{"id":162722,"date":"2025-05-30T12:15:24","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T16:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/05\/30\/riley-green-is-embracing-his-versatility-and-his-heartthrob-era\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T12:15:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T16:15:24","slug":"riley-green-is-embracing-his-versatility-and-his-heartthrob-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2025\/05\/30\/riley-green-is-embracing-his-versatility-and-his-heartthrob-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Riley Green Is Embracing His Versatility \u2014 And His Heartthrob\u00a0Era"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tIt\u2019s around 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, a few hours before Riley Green<\/a>\u2019s Duck Blind will open, and its eponymous proprietor is giving a tour of his Nashville bar and restaurant. The multistory complex in Midtown features a few private areas where the singer-songwriter and his friends can hang, including a small lounge that doubles as a podcast studio and a cozy outdoor porch with recliners where Green intends to hold screenings of some of his favorite movies, like Tin Cup<\/em>, Secondhand Lions<\/em> and Bull Durham<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough he\u2019s only 36, Green laments that the younger generation, raised on TikTok videos and Instagram Reels, doesn\u2019t have \u201cthe temperament to sit down and watch Shawshank Redemption<\/em>. And because they don\u2019t, they\u2019ll never be decent people,\u201d he says. That\u2019s a strong indictment and he\u2019s kidding \u2014 but only slightly: \u201cYou don\u2019t think that at some point in your life you\u2019re a better person because you watched that movie?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Chris<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tJosh Brolin Pulls Back the Curtain on the Musical ‘Sorcery’ of Chris\u00a0Stapleton\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

\n\tThe get-off-my-lawn rant is ultimately good-natured; Green admits he\u2019s a bit of an old soul, which he credits to his upbringing in Jacksonville, Ala. (population: 15,000). \u201cThe majority of my [youth], all four of my grandparents I saw every day. My great-grandmother was alive until 2020,\u201d he says. \u201cI think that\u2019s where I get a lot of the more traditional values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA nostalgia for simpler times is reflected in Green\u2019s back-to-basics country sound and in many of his songs \u2014 most notably his 2019 triple-platinum smash, \u201cI\u00a0Wish Grandpas Never Died.\u201d (Though both had died by the time he wrote it, he gave his two grandfathers songwriting credits \u201cas a sign of respect,\u201d he says.)<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in the past year, Green has also leaned into his playful, romantic side \u2014 and it has kicked his career into overdrive. His flirty duet with Ella Langley, \u201cyou look like you love me,\u201d which recalls classic country songs from the \u201970s and \u201980s like Dolly Parton\u2019s \u201cI\u00a0Will Always Love You\u201d and George Jones\u2019 \u201cHe Stopped Loving Her Today\u201d with its spoken interludes, won musical event of the year at the 2024 Country Music Association Awards and three trophies at May\u2019s Academy of Country Music Awards, including single of the year. Green admits he wasn\u2019t sure the track (on which he\u2019s the featured artist) would do well, but it reached No.\u00a01 on Country Airplay<\/a> and No.\u00a030 on the all-genre Billboard Hot\u00a0100<\/a>. \u201cI thought the talking verses were probably too traditional to be a big hit on country radio,\u201d he says, \u201cand I\u2019m so glad I was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Riley<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

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\t\t\t\t\tRiley Green<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEric Ryan Anderson<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tWith fans looking at him in a new light, Green and his camp smartly followed \u201cyou look like you love me\u201d (and its sultry video) with \u201cWorst Way,\u201d a sly, sexy song with an even steamier video that plays up Green\u2019s leading-man charisma (and re-creates a love scene from Bull Durham<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\n\tThough he played guitar in high school, it wasn\u2019t until Green was in college at his hometown\u2019s Jacksonville State University (where he was also quarterback on the football team) that he got serious about music. He started playing four-hour shifts in local bars and restaurants, filling his sets with covers of songs like Jamey Johnson\u2019s \u201cIn Color,\u201d which he still plays every show. (In a full-circle moment, Johnson will open for Green on tour this fall.) But Green didn\u2019t rely on outside material for long. \u201cI never thought of myself as a great singer, [but] I knew how to entertain people,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I started writing songs, that was how I saw I could set myself apart from somebody who was more talented as a singer or player.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Green writes with many top-tier country songwriters, some of his most acclaimed and diverse songs were penned solo, including \u201cI\u00a0Wish Grandpas Never Died,\u201d \u201cWorst Way,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Mind If I Do\u201d (another Langley duet) and \u201cJesus Saves,\u201d about a homeless veteran. \u201cFrom a songwriter standpoint, Riley has really embraced his versatility,\u201d says Jimmy Harnen, president\/CEO of Green\u2019s label, Nashville Harbor\/Big Machine Label Group. \u201cHe\u2019s at the point in his career where he\u2019s not afraid to express what he\u2019s feeling and seeing around him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBMLG founder and CEO Scott Borchetta recalls a conversation he had with Green two years ago that helped focus the artist for the future. \u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m writing so much and I need to get it out.\u2019 So we set it up to where he could go into our studio anytime he wanted to just start letting all of this music out, and then that led to trying some different production styles. We really focused on his vocals more than ever and had him try a couple different things. And through this, I think he discovered a new voice and discovered his own attractiveness and sexuality, and that wasn\u2019t there when we signed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Riley<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>

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\t\t\t\t\tRiley Green<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEric Ryan Anderson<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tBillboard<\/em>\u2019s 2025 Country Power Players Groundbreaker, who had never been on a plane before he signed his record deal with Nashville Harbor in 2018, is now expanding his audience beyond America. He opened for Morgan Wallen in front of 50,000 people at London\u2019s BST Hyde Park last July\u00a04, played several shows in Australia in October and headlined a string of Canadian dates this spring. He jokes that Canadian fans were severely disappointed that his Instagram-famous dog, Carl the Cowboy Corgi<\/a>, didn\u2019t tag along: \u201cEverywhere we went, in my meet-and-greet people would come in, they\u2019d be looking at my feet to see if he was there. They didn\u2019t care about me at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCarl and Green\u2019s other two dogs were at his 680-acre Alabama farm, which Green only managed to visit five times last year. His trips there could become even less frequent. \u201cRiley called me about a year ago and asked about Tim McGraw and how did Tim [get into acting],\u201d Borchetta says. \u201cThat\u2019s something that he is going to spend some energy on, and I think we could see another gear with him in that space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen things are going well, you\u2019ve got to go. \u2018Make hay while the sun is shining\u2019 is what Granddaddy would say,\u201d Green says. \u201cAnd I feel like that\u2019s where I am. Things are going really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appears in the May 31, 2025, issue of <\/em>Billboard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s around 11 a.m. on a Tuesday, a few hours before Riley Green\u2019s Duck Blind will open, and its eponymous proprietor is giving a tour of his Nashville bar and restaurant. The multistory complex in Midtown features a few private areas where the singer-songwriter and his friends can hang, including a small lounge that doubles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}