Riley Green is handling this whole thing like a pro, and he’s certainly not leaving Australia without a few battle scars, so to speak. Over the weekend, he had quite an eventful show while playing at Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, Australia.
While on a run down under playing several shows in Sydney and Melbourne as part of his Cowboy As It Gets Tour, and during a performance of “I Wish Grandpas Never Died,” some unruly fan decided it was a good idea to chuck their phone onstage, which ended up hitting Riley on the side of his face, and blood quickly started running down his neck.
Immediately, Riley stopped the show and had his crew turn the house lights up, and after quickly identifying the fan that threw it, Riley threw him out and told security to get “his fat a** out of here”:
“This one right here? Get his fat a** out of here. Go on.”
I’ve never really heard Riley talk like that, especially in front of a crowd of thousands of fans, but he was rightfully upset and the man was promptly escorted out by security:
The full video posted by a fan who attended the show gives more context, as you see Riley continue talking without even realizing he’s bleeding. A member of his crew walks up to him with a towel and starts wiping the blood of his neck, and Riley joked that he’s glad the fan didn’t throw an “iPhone 12” because “that would have really hurt.”
He also joked the Australian crowd could see “how tough he is” because he didn’t even know he was bleeding… and he also asked them to get their phones out and turn the flashlights on for the rest of the song, but asked them not to throw them at him:
“I’d like to take a moment while I’ve got everybody’s attention to thank each and every one of you for coming out tonight. Hang on, am I bleeding? Y’all see how tough I am? Thank god h didn’t have an iPhone 12, that would have really hurt.
I was gonna get y’all to sing this song one time, y’all want to try it? Do me a favor right here, get your phones out, and you can turn the flashlight on, just don’t throw it at me.”
You can see someone from his team come and wipe the blood off of his ear and neck, though all in all, Riley didn’t seem too phased by the whole ordeal:
Riley later shared a photo on Instagram of his ear with five stitches because of that phone:
“5 stitches later… sewed up.”
Honestly, he’s handled it all mostly with humor, but I think I’d be pretty upset if I were him because it sets such a bad precedent for artists and performers to have to deal with this kind of crap.
And during a conversation with Today Show Australia, when Riley was of course asked about the incident, he told hosts that he just wasn’t “quick enough,” adding that he’s been playing shows for over a decade and nothing like this has ever happened, so he definitely wasn’t going to “let one person ruin the night” for everyone else:
“I didn’t get my ear pierced, that was a cell phone at a show the other day. I wasn’t quick enough, I guess. I’ve played 100-plus shows a year for 12 to 15 years, and that’s the first thing like this that’s happened. So you can’t let one person kind of ruin the night for everybody.”
When asked if they got the person who did it, Riley says he think they got thrown out, and once again handled it with humor, saying it made him “look cool” because he had blood running down his neck during the rest of the show:
“I feel like they did. I think they got thrown out. And I looked cool, there was blood going down my face during the show.”
It’s impressive how nice he’s been about this whole thing, because it’s unbelievable to me that a “fan” would buy tickets to a show, especially in a country that doesn’t have country concerts all the time, and make the effort to go to the show, only to end up throwing anything at the artist they’re there for, let alone throwing something like a phone and actually causing an injury.
This is a great example of dangerous that can be, and Riley is the exception in terms of how most artists react to that kind of thing. It’s happened countless times to other artists regardless of which country they’re in or what genre they’re part of, and it has got to stop. I imagine had that happened here in America things might’ve gone differently for the offender in terms of the only punishment being that he got kicked out, but I have to admit… Riley did look pretty cool because of it:
The full interview is below.
Riley Green 2026 Tour Dates:
March 13th, 2026 – Melbourne, Australia – Margaret Court Arena^+=
March 14th, 2026 – Melbourne, Australia^+=
March 16th, 2026 – Sydney, Australia – The Hordern Pavilion^+=
March 17th, 2026 – Sydney, Australia – The Hordern Pavilion^+=
March 20th, 2026 – Ipswich, Australia – CMC Rocks QLD^+=
April 11th, 2026 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Tortuga Music Festival
April 16th, 2026 – Southaven, MS – Landers Center#~$
April 17th, 2026 – Louisville, KY – KFC Yum! Center#~$
April 18th, 2026 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena#~$
May 7th, 2026 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion#~•
May 8th, 2026 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre#~•
June 18th, 2026 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center#~•
June 19th, 2026 – Saratoga Springs, NY – Saratoga Performing Arts Center#~•
June 20th, 2026 – Wantagh, NY – Northwell at Jones Beach Theater#~•
June 25th, 2026 – Noblesville, IN – Ruoff Music Center#$*
June 26th, 2026 – Burgettstown, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake#$*
July 16th, 2026 – Green Bay, WI – Resch Center#~•
July 23rd, 2026 – Salt Lake City, UT – Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre#~•
August 6th, 2026 – Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater#/•
August 7th, 2026 – Cuyahoga Falls, OH – Blossom Music Center#/•
August 8th, 2026 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live#/•
August 13th, 2026 – Camden, NJ – Freedom Mortgage Pavilion#/•
August 14th, 2026 – Hartford, CT – The XFINITY Theatre#/•
August 15th, 2026 – Bangor, ME – Maine Savings Amphitheatre#/•
August 21st, 2026 – Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford#$*^
August 22nd, 2026 – Grand Forks, ND – Ralph Engelstad Arena#$*
#Justin Moore
~Drake White
$Mackenzie Carpenter
Hannah McFarland
*Adam Hood
/Zach John King
^Braxton Keith
+Jake Worthington
=Bella Mackenzie
