That’s one way to come up with a middle name. It’s no secret that for decades, artist from all sorts of genres, and even actors and other kinds of performers, have used stage names. Marilyn Monroe, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Eminem and so many others have used them as a tool to create some sort of persona, and it can really work. Even country artists do it… Including Riley Green  whose real name is actually Jonathan Riley Green. He joked in an interview with Katie of the Katie & Company radio show that he “J” is actually silent, but yes, that is his real name, though no one has ever actually called him that, including his parents: “Well, it’s actually ‘Jonathan.’ It’s a soft ‘J.’ Nobody’s ever called me Jonathan. I don’t know.” He went on to explain the funny, and very interesting story, of how his parents came up with the name Riley. He says that his great grandaddy, who he never knew, got dementia in his later years, and he started calling Riley’s dad, whose name is Kevon… Riley. I guess Riley’s parents liked the name, because when Riley was born, they decided to use that as his middle name. Family names are incredibly common especially in the South, my middle name is my grandma’s first name, so that part isn’t crazy at all… but I had to laugh at the fact that this was a sort of made up family name that his parents must’ve just liked? Or maybe it was some sort of tribute to Paul, who knows… either way, it clearly stuck, because Riley says no one has ever called him Jonathan, and he doesn’t even think he would turn around if he heard someone calling that name: “I know that I go the name Riley because my great grandaddy Paul, who I didn’t know, got little dementia, and he started calling my dad Riley. My dad’s name is Kevon. My parent’s were like, yep, we’re going to name our first son Riley. Nobody’s ever called me Jonathan, no. I don’t even think I would turn if I heard it.” I honestly didn’t know for a long time that it wasn’t actually his real first name, and I feel like there’s a reason it stuck from the beginning, because it’s hard to even think of him as being anything other than Riley. And in case you’ve had a hard time keeping up with everything he has going on right now, the Alabama native just recently announced a new album, That’s Just Me will be out everywhere this fall, on September 18th. In addition to being on the road for his Cowboy As It Gets Tour right now, Riley will be a judge on The Voice this fall, and he also recently appeared four a four-show stint on the TV series Marshals, so he’s got a lot going on. Oh yeah, and he also has an honorary doctorate degree now, which he joked in the interview is the most surprising thing he’s done in his career so far by a wide margin… “Think As You Drunk” Riley is currently on the road for his Cowboy As It Gets Tour. Cowboy As It Gets 2026 Tour Dates: 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 The full interview is available below. The post The Heartwarming Story Behind Riley Green’s Real Name first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Garth could make history with a sale. Over the years, we’ve seen some huge artists, ranging from the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Queen and more sell their music catalog for hundreds of millions to even billions of dollars. In the country music world, Zach Bryan made a major move last year when he sold the publishing rights for a staggering $350 million. Just four months later, Jason Aldean would sell his catalog to Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG). Here, the “She’s Country” singer netted a hefty $250 million, marking the largest catalog investment in the company’s history. Fresh off receiving an Artist of a Lifetime Award from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) due to his 10 Diamond-certified albums throughout his career, Garth Brooks is looking to make more history with the sale of his entire catalog. As reported by Wall Street Journal today, Brooks is now considering selling his publishing rights, which would encompass both his songwriting and recorded music, for something in the ballpark of $2 billion (yes, billion with ‘B’). Of course, this would include Diamond-certified albums such as No Fences, Ropin’ the Wind, Sevens, The Chase, Garth Brooks and a plethora of live albums. Additionally, it would encompass career-defining hits such as “Friends in Low Places,” “The Dance” “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” “The Thunder Rolls,” “Unanswered Prayers” and many more #1 hits. If the deal ever comes to fruition, specifically in the $2 billion range, Brooks would break the record for the most expensive music catalog in history. Back in 2024, Queen made history by selling their catalog for a staggering $1.27 billion. Before that, Michael Jackson held the record when the Jackson estate netted $750 million for 50% stake in his catalog. As of now, it is unknown just who the potential buyers of the “Friends in Low Places” singer’s catalog may be. With that being said, however, if the deal is ever met, it could signal Brooks’ music finally being available on major streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. Famously, Brooks has refused to license his music to Spotify or Apple Music, which combined make up around 50% of streaming users. He even briefly created his own streaming platform called GhostTunes back in 2014, but unsurprisingly, it didn’t last long. Instead, if you want to hear “The Dance” or “The Beaches of Cheyenne,” you have to stream them on Amazon Music, which ranks fourth globally among streaming platforms with only about 11% market share (and many of those users only have Amazon Music because you get it automatically when you sign up for Amazon Prime). Garth has explained his resistance to streaming in the past by claiming that he was taking a stand for songwriters, who get only a fraction of the royalties for streams that they do for physical sales like vinyl or CDs: “I stick up for the songwriters because I’m freakin’ one of them. Everything I do for the songwriters, I do for myself. I’m the most selfish guy you’ve ever met, okay? But if we don’t take care of these songwriters, what do you guys have to play? … And I hope that songwriters want to get a Garth Brooks cut. One, because I hope that they think that it would be cool. But two, right behind it closely, I hope it’s because they know that if you’re a Garth Brooks songwriter, you’re going to get paid.” With that being said, if he ever sells his music, it seems all but guaranteed that the music will be released to streaming services worldwide, simply in an attempt to make the most out of the investment. Obviously, only time will tell if this will ever come to fruition, both the reported $2 billion deal or his music ending up on streaming. With that being said, however, this could signal a major shift in Brooks’ legacy with a younger generation due to streaming’s domination over the past decade.The post Garth Brooks Is Reportedly Trying To Sell His Entire Music Catalog For A Record-Setting $2 BILLION first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

It’s one of the hottest tickets this summer. Megan Moroney kicked off her extensive Cloud 9 tour this past weekend, and it looked like a heck of a show. Of course, there was tons of pink, blink and rhinestones, and the girl knows how to put on a show, that’s for sure. She shared a recap video of all of the fun moments, and when she got off stage, her parents were waiting for her backstage, and it was a very sweet, emotional moment with her dad in particular, though from what I can tell in the video, her mom was shedding some tears, too. View this post on Instagram The looks were just incredible, though I never had any doubts about that… View this post on Instagram The fluffy pink clouds were just adorable, and Megan always does such a great job tailoring every aspect of her shows and aesthetic to the album cycle she’s in: View this post on Instagram Of course, fans were anxious to see how it would all play out, and most importantly, what songs would make the cut. We knew there would be tons of songs from her most recent album Cloud 9, but when she told everyone in an interview before the tour started that fan-favorite song “Hair Salon” didn’t make the final set list, I think some fans were a little worried about some of their other favorites being played. Well, as of this past weekend, we officially have the 23-song setlist, which of course includes hits like “Tennessee Orange” and “I’m Not Pretty,” as well as an acoustic surprise slot that will feature various songs from her catalog, and on night one, it was actually “Hair Salon,” and while one or two other cities might get to hear that one too, I think the fans at the first show should consider themselves lucky they got to hear it. She also played her current radio single “Medicine,” one of my own personal favorites, as well as “Stupid,” “Who Hurt You?” “Tennessee Orange” and she closed it out with another one of my favorites, “Am I Okay?”. The following list is the running order from the first weekend in Columbus, Ohio, and in Indianapolis, Indiana, which only had one minor difference. In Ohio, the surprise acoustic song was “Hair Salon” and in Indy, it was “Break It Right Back.” I’m sure she’ll change it up some for each show, but based on the elaborate stage setup for each song, this is probably going to remain pretty consistent for the whole tour, so if you’ll be seeing her somewhere this year, this is what you can likely expect: Cloud 9 Tour Set List: Act I “Stupid” “Medicine” “Bless Your Heart” “Convincing” “I’m Not Pretty” “Change of Heart” “No Caller ID” “Wonder” “Table for Two” “Who Hurt You” Act II “Lions, Tigers & Bears” “Waiting on the Rain” “Wedding Dress” “Bells & Whistles” “Cloud 9” Act III “Hair Salon”/ “Break It Right Back (Acoustic/Surprise Song) “Tennessee Orange” “Beautiful Things” Act IV “Wish I Didn’t” “Traitor” “Am I Okay?” “Sorry… I Meant Tonight” Encore “6 Months Later” And if you’re wanting to see her now too and haven’t gotten tickets yet, she’ll pretty much be everywhere this year: Cloud 9 Tour Dates: JUNE 2 | Chicago, IL – United Center 3 | Chicago, IL – United Center – NEW 5 | Baltimore, MD – CFG Bank Arena 6 | Greensboro, NC – First Horizon Coliseum 8 | Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena 9 | Atlanta, GA – State Farm Arena – NEW 12 | Louisville, KY – KFC Yum! Center 13 | St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center 16 | Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena 18 | Milwaukee, WI – Summerfest 19 | Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena 20 | Toronto, ON – Scotiabank Arena JULY 6 | Boston, MA – TD Garden – NEW 7 | Boston, MA – TD Garden 9 | Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center 10 | Newark, NJ – Prudential Center 11 | Philadelphia, PA – Xfinity Mobile Arena 14 | Charlotte, NC – Spectrum Center 16 | Orlando, FL – Kia Center 17 | Tampa, FL – Benchmark International Arena 18 | Sunrise, FL – Amerant Bank Arena 24 | Monticello, IA – Great Jones County Fair 25 | Minneapolis, MN – Target Center 26 | Lincoln, NE – Pinnacle Bank Arena 28 | Denver, CO – Ball Arena AUGUST 1 | Portland, OR – Moda Center 2 | Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena 5 | Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center 7 | Los Angeles, CA – Crypto.com Arena 8 | Los Angeles, CA – Crypto.com Arena – NEW 11 | Glendale, AZ – Desert Diamond Arena 14 | Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center 15 | Tulsa, OK – BOK Center 16 | Kansas City, MO – T-Mobile Center 18 | Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena 21 | Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena 22 | Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena – NEW SEPTEMBER 13 | Oslo, NO – Sentrum Scene 15 | Stockholm, SE – Annexet 18 | Cologne, DE – Carlswerk Victoria 19 | Tilburg, NL – 013 Poppodium 21 | Paris, FR – Le Trianon 23 | London, UK – Eventim Apollo 26 | Manchester, UK – O2 Apollo 27 | Glasgow, UK – O2 Academy 28 | Glasgow, UK – O2 Academy – NEW OCTOBER 1 | Belfast, UK – SSE ArenaThe post Cloud 9 Tour Setlist: Every Single Song From The Opening Weekend Of Megan Moroney’s 2026 Tour first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

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