Most country singers have stories of knowing they wanted to have a career in music when they were a kid, or in high school, but Riley Green is not most country singers. He says, “One thing people probably would think (is) that I was really musically inclined as a kid or that was just a big part of my life, but it really wasn’t.”
Riley was an athlete in high school, and even went to college to play football. Songwriting was something he did as a hobby to entertain himself. He says, “I didn’t write songs with a vision of being a country music singer one day. I wrote songs because I thought it was cool. I got tired of playing the same ones over and over again.”
After Riley was replaced as the quarterback at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, he started playing music in bars just for fun, and he says, “I probably didn’t ever have a dream of signing a record deal until about a year and a half ago, when I got the first record label call and they wanted to come to a show. You know what I mean? I just never thought that would happen for me. So my childhood wasn’t modeled around a music career by any means.”
Now Riley has a #1 song (“There Was This Girl), and his latest single, “I Wish Grandpas Never Died,” off his brand new album, Different ‘Round Here, which was just released last week, and he says, “It’s, I guess, proof that it can happen to anybody.”
Riley Green – growing up in AL not musical :42
“One thing people probably would think, that I was really musically inclined as a kid or that was just a big part of my life, but it really wasn’t. I was really into sports. I played three sports in high school and played a little bit of football in college, and I didn’t write songs with a vision of being a country music singer one day. I wrote songs because I thought it was cool. I got tired of playing the same ones over and over again, I guess. My music career, I guess, if it had a starting point, was when my athletic career ended in college, was me going out playing in bars and I will say that I probably didn’t ever have a dream of signing a record deal until about a year and a half ago, when I got the first record label call and they wanted to come to a show, you know. What I mean, I just never thought that would happen for me. So my childhood wasn’t modeled around a music career by any means. It’s, I guess, proof that it can happen to anybody.”