Riley Green Got His Career Started By Playing With “A Bunch Of Older People” At A Makeshift Grand Ole Opry

We have the greatest generation to thank for the emergence of country music star Riley Green.

You always hear the phrase “respect your elders,” right? The least we can all do is treat the older demographic with appreciation, knowing that they paved the way for the rest of us. And if you call yourself a fan of Riley Green, you best believe you should hold the elders in high regard… because they very well have the support the country music singer needed to get his career started.

The “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” singer was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon when he got to talking about his earliest musical memories. Many of those revolved around his grandfather Buford, who he shared played a tremendous role in his interest and love for music:

“My grandaddy Buford just loved country music. My grandaddy Lendon was like the fisherman, hunter, came to every ball game (type). He just loved country music, and I wrote a song about him that I played at his funeral. It had a line in it that said, ‘He never could himself, but he taught me how to play.’ And that’s kind of how it was. He didn’t play, and I couldn’t. But he had this old Epiphone guitar and we’d sit around and mess around on it.”

So one could obviously gather that his grandparents were instrumental (music pun) in peaking his curiosity about music.

But his great-grandparents – or at least their house – was where Riley Green’s career really started to blossom. That’s because their old house was transformed into what the country star calls the “Golden Saw Music Hall,” and a very young Riley cut his teeth there, surrounded by a large population of older people that helped him grow into the man he is today:

“My great-grandparent’s house, we turned into a miniature Grand Ole Opry. We called it the Golden Saw Music Hall. It was me and a bunch of older people, and we’d meet up every Friday. I think (I was an old soul). My grandaddy loved Roy Acuff and George Jones and Merle Haggard and that was how I grew up. My first song I ever sang was ‘Mama Tried.’

I learned how to play by watching those old guys make chords. And the old ladies brought snacks, and I would get up and sing and I was really nervous because I never liked my voice. But they would cheer because I was a little kid. So I got this false confidence that I brought here today.”

If there was a moral to this story, it’d be to always look towards and listen to the older generation. They’re wise in years, and in the case of Riley Green, helped pave the way for him to become the popular country music artist that he is today. Green talks more about that supportive, elder-adjacent upbringing in the interview below… and he also embarrasses the Tonight Show host a bit by having a not-even-close duck call contest.

So at the very least, that’s worth checking out:

Oh, and while he was in the historic Studio 6B, Green also took some time to play a song off of the deluxe edition of Don’t Mind If I Do. Safe to say he won some people over with his interview and subsequent performance.

A few years back, during the height of the COVID lockdowns, Riley hosted a few episodes of a music series at that very same music space in Jacksonville, Alabama… The Golden Saw Music Hall. Featuring co-writers and collaborators like Erik Dylan, Channing Wilson, and Trent Tomlinson, as well as some fellow Alabama artists like Drake White and Muscadine Bloodline.

Check it out:

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