Learning from his Grandpa.
Riley Green’s background set him up to have the hungry work ethic needed to make it in the music industry. While some of you might know Riley Green before he took off musically for his short stint on Redneck Island, the CMT reality game show, but before that Green spent his time as a blue collar construction worker, playing gigs on the weekend.
In fact, Riley Green never thought he’d achieve significant success, and he was okay with that.
“I never had any visions of major success. Like sign a record deal…no…and I know there are people who always dreamed… I played three sports in school and played a little football in college; I assumed I was going to play a couple of shows on the weekend for $150 a night and build houses for the rest of my life. That’s just what I thought I was going to do.”
But once he broke through onto the music scene, Green was thankful for the work ethic his home framing job gave him, knowing he would be held accountable for his success. While he was grateful for understanding the importance of getting up for the day and getting things going, there was also a phrase that his grandfather once told him that has kept him grounded in his work ethic.
On a recent sit-down with Southern Living, Green shared this phrase with viewers of the Biscuits & Jam podcast. Host Sid Evans asked Green if his time in the construction business prepared him to work hard in the music business.
“No matter what career you’re in, how hard you work, you’re going to see a direct result of it from how far you get. You know, I have a lot of times where I’m worn pretty thin in this lifestyle, and management will call me like, ‘Hey, like got an opportunity to do this, got ten shows in a row, probably going to pass on it.’ I go well, do I need to go do it? And I think that comes from having to do some really tough work over the years.’
Green then says that because he’s able to live out a dream that he never thought he’d be able to do full-time, he’s implemented the words of the men he admired in his career.
“I didn’t think I was going to have a career in country music. I was fortunate I got to go, you know, play, and a lot of times they’d let me drink for free or give me a hundred bucks or something, and I enjoyed playing music. But I thought I was going to be framing houses for the rest of my life, so I had to grow up kind of quickly, and I think that work ethic was probably something that’s helped me a lot in my music career.
I remember my granddaddy Bufford always telling me a kid to ‘grab the heavy end.’ And I thought that was just one of those crazy old guy sayings. But what he meant was, be the guy that’ll work a little bit harder than everybody else. You know, I’ve always kind of had that mentality. I think that’s a generational thing. I think my dad and his brother, they kind of value themselves on how hard they could work. They valued themselves on how much they could accomplish in one day.”
Green recalls riding around with his dad as a kid, and him pointing out all of the work he’d done on their land and how many houses he had framed in “x” number of days. Because Riley Green grew up around men with this mentality, he felt that no matter what field he went into, he would have this mentality.
“Definitely, I think I could have applied to any career I ended up in.”
Riley Green does “grab the heavy end” constantly being on the road, writing new songs, and looking for ways to improve his sound. Riley Green is a lasting talent because of his work ethic; with each project he shares, his fan base grows.
His grandaddy Bufford has got to be proud of him.
Check out the whole interview while you’re here.
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