Riley Green is becoming one of the most successful artists in country music right now. The Alabama native has a Top 25 hit with “Don’t Mind If I Do,” his duet with Ella Langley, which follows his recent chart-topping single with “Worst Way.” Still, for Green, success for him has nothing to do with radio hits or amassing a collection of trophies.
“It’s not about awards or No. 1s,” Green tells CMT. “It’s just, ‘Hey man, you’re doing good. You’re making me proud,’ back home.’ It’s always nice to go back there and get on the tractor, and hang out with Pops. See what kind of projects we can come up with. Seeing my sister’s kids on the farm. I think that’s what’s kept me sane, and also what’s kept my songwriting coming from a place that’s real.”
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The Story Behind Riley Green’s “Don’t Mind If Do” Duet With Ella Langley
“Don’t Mind If I Do” follows Green and Langley’s “You Look Like You Love Me” duet, which was also a No. 1 single. Green reveals he was not at all trying to continue their success with “Don’t Mind If I Do.” In fact, Green now says he never intended for Langley to even be on the song at all.
“I didn’t plan on her being on that song,” Green says on Apple Music Country‘s Kelleigh Bannen. “I wrote it as a duet, but I had her come by the studio to put a female vocal on it just to hear it so I could potentially pitch it around, and she just crushed it. It sounded so great. We are from very similar areas in Alabama, and I think we grew up listening to the same kind of music. So maybe that’s why our voices go so well together, and we’ve got the same kind of twang. Even having those two duets wasn’t a planned thing. It just kind of happened. I’m happy for her success, and it’s fun having her on the road to do those two songs and have those two hits with her.”
Green vividly recalls the day he asked Langley to come sing on “Don’t Mind If I Do” with him, unaware that he had already found his duet partner.
“I think I got her to come in the day I wrote it, and just kinda hum to see what key I needed to write it in, ’cause I wrote it as a duet,” Green tells his record label. “And when I was in the studio recording it, I just called her to come by to put a vocal on it so I could play it for whoever I was gonna pitch it to, as far as the female. And she just crushed it. I remember sitting there, and she was like in a sweatsuit. She came by the house and sang it, and it was just, I couldn’t imagine anybody doing it better than she did.
“So, it was cool for her to be on the song,” he adds. “Also having her out with all the success on the other song, and also lyrically it kind of feels like the song after ‘You Look Like You Love Me.’ So it’s kind of cool to have that accidentally work out.”
Green just released a five-song acoustic Midtown Sessions EP, which includes a cover of Tim McGraw‘s “Cowboy in Me.” Find all of Green’s music and upcoming shows at RileyGreenMusic.com.
Photo Credit: CMA