www.whiskeyriff.com
“It Was A Really Easy Song To Write” – Riley Green Says His Duet With Ella Langley, “Don’t Mind If I Do,” Was Supposed To Be A “Beer Drinking Song”
Riley Green’s duet with Ella Langley “Don’t Mind If I Do,” which was the title track to Riley’s 2024 third studio album, is on pace to go number one sometime in the very near future, and it’s actually a solo write by Riley.
I’m telling you, there’s just something about when he writes alone that works… another example that comes to mind is “Jesus Saves.” They’re just some of his best songs, and that is NOT easy to do, actually, and this is easily one of my favorite song Riley has put out in years. It’s slow, heartfelt, and full of heartbreak, a Riley Green specialty, but it was apparently intended to be an upbeat beer drinkin’ song at first.
Riley told Katie Neal during an interview on her Katie & Company radio show that he penned it while backstage at a show in Rogers, Arkansas:
“I was in the green room in Rogers, Arkansas, I played a show at the Walmart amphitheater. And there’s a Topgolf next door, and I had a bunch of buddies from Arkansas come to the show, and they were all going to Topgolf, and remember thinking, yeah I’ll send them all over there and then I can like have some quiet.
So I sent everybody to Topgolf, and I wrote the song in the green room. I remember my security guard kept busting in and checking on me, and I was like, ‘I’m fine.'”
He had a guitar lick that was a bit slower, and once he tried that out with this idea of “don’t mind if I do,” Riley says it was “really easy to write”:
“I had the idea for a while. I think it was gonna be like a fun, beer drinking song. Don’t mind if I do, like, I went out last night. And that was the way I pictured it. So I sat down with the song, and I had this little guitar lick I was doing, and I thought about, man, how cool would it be if it was like, don’t mind if I do to that call from that ex or whatever it is. And so I went down that road, and it was a really easy song to write.
And the first song I had written as a duet without a female involved in it. So that’s a little weird, you know, to write a females perspective on a chorus at the end but I thought that was cool.”
It’s impressive how well he wrote that last chorus, and I very much prefer this Riley and Ella duet to their award-winning viral hit, “You Look Like You Love Me.”
Of course, loving the song as much as I do now, I can’t imagine it being any different and it would seem crazy to think about it being any different now. I have no doubt it will be topping the country charts very soon, and I love it when truly great country songs get their flowers, so to speak.
“Don’t Mind If I Do”
Riley will head out on his 2026 Cowboy As It Gets 2026 tour in April.
Cowboy As It Gets 2026 Tour Dates:
April 16th, 2026 – Southaven, MS – Landers Center#~$
April 17th, 2026 – Louisville, KY – KFC Yum! Center#~$ *ON SALE 10/3
April 18th, 2026 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena#~$
May 7th, 2026 – Charlotte, NC – PNC Music Pavilion#~•
May 8th, 2026 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre#~•
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 interview with Neal:
The post “It Was A Really Easy Song To Write” – Riley Green Says His Duet With Ella Langley, “Don’t Mind If I Do,” Was Supposed To Be A “Beer Drinking Song” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
New Posts (Home)
ChatBox
Popular Posts 
Game Zone
Top PodCasts
