Standing on a busy street in the heart of Sydney, Riley Green doesn't even get a second glance from most passersby; little do they know his voice has been heard over 100 million times in the last three months alone.
The 36-year-old country star loaned his husky vocals to Ella Langley's hit you look like you love me, which became a viral hit as soon as it dropped in July and has since been used in almost 800,000 TikTok videos.
Watch the music video above.
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Riley Green and Ella Langley in the music video for hit track 'you look like you love me'. (YouTube/VEVO)It's the kind of exposure millions of musicians dream of, but Green isn't an overnight success. In fact, he spent the better part of his life working towards this moment.
"It was really gradual for me," he tells 9honey Celebrity in a smooth southern drawl.
Dressed in cowboy boots, faded jeans and a trucker cap, Green looks like he'd be more at home on the set of Yellowstone than the swanky boardroom where we're chatting, but this is the life he fought for.
Born and raised in Alabama, USA, Green spent years strapping on a toolbelt and working in construction by day, then playing bars up and down the country's south-east states by night. Over the years, he built a modest local following.
"It was a strange thing. I'd be asked to take a picture with somebody while I'd be building a deck at their house,” he says bashfully, flashing a white-toothed smile.
Green had no clue what was coming when a stranger approached him at a Florida bar in 2014. (Instagram/Riley Green)So when a stranger approached Green at a Florida bar after an acoustic set in 2014, he assumed the guy just wanted a selfie. It couldn't have been further from the truth.
"He said he was a casting agent for a show on CMT [an American pay TV network], and he thought I'd be good for it. I figured it was just somebody that was drunk," Green says.
"I didn't think anything about it, but I gave him my number. Then somebody from CMT called me two weeks later."
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Before he knew it, Green was starring on Redneck Island — a country take on Survivor — despite some initial reservations.
"I've never watched a reality show and thought that the people on there look really smart," he laughs.
"They make everybody look so crazy. I was a little concerned about it, but I figured if they mentioned I played music, it probably wouldn't hurt."
"I figured if they mentioned I played music, it probably wouldn't hurt," Green said of his reality TV stint. (CMT/Redneck Island)Green appeared in two seasons of the show but admits it didn't do much for his music career, which didn't really take off until he landed a record deal with the Big Machine Label Group in 2018.
His first single There Was This Girl was a hit in the US, followed by surprise breakout ballad I Wish Grandpas Never Died in 2019. It was the last track he expected to blow up.
"I didn't write it with any goals of it being a big hit," Green says with a shrug.
"The slower ballad, tug-on-your-heartstrings type songs are not usually the easiest ones to become hits. But I think when they do, they stick around for a long time."
Not only did it peak at number 12 on the Billboard US Country charts and go Gold on the ARIA charts, it gave Green the push to write more personal, "story-telling" tracks that paved the way to international success.
In the last two years alone Green's released two studio albums, collaborated with country legends like Luke Combs, hit 10 million monthly Spotify listeners, and played in countries he'd only ever seen in the movies before — like Australia.
The success of I Wish Grandpas Never Died inspired Green to write more personal, "story-telling" tracks. (Instagram/Riley Green)This week, he appeared on Today to kick off his debut Aussie tour, which includes two sold out shows in Queensland and headlining Ridin' Hearts Festival in Sydney and Melbourne.
"It's nice to get out of here and really see it," Green says of Australia, gesturing loosely towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge out the boardroom windows.
He's desperate to visit the outback, see the sunburnt country and some of the creatures – and people – that call it home.
"I think by the time I leave, I'll have picked up on some of the little niche quirks that y'all have."
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It's thrilling to play to crowds more than 14,000km from his hometown in Alabama and though all the travel can be draining, Green's worked out an easy fix when the quiet country life starts calling his name.
"Every once in a while when I get tired of travelling, I go back and put my tool belt on and work in the Alabama heat for a few hours," he says, then smirks, "and it makes me want to go out and write more songs."
It's thrilling to play to crowds more than 14,000km from his hometown, but the travel can be draining. (Instagram/Riley Green)Songs like Damn Good Day to Leave, Jesus Saves and Worst Way from his latest record Don't Mind If I Do, all of which Australian fans are excited to see him perform live Down Under for the very first time.
Many are also keen to see him perform the time-honoured concert tradition of an onstage shoey, though Green isn't quite convinced yet.
"You'd need a few beers to fill my boot."
Riley Green's new album Don't Mind If I Do is out now, and you can catch him performing at Ridin' Hearts Festival this weekend.
English (US) ·