Ask any artist and they will admit that there are times their mind wanders when they are on stage, to thoughts that have nothing to do with their performance. For Riley Green, that started happening more as his career got busier. “It’s a crazy thing because when I used to just play a couple shows a week I had plenty of time to get everything else off my mind,” says Riley. “And now you’re so busy, there’s so much travel – I mean you spend a day on two flights, do a couple interviews, and then go play a show and do a couple of meet and greets and it’s hard to really … especially because you’ve got a personal life too, you know, to a certain extent – and it’s hard to really get focused.”
In fact, Riley remembers one time being on stage in front of about 30,000 people at a festival in Alabama, and he forgot the words to his current single. He managed to cover it enough that he doesn’t think too many people noticed, but Riley says, “One of my old football coaches from college was there and he told me, he said, ‘Man, it’s just like a football game, you’ve got to take some time to yourself before the show and kind of get your mind in the right state.’”
Riley thought that was great advice because he says, “You can be mentally exhausted – when I was a construction worker I could do that and kind of just get through the day, but you can’t do that doing this and you got to make sure you get your mind right.”
So now Riley tries to get his mind right before he goes on stage so he doesn’t forget the words to any of his songs, including his brand new single, “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.”
Riley Green – mid wander on stage :47
“It’s a crazy thing because when I used to just play a couple shows a week I had plenty of time to get everything else off my mind. And now you’re so busy there’s so much travel – I mean you spend a day on two flights, do a couple interviews, and then go play a show and do a couple of meet and greets and it’s hard to really … especially because you’ve got a personal life too, you know, to a certain extent – and it’s hard to, to really get focused. I remember playing a festival in Alabama and forgetting some words to my single. There’s 30 something thousand people there and it wasn’t very noticeable, you know it was just a couple of lines, and I think I mumbled through ‘em. But one of my old football coaches from college was there and he told me, he said, ‘Man, it’s just like a football game, you’ve got to take some time to yourself before the show and kind of get your mind in the right state.’ There’s a lot to that. You know I mean you can be mentally exhausted – when I was a construction worker I could do that and kind of just get through the day, but you can’t do that doing this and you got to make sure you get your mind right.”