Riley Green has been busy setting the country music charts on fire this past year, first with the amorous Ella Langley duet “You Look Like You Love Me” and then with the steamy solo hit “Worst Way.” However, before he was selling out arenas, Green was working in construction framing houses and playing the same gig every week at a Mexican restaurant in his hometown of Jacksonville, Alabama. During a recent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, the “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” hitmaker recalled an early gig that marked a turning point in his career — after he nearly skipped it.
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Riley Green Almost Turned Down This Gig
Before he was a country music sensation, Riley Green played quarterback for the Jacksonville State University Gamecocks. With his football days behind him and his music career seemingly nothing more than a pipe dream, the former Division 1 athlete went to work framing houses.
When he was about 25 years old, Green’s phone rang. On the other end was a man who worked for Iron City, a Birmingham music venue that held 1,300 people.
“And I remember going and watching Chris Stapleton play there, and it was, like, empty,” Green recalled. “This is before he really blew up. And I was like, “Man, there’s no way, like nobody will be there. It’ll be empty.”
However, the man wouldn’t take no for an answer. “He said, ‘Man, I keep hearing your name. Come down here and play it,’” the country singer said.
So he did. And much to his shock, not a single of those 1,300 seats was empty when he took the stage.
“I had no clue anybody knew how I was in Birmingham. It was an hour from where I grew up,” Green said. “And so I was like, “Oh, well, like, there’s something going on here.”
Ella Langley Postpones Multiple Shows
Riley Green is currently crossing the country on his Damn Country Music Tour, and he’s bringing some friends along — notably Ella Langley, his duet partner on “You Look Like You Love Me” and “Don’t Mind If I Do.”
Unfortunately, Langley recently announced she is stepping back from touring during the month of August to better focus on her health — “mind, body and heart.”
“I want to be fully present for all the moments ahead, and I know I can’t do that without first taking care of myself,” the five-time ACM Award winner wrote on social media.
Featured image by John Shearer/Getty Images for CMA
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