Riley Green’s Grandma Is Keeping Him Humble

Riley Green – Photo by Harper Smith

In a recent interview, Riley Green talked about the first time he realized he was getting big, and how his own grandma accidentally knocked him down a peg.

He’d only been playing tiny venues, but then he booked a gig in Birmingham, Alabama at a venue that holds 1,300 people, and basically sold it out.

“I had just seen Chris Stapleton play there, and it’s like 1,300 people, and I was like, ‘Nah, dude, it will be empty.’ I went down there and we sold like 1,200 or something tickets. I had no idea that anyone knew who I was in Birmingham.”

His grandparents showed up for the show, and fans were flooding in when his grandma asked why so many people were there.

“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 of these people here,’ and I said, ‘Because I’m playing.’ She said, ‘Yeah, but who else is playing?’”

Watch Riley Green Team with Zach Top to Pay Homage to Merle Haggard, Toby Keith, and More at Las Vegas Concert

Last night (December 8), Riley Green brought some great country music to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada. He performed at the Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort. During the set, he brought out up-and-comer Zach Top to pay homage to some country legends. They sang hits from Tracy Lawrence, Toby Keith, Merle Haggard, and more.

Collaborations and cover songs are two of the things that make country music stand out from other genres. Last night, Top and Green combined the two by giving nods to a handful of country greats. In the videos below, the stars perform snippets of Lawrence’s “Time Marches On” and Haggard’s “Mama Tried.” Additionally, they performed “Should Have Been a Cowboy” in its entirety to honor Keith.

Riley Green and Zach Top Honor Their Influences

Riley Green and Zach Top showed their reverence for the artists who influenced them during their short collaborative performance. Green found his love of country music through Merle Haggard. Top, on the other hand, is a student of the artists that inspired the biggest stars of the ‘90s.

Earlier this year, Green spoke to Apple Music about his album Don’t Mind If I Do. During the conversation, he revealed his connection to Haggard. “I learned to play guitar to my granddaddy’s favorite country songs from back in the day and this new album is a throwback to the era when I first became a fan,” he said of the album.

“I can remember one of the first songs I ever heard that made me really feel something from the lyrics was ‘Sing Me Back Home’ by Merle Haggard,” Green said. “It was talking about the guy in prison wanting to hear one last song. Something about that, something I could never comprehend, but that was the song that did. It took me to a place I had never mentally been before,” he recalled.

Earlier this year, Top spoke to American Songwriter about his album Cold Beer & Country Music. During the conversation, he revealed how he found his sound. While his music sounds similar to country from the ‘90s. He didn’t study the artists that were big during that era. Instead, he looked to their influences. “I tried to go back and find their influences. Those guys were listening to Haggard and Jones and Lefty Frizzell, Ernest Tubb, Ray Price, and stuff like that when they were coming up. So, I tried to go back to that stuff and get what I could out of there,” he explained.