August 2026 Digital Cover Story: Riley Green Affirms ‘That’s Just Me’ on New Album: “There’s A Lot of Truth in the Songs”

Riley Green has long lived by a particular motto. “I always say that I would try anything I could to see if there was something I was good at,” he shares with American Songwriter. 

The Alabama-born-and-bred singer was instilled with a love of country music through his grandfather, Buford Green. He recalls fond memories of how the two would play his grandfather’s old Epiphone guitar while listening to Merle Haggard, Roy Acuff, and George Jones. Grandpa Buford was also a wordsmith, with Green describing him as a poet who was “really good with words.” After playing three sports in high school, trying to find one he was good at, Green had a four-year football career that led to him becoming the quarterback at Jacksonville State University. Yet he always kept his eye on his music dream. 

Songwriting started off as a hobby for Green, who would make up funny songs about his friends and bring his guitar on the bus when traveling to away games for the baseball team, writing songs along the way.

When he left Jacksonville State University in 2009, Green worked in construction while songwriting gradually grew from being a hobby to a necessity. After working all day framing houses with his father and grandfather, Green cut his teeth playing local gigs around town.

“I learned how to write by playing shows and trying stuff out. I didn’t write by myself because I wanted to; I just didn’t know anybody else that wrote songs. So I wrote because I got tired of playing the same cover songs at every show,” he says of the “trial and error” process of playing live. Something clicked one night when a man sitting at the bar set his beer down and immediately looked up at Green after he sang a particular line.

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“I figured out that if I could write a song, that’s how I could separate myself,” he says. “I don’t know that I’ve written a song the same way twice. There’s something really simple about how I naturally say things in a way that’s really relatable and easy to follow.”

After several years of playing in bars and building a name for himself in Alabama, Green got signed to Big Machine Label Group in 2018 and scored his first No. 1 hit with his debut single, “There Was This Girl,” setting off a string of chart-topping hits, including a pair with Ella Langley: the CMA and ACM Award-decorated duet “You Look Like You Love Me” and the title track of Green’s 2024 album, Don’t Mind If I Do. He achieved his seventh No. 1 hit in June 2026 with “Change my Mind.”

While he admits it was “cool” when he first started collecting No. 1 hits, the singer says the fans and their passion for the music outweigh the accolades, citing “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” and “Jesus Saves” as two songs that weren’t hits, yet fans show up to his shows specifically to hear them.

“It’s financially beneficial to have a number one song as a songwriter. But I love when people connect to a lyric and it means something to them,” he says, adding that he doesn’t use AI in his songwriting process. “I struggle to think that there’s a machine that’s going to make you feel emotion like something you’ve been through does. My favorite songs have real emotional meaning and I think that’s where the storytelling of country music comes from.”  

Versatility is important to Green’s artistry, something that’s reflected in his 2026 album, That’s Just Me, out on September 18. Green has long been open to all genres of music, growing up in the era of burned CDs where he’d put Tim McGraw and Tupac on the same playlist.

“Something I’m always going to make my goal is to have a lot of different types of songs stylistically on a record,” he says, stating that Don’t Mind If I Do helped set him up for the new album. “I think this one’s got a lot of that.”

He proves the point by opening the album with the lovelorn ballad, “My Way,” that he performed when making his acting debut in an episode of the CBS series Marshals, playing the character of Garrett, a former Navy SEAL suffering from PTSD. “I love the simplicity of that song,” he reflects on the solo-penned track that had him envisioning an elderly couple looking back fondly on their lives.

“It’s one of those songs that makes me picture everything that it’s talking about.” “My Way” is followed by the title track that’s inspired by the little details of his hometown, including E.L. Green Store, run by a 94-year-old man who doesn’t charge tax and changes his prices daily.

“My granddaddies used to go out there and would play dominoes,” he says. “I heard so many one-liners there. What better way to paint the whole picture of an album than saying,  ‘that’s just me,’ because I am trying to push my comfort zone to try new things musically, but I also want to make sure I write songs from the place where I get a lot of my inspiration, which is my farm in Alabama.”

The middle of the album is packed with upbeat, beach-ready songs like “Bartender In Destin” (“where I grew up, everybody had a bartender that we had a crush on spring break trips”),  “Beach Happy,” and the album’s lead single, “Think As You Drunk,” which features a sample of the late Toby Keith’s “As Good as I Once Was.”

Green had the title of the track in his head for a while and thought it was akin to something Keith would sing. After he wrote it, he got the blessing from Keith’s family to use a sample of “Once Was” on his track.

“I’ve heard everybody make that joke, ‘I’m not as think as you drunk I am,’ and I always loved fun, comedic country songs growing up,” Green says. The album also features appearances by Alabama frontman Randy Owen on “Lookout Mountain” and Ronnie Dunn of Brooks & Dunn on “Pave All Them Red Dirt Roads.” Green admits he got “chill bumps” hearing their voices on his album. “I love the imagery in that song,” Green says of “Lookout Mountain,” adding that he’s known Owen for many years and that “he’s always been a big champion of me and tries to help me out any way he can.”

That’s Just Me closes with “Ten Pairs of Boots,” one of the few tracks Green didn’t pen and contains lyrics that may leave fans surprised. “There’s a lot of truth in the songs,” Green shares. “If it’s not about something that actually happened to me, it’s about something that’s happened in my life. I think that fans of country music always want to believe a lyric’s true, so I try to make it as real as I can.” 

Following the release of That’s Just Me, Green will make his coaching debut on season 30 of The Voice. When producers of the hit TV show saw his benefit show at the Grammy Museum in LA, followed by a charming interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the country superstar won the gig.

“When those things came together, it made me think that was something that was meant to be,” he says of why he accepted the role. “It’s a great career stepping stone for me to get in front of a new audience.” He prefaces that those who are brave enough to audition with a “classic country song” are more likely to get him to turn his chair. But he has specific criteria he’s looking for: “A voice that is believable with lyrics. If somebody can make me believe what they’re singing about, that always draws me in,” he affirms. 

In between his stint on The Voice, the hit singer will end the year traveling the country on his 2026 Cowboy As It Gets Tour. While his life is a whirlwind, Green is grateful for the opportunities to share his gifts. “I was really fortunate that my success was very gradual in a small town. [Fame] is definitely something that takes getting used to. It’s a wild ride when you get to that place,” he professes. “The opportunities I’m getting with The Voice, I know it’s only going to take it to another place. I hope that I can find some time to slow down and appreciate it.” 

Photos by David Higgs