I’d say it all worked out in the long run…
During a recent interview on SiriusXM, Riley Green was asked about his favorite memory playing college football, as he was the starting QB at Jacksonville State University from 2007 to 2009 after walking on.
Obviously, he ultimately chose music over football, and says his grandaddy Lyndon was a huge reason as to why he pursued music.
Specifically, Riley remembered a game his grandaddy was at where he took a big hit from a defensive end, which caused him to do “three cartwheels,” which also led his grandpa to “give somebody hell” on the other end of the field for I guess not throwing a flag on the play due to how hard Riley was hit.
Riley went on to say that, after coming to that one game, his grandpa encouraged him to “start messin’ around with that guitar a little more,” which is southern for “This whole football thing is probably not going to work out and you should be exploring other options,” in case you need a translation.
And while I’m sure he partially meant that as a joke, Riley says that advice lead him in the direction of taking his music career seriously, adding that he didn’t think he “was gonna make it to the Dallas Cowboys” as QB1:
“It’s funny, it was a J day game that freshman year and my grandaddy Buford was not a big sports guy, but my other grandaddy was and he didn’t make it to a lot of games.
And he came to one J day and I got one of those ugly hits from behind and did me about three cartwheels, one of those big defensive ends. And I could just see him down at the other end of the field and he was just giving somebody hell down there, you know.
But had a big talk with him, and he said, ‘Man, I don’t know if… you need to start messin’ around with that guitar a little more and see if you can figure something out.’
So maybe that was… I don’t think I was gonna make it to the Dallas Cowboys so I think I chose the right career path, but he definitely lead me in that direction.”
His grandaddy was clearly right, though (they usually are, aren’t they?), and even inspired Riley’s fan-favorite hit “I Wish Grandpa’s Never Died.”
You can watch Riley’s interview here:
@rileyduckman Question: What was your favorite memory playing college football? #countrymusic #rileygreen #siriusxm #sports ♬ original sound – Riley Green
Riley also said in a previous interview that he’d dreamed of playing college football for his hometown team in Jacksonville, Alabama, and it was there he realized that he had another, deeper passion for country music:
“As a kid, I wanted to be Quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, you know what I mean?
My dream was complete by coming up here [Jacksonville, Alabama] to play football, and it was around the time I started going out and playing music in bars and kind of realizing I had another passion that wasn’t athletics.
I got to kind of cut my teeth playing these college bars in Jacksonville when I probably should’ve been in bed, studying the playbook, or going to class, and I was studying the music thing.”
And I’m certainly no NFL scout, but kinda looks like he’s still got it to me…
@rileyduckman Red fifty three. #sports #qb1 #stickyfingers #espntop10 #countrymusic ♬ original sound – Riley Green
The Alabama native also announced recently that his sophomore album will (finally) be coming out in October, and he debuted a new song from the tracklist at Rock the South last weekend that was also inspired by one of his grandfathers called “My Last Rodeo”:
“I Wish Grandpa’s Never Died”
