Music

In 2022, Riley Green notched his first No. 1 Billboard Country Airplay hit with the Thomas Rhett duet “Half of Me.” Now, as he prepares to release his third studio album, Don’t Mind If I Do, on Friday (Oct. 18) on Big Machine Label Group, he’s seeing a fresh career surge with another duet, the flirty “You Look Like You Love Me,” a collaboration with fellow Alabama native and singer-songwriter Ella Langley.

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The song went viral earlier this year, but has proven to have staying power, currently at No. 10 on the Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 30 on the all-genre Hot 100.

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“I didn’t know that song was going to be the hit that it has become,” Green tells Billboard. “I thought it was a cool song and the talking in the verses were a great nod of the cap to traditional country music. Both of us being from Alabama and growing up in similar areas, we have the same kind of twang and our voices just kind of mesh well together. I’ve been a fan of hers for a long time, so it’s been awesome seeing her success with this.”

That “nod to traditional country music” has been one key to the song’s success, as retro country sounds continue to make waves again in the format.

In a time when artists are putting out sprawling, pop-flavored albums, Green’s tightly-woven, 18-track project magnifies his devotion to country songwriting. Green wrote over half of the songs on the album, with a couple of his solo writes being among the standouts. That laser focus on writing comes naturally for Green, who has long taken inspiration from Georgia native and Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson.

“Alan wrote a lot of his own songs. I’ve co-written with some great writers and have had some big hits from co-writes and I’ve never stopped co-writing, but there’s also something authentic about writing a song by yourself,” Green says. “I think you perform those songs a little different, maybe. I grew up listening to CDs and listening to ’em top to bottom, so I want to always make my albums an experience to listen to.”

One of Green’s solo writes, the poignant story song “Jesus Saves,” unfurls the tragic life events that led a military veteran to end up by the side of the road, holding up a ragged cardboard sign.

“Some of those things that the guy had been through in that story were things that if any of us had gone through it, maybe we’d be in the same position he was,” Green says. “I think that was a way to try to help people be a little more compassionate. And I just remember that with that song after I wrote it, when I listened back to it, I felt something from it. I was the same way when I wrote [2020 hit] ‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died’ and listened back for the first time. It choked me up a little bit. So, there’s always something special about songs that can do that. When fans feel that same way, it’s motivating and makes you want to continue to write those kinds of songs.”

On another solo write, he teams again with Langley for the love song “Don’t Mind If I Do.” From touring together to releasing multiple duets over the past few months, Green and Langley’s musical collaborations feel like a throwback to the 1970s, when artists like Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, as well as George Jones and Tammy Wynette, released numerous collaborative albums together.

Asked if Green and Langley might consider such a project, Green says, “Well at this rate, I think we’re working on it. We’ve got two songs this year, but I think that’s probably part of the success we’ve had. I think people kind of long for that storybook type of thing, the George [Jones] and Tammy Wynette, or Johnny [Cash] and June [Carter] and all that. You haven’t seen it in a long time—maybe Tim [McGraw] and Faith [Hill] would be the closest thing we’ve seen and I don’t have a problem leaning into that at all. I think she writes great songs and I love her voice so I think if there’s something else that comes along that fits, we’ll probably do it.”

Given the two artists’ creative chemistry, both vocally and in performance, Green says he understands why some fans have speculated that their compatibility extends into the romantic realm.

“With ‘You Look Like You Love Me,’ it’s a girl picking up a guy in a bar song, so I can totally see where that led fans to think something and then we go with ‘Don’t Mind If I Do,’ which is a more heartfelt love song,” Green says. “But we’re just great friends and I’m really a fan of her music, so it’s awesome to have this success with her on both these songs.”

Beyond “Don’t Mind If I Do” and “Jesus Saves,” the new album also catalogs a range of emotions, encompassing heartbreak anthems (“That’s a Mistake”), smoldering romance songs (“Worst Way”) and an older song, “Alcohol of Fame,” a lighthearted nod to boozy nights out.

“I had that title, ‘Alcohol of Fame,’ and I remember thinking, ‘How has someone not already written this?’ You have to start looking it up to make sure it wasn’t already a song, because it was such an obvious thing, but it’s a fun song to play,” Green says. “I wrote it a couple of years ago and it’s nice to finally be recorded and included on an album.”

For the tour announcement for Green’s 2025 Damn Country Music Tour, he again eschewed modern standards—instead of announcing with a social media graphic or brief video, Green turned to a retro, cinematic treatment.

He gathered with his tourmates, among them Langley, Erik Dylan, Vincent Mason, Jake Worthington, Drake White and Lauren Watkins, to create a parody of the 1977 Burt Reynolds film Smokey and the Bandit, complete with Green’s character “Duckman” nodding to Reynolds’ iconic role, while Langley’s “Smoke Show” pays homage to Sally Field’s character Carrie. Together, Green and Langley evade the cops in a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, while they use the CB radio to call out to the tour’s other opening acts, inviting them to join to head out on the road.

“Growing up, Reynolds was one of the coolest guys there was,” Green says. “I’ll never forget [in the movie] Happy Gilmore when a limousine pulled up and they said, ‘You must be Burt Reynolds or something.’ I feel like that’s how we all felt growing up. That was the most famous person around.”

“You Look Like You Love Me” has notched Green and Langley their first CMA Awards nomination in the musical event of the year category. At the Nov. 20 ceremony, Green is also thinking about who might take home entertainer of the year since he’s worked with so many of the nominees.

“There’s been so many people that have had such big careers. Luke Combs has been great and I toured with him last year. Lainey [Wilson] is having such a big moment and it’s really hard not to mention Morgan [Wallen], he’s had such a big moment. We went and played a show in the U.K. together [at BST Hyde Park in London] and it was the biggest country show they’ve had there. I don’t really need much more than that to kind of look his way.”

Outside of music, Green launched his Duck Blind bar in Nashville earlier this year, working with Nashville entrepreneur Steve Ford to open the space in the former Winner’s Bar and Grill location in Midtown, rather than adding another “star bar” on downtown Broadway.

“There’s nothing against anybody that’s got a bar on Broadway, I just never hung out on Broadway and I don’t know many artists that do. I’ve hung out in Midtown and everybody I’ve ever met—songwriters and other artists—has been in Midtown, so it’s cool for me to put my name on something that has been nostalgic for me. It’s also full circle for me to own a bar and have up-and-coming artists coming there to play, showcase their songs and hopefully get a start like I did.”

For the immediate future, don’t look for Green to launch too many other business ventures. “I don’t really need any more projects right now,” he says, before hedging his bet. “But I didn’t think I was going to be in the bar business this year either, so who knows?”