Riley Green Co-Hosts 2/3-4

The co-host this week is Riley Green. Lon is off, and taking his place is Chris Janson. Chris & Riley are friends and have a lot of common interests. Riley is in our Top 5 with “Different Round Here.” He is about to kick off his first major headline tour. He spent last year on the road with Luke Combs, and the year before with Luke Bryan.

Riley was a co-writer on Different Round Here. “This was one of those songs that was about how I grew up, the values I had growing up in a small town in Alabama. I’ve been fortunate to see people grew up that way all over the country.”

Riley’s current hit features Luke Combs.  “The song meant a lot to me, but it hadn’t been released to radio, so it didn’t have that life.  Getting the offer to tour with Luke, it seemed like the perfect time to ask Luke to be on it.  I’m glad he did, it worked out great that he did.  Now country radio is playing it, and it’s getting a second life.”

Last summer, Riley & Luke played stadiums together, and Riley says it was like a reunion: “It was a full circle moment to go on tour with him.  I was a fan of him & his music, but it was great to see him get to that level. It was helpful for me to learn how to fill that big stage.  I got in front of a lot of new fans.”

Riley just appeared on a CMT special saluting Alabama. ”Growing up in Alabama, it don’t get bigger than that.  It turned out I went to the same college as Randy Owen. So that’s how he & I became buddies. To honor them, and 40 #1s, they had so many hits, and it was an honor to tip that cap to that bunch.”

Riley was part of the All For The Hall benefit. ”That was an awesome show to be a part of, to get that call was exciting. One of my favorite things was I was able to tell people I had Vince Gill & Keith Urban sing backup vocals and play guitar on Grandpas Never Died with me.” 

Riley’s latest album includes a duet with Jelly Roll: ”When I wrote Copenhagen In a Cadillac, it was a light-hearted song. I didn’t think of it for a record. But when Jelly popped in my head, we’d become good buddies, and he said he thought it was written about him. I thought it was a unique feature, something people didnt see coming.”

Riley also has great stories this week about Luke Bryan, Jackson Dean, Brian Kelley, Thomas Rhett, and Lainey Wilson.

NEXT WEEK: Cody Johnson

Tags: featured

Category: CO-HOST