This Week’s Backstage Country Co-Host: Riley Green
Riley Green is back to co-hosting Backstage Country with Elaina Smith! He may be more at home with a guitar than a radio console, but he slid into Smith’s co-hosting…
Riley Green is back to co-hosting Backstage Country with Elaina Smith! He may be more at home with a guitar than a radio console, but he slid into Smith’s co-hosting chair like he’d been doing it for years. With his laid-back humor and cowboy charm, listeners are in for a treat from December 8-12!
Riley Green On Collaborating Again with Ella Langley
With the success of their songs "Don't Mind If I Do" and “You Look Like You Love Me,” Green hinted that another collaboration with Ella Langley is practically in the cards. “I certainly wouldn't be against it,” he chuckled. “Every collaboration I've done has been great. So, it worked out really well. I think it's because when it’s organic and it's somebody that you're a fan of, somebody that grew up in a similar way and musically has the same taste, and Ella’s from Alabama, I think we have a lot of the same influences musically.”
He added, “And for us to be on tour together for two years playing these songs in front of a live audience, you could see the excitement of fans when we would get on stage, on stools, and start to play ‘Don't Mind If I Do.’ People wanted to see that moment, so I don’t think that happens very much.”
Smith followed up by asking if it ever bothers him that Langley performs their songs with other people, and vice versa. Green chuckled, “Well, I’ve seen videos of somebody singing ‘You Look Like You Love Me,’ like a guy doing the guy part and the talking part. So, it really doesn't matter who does it. And it’s funny because on ‘You Look Like You Love Me,’ I’ll have a fan, sometimes a little kid or something, come out of the crowd, and that talking verse is such a universal thing.”
Green continued, “Anybody can really do it. You don't have to be able to sing. So, it’s fun to watch, and I have many female artists that are out [with me], whether it be at a festival or on the road that’ll ask to sing ‘Don’t Mind If Do,’ they’re a fan of the song, which is such a cool thing as a songwriter.”
Writing Songs Based on His Life
Green said that songwriting is a passion for him; however, he revealed that it’s not always easy for him to write songs. “I guess that there's times when it's a little forced,” he explained. “You know, you have a scheduled ride on Tuesday with two people, maybe you’ve met, maybe you haven’t, or maybe it's your buddies, and sometimes you just don’t have it.”
He added, “Sometimes you don’t have a great idea. That's the main thing; you might go write the best version of a decent idea. But for me, when things are really on my mind, or something's happened to me in my life, I think that’s when the best songs come out, when I’m sort of passionate about the idea.”
