Riley Green Says He Knows He’s Not A Cowboy, But Wanted To Honor His Hard-Working Dad, & People Like Him, With “Cowboy As It Gets”

Not exactly a cowboy, and that’s okay.

This morning, Riley Green announced his 2026 Cowboy As It Gets Tour, which will kick off next year in April in Southaven, Mississippi and run through August ending in Grand Forks, North Dakota. He will headline both arenas and outdoor amphitheaters on this trek, and it’s a huge next step for the country star who has made his name by touring relentlessly along with putting out music that honors his country roots and love for the genre.

The tour announcement comes on the heels of his recently-released deluxe album Don’t Mind If I Do, which features six new songs, including the one this tour is named for, “Cowboy As It Gets,” a duet with Randy Houser.

The song was written by Riley along with Tucker Beathard and Randy Montana, it finds him reflecting on his relationship with his father, and how he always looked up to him for how hard he worked and everything he stood for. He might’ve not have been a real cowboy like what we see in the movies in the Wild West, but he had all of the qualities they personify in terms of their toughness, grit, and strength.

He didn’t rope and ride on the plains, but he’s still “as cowboy as it gets”:

“I used to think that he
Was the toughest SOB next to John Wayne
On his caterpillar seat
Steady turnin’ dirt damn near all day
His hands were all calloused up, leather-saddle tough
You could knock him down and he gets back up

And he ain’t from Texas
And he don’t rope and ride
But he’s wide-open reckless
Never runs from a fight
They don’t give out buckles or ribbons
For the kinda outlaw livin’ that he did
My old man ain’t from Texas
But I’d say he is just about as cowboy as it gets”

It’s a really neat concept for a song, and feels like an especially stark contrast considering what many of us already know about the Nashville music machine and how many “country artists” dress like cowboys for the sake of making a dollar. It’s disingenuous at best, but Riley has no problem admitting that he’s not a real cowboy, and doesn’t come from a family of real cowboys, and I really respect how he always owns exactly who he is and what he does. It just feels so rare to hear an artist admit that because it’s really not seen as “cool,” but I think it only makes Riley more endearing.

In interview with Billboard, he explained that there wasn’t a lot of “real cowboying” where he grew up in Jacksonville, Alabama, though he knew many people who were extremely tough and worked with their hands, which is, as the songs puts it, about as cowboy as it gets:

“I love the sentiment of that song, and it’s kind of a little bit of an anthemic theme to people that grew up similar to me. We didn’t have a lot of real cowboying going on where I was at. It was just people that I thought were tough or worked with their hands.

Those qualities kind of was what made someone a cowboy to me when I was a kid. That was before I wrote the song about my dad, so that’s a pretty good sentiment for a tour name.”

Amen to that, Riley.

So often in country music, cowboys, as well as western visuals and concepts, get conflated with the American South and a “southern lifestyle,” and they’re two very different things. That’s not to say there’s no crossover, but not every country artist is a cowboy. In fact, nearly all of them aren’t. And when it comes to actual cowboying… working a ranch, runnin’ cattle, you’ll find more of that in Texas and the Great Plains, the Midwest, and the even states like California, Idaho and Montana, before you’ll find it in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.

As Riley so eloquently put it in “Cowboy As It Gets,” that doesn’t mean you can’t be a cowboy at heart and embody all of the great qualities that they’re known for. And that’s a message I can get behind… plus, it doesn’t hurt seeing him in a cowboy hat, either…

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Turn it up:

“Cowboy As It Gets Lyrics”

Cowboy As It Gets 2026 Tour Dates:

April 16th, 2026 – Southaven, MS – Landers Center#~$

April 17th, 2026 – Louisville, KY – KFC Yum! Center#~$ *ON SALE 10/3

April 18th, 2026 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena#~$

May 7th, 2026 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion#~•

May 8th, 2026 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre#~•

June 18th, 2026 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center#~•

June 19th, 2026 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center#~•

June 20th, 2026 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell at Jones Beach Theater#~•

June 25th, 2026 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center#$*

June 26th, 2026 – Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake#$*

July 16th, 2026 – Green Bay, WI – Resch Center#~•

July 23rd, 2026 – Salt Lake City, UT – Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre#~•

August 6th, 2026 – Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater#/•

August 7th, 2026 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center#/•

August 8th, 2026 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live#/•

August 13th, 2026 – Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion#/•

August 14th, 2026 – Hartford, CT – The XFINITY Theatre#/•

August 15th, 2026 – Bangor, ME – Maine Savings Amphitheatre#/•

August 21st, 2026 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford#$*^

August 22nd, 2026 – Grand Forks, ND – Ralph Engelstad Arena#$*^

#Justin Moore

~Drake White

$Mackenzie Carpenter

•Hannah McFarland

*Adam Hood

/Zach John King

^Not A Live Nation ShowThe post Riley Green Says He Knows He’s Not A Cowboy, But Wanted To Honor His Hard-Working Dad, & People Like Him, With “Cowboy As It Gets” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.