Riley Green embracing the hate.
The 34-year-old singer-songwriter, and Alabama native, was opening up for Luke Combs at Nissan Stadium this past weekend, on back-to-back-nights with record-breaking crowds.
It’s not uncommon for Green to get his concert-goers singing along with his songs, especially in “Music City,” but one song in particular turned the 50,000 plus country music fans against him.
Most artists will slide the name of the city they are playing at into a song in the setlist, but luckily for Green, “Hell Of A Way To Go” already has the state of Tennessee built into it. Unluckily for Green, the lyrics mention a pretty touchy subject for fans of Tennessee football.
The lyrics of the chorus go like this:
“I’d be sittin’ on a lake like glass
Catchin’ Largemouth Bass
Just my boy and me
Or maybe on a fifty-yard line
Watchin’ Alabama whoop up on Tennessee…”
As you’ll see in the TikTok video below, that last line didn’t go over so well in Nashville, Tennessee.
Green has let it be known that he actually roots for Auburn and he only mentions Alabama football in the song because his grandfather used to watch them. But as he’s told us many times on the podcast, he’ll root for the state of Alabama over Tennessee any day. Even Muscadine Bloodline, fellow Alabama natives and Auburn fans, have told us they’ll root for Bama over any other team if the situation calls for it.
His song is about reminiscing on growing up with his dad and grandfather, but Nissan Stadium didn’t feel like showing any mercy, even if the song has sentimental value to Green.
The video is captioned:
“Tennessee fan boo Riley Green at sold out Nissan Stadium show in Nashville.”
@nashville_stacy With that smile we’ll forgive you Riley #rileygreen #rileygreenconcert #hellofawaytogo #nashville #nashvilletn #thingstodoinnashville #countryconcert ♬ original sound – country concert stacy
The “boo birds” were in full effect at Nissan Stadium.
The best part about the whole thing is that because the line about “Alabama whooping up on Tennessee” is in the chorus, Green had to go through the boos a total of three times, adding in a “beat the shit out of Tennessee” line in there for a little more edge.
The “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” singer had a good sense of humor about it though and welcomed the boos once he got around to the chorus for the last time.
He decided to confront the crowd and encouraged them to bring the house down with boos:
“What we’re gonna have to do, is when that line comes, y’all just boo me as loud as you can.”
@peterdilo23 @rileyduckman booed by 55k people in Nashville 😂 GO VOLS #nashville #rileygreen #govols #bama #fyp #countrymusic ♬ original sound – Peter DiLorenzo
Gotta love it.
As much as concert-goers love when the artist panders to the home crowd, these colors don’t run for Riley Green.
On the other hand, if you wanna hear Riley get cheered into the next county, listen to his performance of “I Wish Grandpas Never Died,” from that same night, when he changed the “Bud Light” line to “Coors Light.”
That crowd erupted…
If you want to listen to the whole song though, not to worry, because I’ve got it linked below:
