Riley Green obviously never expected to make it this far in country music.

First, he started out playing local bars for fun and helping build houses to keep the power on. Then he won the CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year with Ella Langley. I still don’t really know what that award means, what the hell is a ‘Musical Event’ if it’s not like a concert or something. Regardless, he’s a big winner and they can’t take that away from him. But it’s a far cry from what he thought he’d do.

Recently, Riley Green appeared on an episode of the God’s Country podcast for an interview. There, he combs over his long journey to get to this point. Moreover, he candidly admits he didn’t think he would make it this far. “I never had any visions of major success. Like sign a record deal…no…

I played three sports in school and played a little football in college,” Riley explains. “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.”

Riley Green Thinks He Would Still Be Building Houses Without His Country Success

Well why didn’t Riley have the confidence in himself to believe he was going to make it in country? Frankly, he would usually keep things simple and stick with his usual covers. Additionally, he didn’t have any faith in his songwriting capabilities.

Consequently, he would stick in his little bubble until he finally found the courage. “”I didn’t write because I thought I was good at writing songs. I got tired of playing the same covers all the time, so I tried to write some stuff that people might think is funny or whatever,” Riley says.

Riley Green Reveals The Best Piece of Advice He Got From His Grandfather

Riley Green seems like he has a good head on his shoulders. He’s not letting the ‘ladies man’ label go to his head, even politely denying all of the various dating rumors with himself and Ella Langley or Megan Moroney. Moreover, he seems selfless with his time and money, like when he raised $18k in hurricane and fire relief. It’s this kind of attitude that reflects well on Riley’s music as well. It makes Green come across as an authentic, down-to-earth guy.

This doesn’t prove to be true without a good family unit around him. Family has been the name of the game for Riley, even inspiring his music in a direct sense too. In terms of his work ethic though, that can be traced back to Grandpa Green. It’s his old pa that’s given the country crooner the advice that he applies everyday in the industry.

Riley Green Reveals The Best Advice His Grandfather Has Given Him

Recently, Green sat down with the folks at Southern Living for their Biscuits & Jam podcast. There, he talks about some of his early days working in construction before sowing his roots in country. For a while, making music just didn’t seem like a feasible route for Riley to pursue. However, his early blue collar work directly reflects in how he approaches the music industry today. “I didn’t think I was going to have a career in country music,” he admits.

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,” Riley continues.

Then, Green recalls a strong bit of advice his granddaddy told him back in the day. It’s his sage wisdom that has survived throughout the generations and it’s omnipresent with Riley today. 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,” he explains.

“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,” Riley adds.