Riley Green is Elaina Smith’s co-host this week! The country crooner is back in the Backstage Country co-host seat, and he’s spilling what it's like being on the road and having fans overseas.
Riley Green On Having Fans Overseas
Since he performed in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne last year, Smith asked if his Aussie fans are different from his American fans. Green joked, “When they’re talking, yeah.” He added, “But when they're singing... now it's crazy to me to see how passionate country music fans are in other countries like that.”
Green recalled his first trip, “We had two sold-out shows in Brisbane, and then we headlined a major festival in Sydney and Melbourne. It's my first trip over there. So obviously looking forward to going back, playing bigger venues and seeing how it’s grown since then.”
The “Worst Way” singer is scheduled to perform again in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia, as part of his Cowboy As It Gets Tour in 2026.
Taking Country Music Global
Aside from Australia, Green also performed in Europe, which led to Smith asking if he wanted to take country music to a global scale. He admitted that it wasn't anything that crossed his mind; rather, if there are people who want to hear him play and are excited to see him, then that’s where they would certainly go. “I've played shows where I was in a coffee shop or something and nobody was there to hear me. Some of them wanted me to turn my stuff down so they could eat breakfast in peace. So when you have a chance, you played for years and years, you wanna go play where people are passionate fans, and it seems Europe’s been that way, Australia’s been that way, Canada's always been a really great place for me. So, it’s somewhere where we’ll definitely keep going.”
Green added that he’s sometimes surprised to learn where his streaming numbers come from. “I don't know where the analytics button is,” he joked. “But I have looked at where some of my streams come from, and I remember seeing that Sydney was the top third city, which is crazy 'cause it was like Atlanta, Houston, Sydney. Australia’s always been up there, which is why we went in the first place. It’s definitely helpful to see that you have fans and you have an audience in places you haven't necessarily been.”
