The Sit Down with Riley Green
Since the release of his self-titled EP through Big Machine Label Group in 2018, Riley Green has been an artist that country music fans on this side of the Atlantic have been eagerly anticipating to make the trip across the pond for the first time and it finally came to fruition on the 4th of July as part of this year’s BST Festival in Hyde Park.
The Great Oak Stage within one of London’s historic Royal Parks was the venue for his first UK show in front of an audience of 65,000 people (which is almost five times the population of Green’s hometown of Jacksonville, Alabama) witnessing a line-up which also featured Ernest, Ella Langley, Alana Springsteen and a headline set from Morgan Wallen.
The Great Oak Stage within one of London’s historic Royal Parks was the venue for his first UK show in front of an audience of 65,000 people (which is almost five times the population of Green’s hometown of Jacksonville, Alabama) witnessing a line-up which also featured Ernest, Ella Langley, Alana Springsteen and a headline set from Morgan Wallen.
The former Jacksonville State University quarterback who is an Academy of Country Music winning, multi-platinum recording artist spent some time with us whilst he was over in London ahead of the performance at the festival to talk about this long awaited trip across the pond, his latest EP ‘Way Out Here’ and all about his journey that brought him here.
Appreciate you taking the time to hang with us this afternoon dude. When did you actually get into town?
“We got in yesterday, mid-morning probably.”
So, having some fun with jetlag then, I take it?
“No, I’m good actually. I slept it off and slept until about ten yesterday afternoon.”
That’s cool, most people seem to feel that going home is fine but this way and especially the first time is a bit of a killer, so that’s great that you have dodged that one.
“I think I stay in a state of jetlag twenty-four-seven, so for me it’s hard to screw up my time because I never really know what time it is anyway.”
We’ve obviously got the show to talk about but is this pretty much a fly in, fly out trip or have you got some time to be a bit of a tourist whilst you are here?
“We fly to Calgary on Friday for a show on Saturday so we’re pretty busy. We’ve been driving around so we’ve seen what we can here. We’re bouncing around all over and going to visit everybody because as it is our first time, we’ve got to make all of the introductions.”
Like you said, it’s your first time here and a cool way to introduce yourself to the UK audience, 4th of July in LONDON, which must feel pretty weird to be saying.
“Yeah, it’s strange to be leaving the country for the 4th of July but at the same time it’s a pretty good first gig out here. I’m looking forward to it.”
Has coming over here been something that has been on your radar for a while now?
“We’ve definitely heard that there is a big spike in country music over here. For me, I’m still a new artist in so many places across the US where I have been wanting to go for a few years and hit all of those markets making an appearance everywhere that I could. I’ve kind of stepped into Canada for the last couple of years which was my first out of the country type thing and now we are slowly getting everywhere else like coming to the UK and we are going to Australia this year, then probably try to come back and headline in the UK at some point next year. It will be and interesting to see how we go down after this show with playing such a big venue and seeing songs doing well over here after we have been putting out new music.”
Appreciate you taking the time to hang with us this afternoon dude. When did you actually get into town?
“We got in yesterday, mid-morning probably.”
So, having some fun with jetlag then, I take it?
“No, I’m good actually. I slept it off and slept until about ten yesterday afternoon.”
That’s cool, most people seem to feel that going home is fine but this way and especially the first time is a bit of a killer, so that’s great that you have dodged that one.
“I think I stay in a state of jetlag twenty-four-seven, so for me it’s hard to screw up my time because I never really know what time it is anyway.”
We’ve obviously got the show to talk about but is this pretty much a fly in, fly out trip or have you got some time to be a bit of a tourist whilst you are here?
“We fly to Calgary on Friday for a show on Saturday so we’re pretty busy. We’ve been driving around so we’ve seen what we can here. We’re bouncing around all over and going to visit everybody because as it is our first time, we’ve got to make all of the introductions.”
Like you said, it’s your first time here and a cool way to introduce yourself to the UK audience, 4th of July in LONDON, which must feel pretty weird to be saying.
“Yeah, it’s strange to be leaving the country for the 4th of July but at the same time it’s a pretty good first gig out here. I’m looking forward to it.”
Has coming over here been something that has been on your radar for a while now?
“We’ve definitely heard that there is a big spike in country music over here. For me, I’m still a new artist in so many places across the US where I have been wanting to go for a few years and hit all of those markets making an appearance everywhere that I could. I’ve kind of stepped into Canada for the last couple of years which was my first out of the country type thing and now we are slowly getting everywhere else like coming to the UK and we are going to Australia this year, then probably try to come back and headline in the UK at some point next year. It will be and interesting to see how we go down after this show with playing such a big venue and seeing songs doing well over here after we have been putting out new music.”
Talking about new music, you put out the ‘Way Out Here’ EP last month which in the grand scheme of things wasn’t too long after the full length record out last year. Was there any thought of looking to hold and build around those for the next full length project or was it just the having new songs that you really liked and just felt like they needed to come out as soon as possible because they were new and shiny?
“I think every artist is probably the latter of the two a little bit because you always want new music out, I always say that my favourite songs is the last one that I wrote. That being said, when we released the album in the fall, we had released a lot of songs prior to the album release and a lot of them were older songs that fans already knew so it’s nice to go and put out a lot of brand new music and that is what we did with the EP this spring. Also, with having the headline ‘This Ain’t my Last Rodeo Tour’ I wanted to have some brand new music to play and see what songs jumped of the page, so the main purpose was that whilst people were hungry for new music, we would try and give it to them.”
On the EP, you re-recorded another version of ‘Atlantic City’ which I’m guessing is a song that you have been playing for a long time on the road but what is it about that Bruce Springsteen or to many people, The Band song that you really connect with?
“The Band was my favourite group growing up and I loved Levon Helm. The version that I did last year is a lot more like their version than Springsteen’s but I used to open every show with it and it’s crazy to see how that almost felt like an original song to me. A lot of the younger fans didn’t really know it, so once I put it out the first time I played it at shows and it was great song for me but that was six years before I signed a record deal, the production quality wasn’t very good and I think we recorded it in some guys basement. To be able to give it a little bit of new life and update it a little bit was great to be able to put on this project and it’s always been such a fun song for me to play. I think it’s nice to have a song that you really love which you can put into the set.”
“I think every artist is probably the latter of the two a little bit because you always want new music out, I always say that my favourite songs is the last one that I wrote. That being said, when we released the album in the fall, we had released a lot of songs prior to the album release and a lot of them were older songs that fans already knew so it’s nice to go and put out a lot of brand new music and that is what we did with the EP this spring. Also, with having the headline ‘This Ain’t my Last Rodeo Tour’ I wanted to have some brand new music to play and see what songs jumped of the page, so the main purpose was that whilst people were hungry for new music, we would try and give it to them.”
On the EP, you re-recorded another version of ‘Atlantic City’ which I’m guessing is a song that you have been playing for a long time on the road but what is it about that Bruce Springsteen or to many people, The Band song that you really connect with?
“The Band was my favourite group growing up and I loved Levon Helm. The version that I did last year is a lot more like their version than Springsteen’s but I used to open every show with it and it’s crazy to see how that almost felt like an original song to me. A lot of the younger fans didn’t really know it, so once I put it out the first time I played it at shows and it was great song for me but that was six years before I signed a record deal, the production quality wasn’t very good and I think we recorded it in some guys basement. To be able to give it a little bit of new life and update it a little bit was great to be able to put on this project and it’s always been such a fun song for me to play. I think it’s nice to have a song that you really love which you can put into the set.”
That’s really interesting to hear about the first cut especially, as a huge Bruce fan it is one of my favourite songs in his catalogue and I do like both versions of how you did it. The older version sounds very different to how I have heard anyone else record it as it has more of a southern rock feel with the electric guitar at the start. Then the newer version like you said has more of The Band feel and I definitely hear the similarity to Levon Helm in your vocal, you start off closer to that style and as it opens up with the instrumental has elements of how E Street do it in their live shows.
“Yeah, that’s cool. I think that when I was recording music on my own prior to signing a deal, I didn’t have a producer, I mean I played guitar on a lot of that stuff so it’s fun to go back and try and do it what I would call the right way of this is the sound that I’m going for and then do a great job on it.”
Talking to anyone from Alabama, I know it’s pretty much the law to bring up college football and especially someone who played quarterback when they were there. It is weird talking about it to someone that wasn’t cheering ‘War Eagle’ or ‘Roll Tide’ though.
“I went to Jacksonville State but with that view as you’re talking, I’m an Auburn guy.”
They are my adopted college. Partly because I loved watching Cam Newton as I started following college football and also because I met some Alabama fans who I decided were the worst people on the planet to motivate me to root against them. Do you find a way to get over to games any more either your alma mater with the Gamecocks or down to Jordan-Hare?
“It’s hard to do. I used to go to a lot of Auburn games but I can’t really take a Saturday off to go to a football game. Fortunately, Jacksonville State’s new coach, Rich Rodriguez has made the entire month of October weekday games where they could televise which is really helpful for the school but was also really helpful for me as I was able to go along to several last year and attend a few more football games every year.”
Playing ball at college was your background before music, I guess there are plenty of qualities and lessons from your time there which are transferable and have helped you prepare for moving into the music industry.
“I think a quality for a quarterback would probably to be able to shake things off a little bit, every play is not always a touchdown or a first down and it’s kind of that way in music. You might write a song and really be passionate about it, think it’s great but doesn’t turn out to be a big hit as there’s a lot of let downs in the music world and the music industry so, for me I think the biggest thing that I took from that was accountability. I think as an eighteen year old kid, I didn’t have a lot of that but playing a college sport of any kind, you are held accountable, you got to get up to go to workouts and put the work in which I think carries over to a music career.”
It's fantastic that you are here, I am sure Hyde Park will be an incredible experience and a lot of people are really excited that you are playing.
“I’m looking forward to it, I know it’s a really historic place to play and will be a big crowd so it’s exciting for me to be able to make that my first show over here.”
“Yeah, that’s cool. I think that when I was recording music on my own prior to signing a deal, I didn’t have a producer, I mean I played guitar on a lot of that stuff so it’s fun to go back and try and do it what I would call the right way of this is the sound that I’m going for and then do a great job on it.”
Talking to anyone from Alabama, I know it’s pretty much the law to bring up college football and especially someone who played quarterback when they were there. It is weird talking about it to someone that wasn’t cheering ‘War Eagle’ or ‘Roll Tide’ though.
“I went to Jacksonville State but with that view as you’re talking, I’m an Auburn guy.”
They are my adopted college. Partly because I loved watching Cam Newton as I started following college football and also because I met some Alabama fans who I decided were the worst people on the planet to motivate me to root against them. Do you find a way to get over to games any more either your alma mater with the Gamecocks or down to Jordan-Hare?
“It’s hard to do. I used to go to a lot of Auburn games but I can’t really take a Saturday off to go to a football game. Fortunately, Jacksonville State’s new coach, Rich Rodriguez has made the entire month of October weekday games where they could televise which is really helpful for the school but was also really helpful for me as I was able to go along to several last year and attend a few more football games every year.”
Playing ball at college was your background before music, I guess there are plenty of qualities and lessons from your time there which are transferable and have helped you prepare for moving into the music industry.
“I think a quality for a quarterback would probably to be able to shake things off a little bit, every play is not always a touchdown or a first down and it’s kind of that way in music. You might write a song and really be passionate about it, think it’s great but doesn’t turn out to be a big hit as there’s a lot of let downs in the music world and the music industry so, for me I think the biggest thing that I took from that was accountability. I think as an eighteen year old kid, I didn’t have a lot of that but playing a college sport of any kind, you are held accountable, you got to get up to go to workouts and put the work in which I think carries over to a music career.”
It's fantastic that you are here, I am sure Hyde Park will be an incredible experience and a lot of people are really excited that you are playing.
“I’m looking forward to it, I know it’s a really historic place to play and will be a big crowd so it’s exciting for me to be able to make that my first show over here.”