Riley Green confesses he borrowed a 'Wrecking Ball' to build part of his debut, 'Different 'Round Here'

Big Machine As of today, things are Different 'Round Here for Riley Green, as the Alabama native's debut album comes out.

The "There Was This Girl" hitmaker had one thing in mind when making his first full album for Big Machine: the folks who come to see him at his shows.

"I feel like I'm always thinking about the audience, especially when picking songs and writing songs," Riley explains. "If you start looking at what's gonna work on radio, it's really easy to start doing what somebody else is doing. And things start to sound the same like that."

"So for me songwriting-wise especially, it's always 'What songs go over well live?'" he continues. "And fortunately I get to play enough shows that I could see what little lines work and what songs do what in a set."

Riley reveals at least one track on his album was inspired by The Chief.

"For this record, I used kind of the idea of 'What covers did I do during shows that did well?'" he says. "Eric Church/'Wrecking Ball' was one of the kind of sexier songs that I used to do and people really loved it..."

"So I thought, 'Man, I need to write a song that's got that kind of feel to it.' That's where 'Hard to Leave' came from."

In the end, Riley believes every song on Different 'Round Here is ready for the stage.

"I wanted to make a record that was gonna be something I could play a whole show of, and it would cover all the spots I needed covered," he adds. "And beyond that, it's just been playing songs and seeing which one fans like."

Different 'Round Here features Riley's latest hit, "I Wish Grandpas Never Died."

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