Humble Country Star Riley Green Says Fame Is ‘Not Reality’

Published: December 31, 2025

By Michaela Gordoni

Popular country star Riley Green says fame is an illusion.

“I don’t have to remind myself too much [to stay humble],” he recently said on the “Like a Farmer” podcast. “Having my place back in Alabama is all I need. When I go back there…life just moves slower.”

“Keeping in mind that what we do for a living is not reality,” added Green, who won three CMA awards last month. “People chanting your name before you go on stage is not real life…going and doing late-night television, all that stuff, it’s cool, it’s cool to get to go do, but it’s building for a brand, which is me touring and being a country music artist.”

In “real life,” he’d rather be back on his Alabama farm.

It doesn’t matter “that I was on a late-night show the week before, I won three CMAs or whatever,” he said. “And that’s very humbling, when you go back and you remember that. It’s like, OK, yeah, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“I think if I would have had any type of success similar to this when I was in my early 20s, it’d have been ugly,” Green, 37, said. “I think you get a little bit mature and you kind of can step back from things a little easier as you get older. I was really fortunate that my success was really gradual.”

He realizes that people are craving the more laid-back lifestyle that country songs talk about.

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“I’ve seen that period of growth be over a long period of time, but it’s really happened quick in the last few years,” he said. “But, you know, I just think people are really loving the down-home country lifestyle that we grew up on.”

He says his favorite moment of 2025 was hunting a deer.

“Personally, it’s been a great year,” he explained, “but there’s a lot of things that you get to do that are cool and great moments, but they don’t live as long as…I can always go back to a hunt in my mind and there’s nothing else that matters. When that deer that you’re hunting walks out and you got a bow, and he’s 20 yards or closer, and you’re having to do everything right, that’s the biggest disconnect I have.”

For Christmas, Green enjoyed some peaceful time in Alabama with his family.

“Christmas has always been about keeping things simple for us…good food and spending time together,” he told Country Living.

“There’s just something about being back on the farm that resets me. It reminds me of where I came from,” he said. “No matter how busy things get, going back home keeps me grounded. It’s where I feel the most like myself.”

He has a passion to preserve the Alabama farmland.

“I know how fortunate I was to have this kind of property to run around on as a kid, even though it was just family land,” he explained. “I don’t want to see this place change. I mean, obviously, being in Nashville probably motivates me more than ever for that because there are five cranes running at all times, building another high rise.”

It’s clear Green’s most prized moments aren’t on the stage. It’s those quiet moments back home that remind him who he really is.

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