This song just doesn’t get old.
Riley Green stopped by the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast this week, where he talked about opening for Luke Combs on his current stadium tour and what it was like playing his first stadium show last weekend.
They kicked off the massive tour in Dallas, Texas at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, and it looked like a helluva show.
Riley told co-hosts Will Compton and Taylor Lewan that it was actually his first time playing a stadium, which was a sold-out show of 55,000 people:
“We did AT&T last week… it’s kinda overwhelming. You can’t comprehend that many people. There’s 55,000 people there, it’s kinda like, what’s the difference between 30,000 and 50,000?
But 5,000 people is more than I know. That’s a pretty good bunch. It’s just a big lookin’ room, you feel like you gotta do more than you can do, like to fill the whole stage up, you know? It’s cool, man.”
He added that it’s been incredible to watch Luke’s rise to superstardom, too, because it wasn’t all that long ago that they were playing the same venues and shows:
“You learn a lot on these tours when you go and open for somebody, like Luke Combs… it wasn’t that long ago me and Luke Combs played a lot of the same venues.
Kinda came up the same way, so you know, it’s cool to see somebody like that have that kinda of success, too.”
And he also said that the best part of that show was playing his song “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” for the huge crowd, because people “scream that song” back to him and it’s a really cool experience.
I feel like that’s probably even an understatement, but I digress…
“‘I Wish Grandpas Never Died’… doesn’t matter where you are, in a coffee shop, that song’s such a great song to play, because everybody knows it.
And they don’t sing that song back, people scream that song back. There’s 20 people a night I can see literally cryin’, you know? That’s just cool.
It’s cool to write something and people relate to it like that.”
Of course, the song is a fan-favorite, and was included on Riley’s debut studio album Different ‘Round Here back in 2019.
It was written by Riley for both of his late grandfathers, who are listed as co-writers on the song, and he shared a pretty damn incredible video of that moment from Dallas, with a stadium full of fans quite literally screaming every word with their phone flashlights in the air.
If this doesn’t bring the chills, I don’t know what to tell ya…
“First time playing this one in a stadium. Thank you Dallas Texas. See y’all tonight Indy! #countrymusic #dallascowboys #grandpas #weouthere”
This is everything I love about live music, and I cannot wait to see this show when Luke, Riley and the rest of the kickass crew roll through Charlotte this summer:
You can watch the full podcast episode here:
“I Wish Grandpas Never Died”
