It’s a good time to be Riley Green. Riding the wave of his viral Ella Langley duet “You Look Like You Love Me,” the former Division 1 FCS quarterback recently launched his headlining Damn Country Music Tour. And while it may seem like it, Green’s success hardly arrived overnight. The “Worst Way” crooner, 36, recently shared some insight into his pre-fame life.
Riley Green’s Journey From Construction Worker to Country Heartthrob
After dropping his self-titled EP in 2013, Riley Green would release four more before signing with Big Machine Label Group five years later. But before he caught country music’s attention with his 2019 hit “I Wish Grandpas Never Died,” Green worked in construction framing houses.
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“I didn’t think I was going to have a career in country music,” he said during a recent appearance on Southern Living’s Biscuits And Jam podcast. “I was fortunate, I got to go play, and a lot of times they’d let me drink for free or give me $100, or something. And I enjoyed playing music, but I thought I’d be framing houses for the rest of my life.”
The Gig That Changed Everything
For about eight years, Riley Green played weekly for crowds of 50 to 60 people at a Mexican restaurant in his hometown of Jacksonville, Alabama, making about $150 a night. Then one day, he got a call. Iron City, a venue in Birmingham, wanted him to play there.
“I said, ‘Man, that place holds 1,300 people. It’ll be empty, you know?’” the “Different ‘Round Here” singer recalled. “And finally he talked me into coming down there, and I think it was 1,260 people showed up, and I had no clue anybody knew who I was in Birmingham. So it was kind of an eye opening moment that I might have a chance to have a career in music, you know? ‘Cause I was just doing it on the weekends when I wasn’t framing houses, as a hobby.”
That hobby is now a full-time gig. Green is currently crossing the country on his headlining Damn Country Music Tour, which kicked off March 25 and runs through Aug. 25.
Featured image by Jeremychanphotography/Getty Images
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