Country Roots, Real Stories: How Riley Green Writes His Songs

Fresh off three CMA Award wins, Riley Green stepped behind the mic to co-host Backstage Country this week with Elaina Smith! For the whole week, People Magazine’s ‘Sexiest Country Star’ gives listeners a front-row seat to the stories and inspirations behind some of his biggest hits.

Green and Ella Langley’s “You Look Like You Love Me” has topped country charts and swept major awards, and their other duet, “Don’t Mind If I Do,” could be on its way to becoming their next No. 1 hit. Smith asked Green if it's wild for him and Langley to see their songs become so successful. Green replied, “It’s certainly not something that we expected. I mean, I know I didn’t with ‘You Look Like You Love Me.’ I thought it was a very traditional-sounding country song. It was something that kinda stayed in your head, but I didn't think it was a big hit or anything.”

When Smith asked Green which of his songs helped him determine his sound, he knew instantly that it was “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.” Green said, “I thought to myself, 'there’s something really special about the song.' I didn't know that it was a hit. It wasn't something that I immediately sent to my record label and was like, ‘Hey, we need to go cut this.’ I just thought I might play it somewhere. I played it in Macon, Georgia’s The Crazy Bull during an encore, and somebody videoed it, put it on YouTube, got a couple of million views in like a week.”

He chuckled, “The label’s like, ‘Hey, what's this?’ So that one I think probably steered me in the direction of knowing what to write about because it was something that was real personal.”