisley? And we know he's into pranks. Any plans to play one on him?

Brad is great, and super nice. His whole camp is very helpful. This is our first big tour, and the crowds have been great. Plus, the food is great. It's going to be tough going back to playing more shows [on my own] after this.

[In regards to pranks,] I figured I would let him go first on pranking me. I don't want to get kicked off the tour before it gets going. There's definitely been a lot of talk of [pranks]. I'm keeping my eye out.

Growing up, you were into sports before you were a performer. What made you decide to pursue a professional music career?

I played football, baseball and basketball growing up, and I went to Jacksonville State University (JSU) in Alabama and played football [there] for a couple of years. While in college, I started playing in bars. For me, going to JSU and getting friends to follow me to these bars I performed in helped build my confidence. It probably gave me a lot of [content] for writing songs. There wasn't a decision to stop playing football and start doing music as [much as] it was of a struggle of [attending] class in college, staying out all night in the bars and trying to make an 8 [am] class, then realizing, "Hey I can make money doing this instead if I performed music."

We loved how you invited your earliest supporters to join you in the music video for "There Was This Girl." Can you talk about that, and also how you chose the shooting destination of Belize for the follow-up, "In Love By Now?"

For the first music video, it was a nice thing to let the fans come be in the video. But also, I didn't want to act. It seemed really cheesy to me to have some kind of acted out music video. So I thought, "Well, we could play a live show, [invite our fans,] and have the band there." That was great for the first single's video.

[The Belize idea began] when my buddy Steve [Ford], who owns the bar Losers in Nashville, was going to open another Losers bar in Belize. He had asked me to come down to Belize for their grand opening. I went down there and took the president of my label, Jimmy Harnen, with me. [While] we were sitting around and drinking a margarita, I thought [the location] would be a great place for a music video. The song, "In Love By Now," has the line, "She might be dancin' to a long-haired cover band on the coast."

We then started looking at places down the street [from where we were], and basically wrote the script while we were riding around. I ended up getting the film crew to come down there, and we made the video. I have always said, "Shooting a music video is not the most fun thing in the world, because it takes 30 minutes to get a 30 second clip," but it was a little less miserable in Belize.

What advice have you received from songwriters who have been in the industry for a while, or from other artists?

Early on, I had a musician friend from Georgia named Corey Smith. I was a big fan of his growing up, and I got to meet him and perform a few shows opening up for him. Corey didn't go the radio route, but he has had a great career with touring. To be honest, it wasn't that I didn't want radio success, I just never thought I would get it, and I never thought I would sign a record deal. So, Corey's advice to me was, "Just do as much as you can on your own until it just gets too big for you to handle it."

At the time, I didn't have a manager or a booking agent. I was just playing shows and promoting them by word of mouth. When booking my shows was to the point I couldn't handle it, I got a booking agent. [When it became too much] to drive my truck to shows, we got a van. The good thing about that was, it kept me and the band grounded, and made us appreciate the things we would [receive]. If I had [hired] a manager five years ago, I probably would have been so mad and felt like I was wasting money. Now, these guys [manager, booking agent, etc.] are saving my life. They are people I really need around me.

[In regards to songwriting,] the songwriter Channing Wilson told me he had not written a good song until he was in his 30s. I was only 26 at the time, and I thought, "Man, I have a long time [to go]." [Back then,] I didn't think songwriting was something you could get better at, if you looked at it like that. That was pretty encouraging for me to write every day, and at any chance I could get.

Who were your musical influences growing up that really inspired you?

My granddaddy Bufford was a big Merle Haggard fan. He is the reason why I started playing guitar. His passion for music spread to me because he was a Merle fan and I was one too. I think the first song I'd ever learn to play on the guitar was "Mama Tried," while sitting on the porch with him. [When] I got a little older, I went through that era of burning [music] onto CDs, so I'm sure I had a Rap song, a Country song and a Rock song rolled into one album. I was a big Corey Smith fan, as I've said, and I was a huge Jamey Johnson fan in college. Nowadays, you would be dumb if you didn't say Eric Church and Jon Pardi [were influences]. I'm a fan of everybody that's making it work doing [music] a little bit different, because that is what I'm trying to do.