It sounds like Riley Green’s mom knows a thing or two about marketing.
In an interview with on the Country Heat Weekly podcast in promotion of his new album Ain’t My Last Rodeo, Riley stopped by to talk about the new music, having Luke Combs and Jelly Roll featured on the tracklist, the process in putting it all together, and much more.
But my favorite part came at the end when he first gave a great impression of Tracy Lawrence, who will be opening for him on his Ain’t My Last Rodeo tour, in addition to him talking about his mom and sister’s marketing prowess.
When asked if he was going to go buy a physical copy in the store upon release, he said he would “every time,” though he added that his mom still sells “bootleg CDs” of his back in his hometown of Jacksonville, Alabama.
He joked that when he signed his big record deal and people from his label came down to Alabama, they told Mama Green that she needed to stop making them that way because “it’s illegal.”
Though, that didn’t seem to stop her…
“My mom still sells bootleg CDs of mine, I think, back in Jacksonville so I’ll get one of hers. I probably shouldn’t be saying that… when I signed my record deal, she was still making my labels, mixed CDs and selling them.
The label came down and said, ‘You know, you can’t do that anymore, like, that’s illegal.’ She’s like, ‘Yeah, sure.'”
Mom’s are just the best, and I’m sure all of those years of her making those “bootleg CD’s” certainly contributed a lot to his ultimate success in country music.
And it sounds like his sister is in on it too:
“My sister’s sellin’ bootleg Riley Green merch, like yeah, ‘I made him.’
I’ll see people coming to my shows and I’m like, ‘Where did you get that shirt?’ They’re like, ‘Oh, your sister’s got ’em online…they’re cheaper than yours.”
And now I need to go find one of these somewhere online. Or if his mom or sister happen to read this, please reach out…
You can watch their conversation below, it’s pretty great and gives some great insight into Riley and his inspirations for this new music:
And yes, they also discussed how three out of twelve songs have the word “damn” in them, to which Riley joked that he thought about calling it My New Damn Album instead.
You can check out some of my early favorites below.
“Ain’t My Damn to Give”
“Damn Good Day To Leave”
“Workin’ On Me”
