Riley Green Gets Candid About His Deep Connection To The Late Merle Haggard

Riley Green values a good glass of bourbon, not just for the taste or its warmth, but for the way it fosters a sense of community. Although he’s likely shared a drink with countless people over the years in various settings, he reveals if he could pour one out with any country legend, it’d would be Merle Haggard.

While speaking with Men’s Journal, he reflected on his latest venture as the face of the new whiskey brand, Duck Club Bourbon and revealed why, if he could go back in time, he would jump at the opportunity to sit down with the late country music icon. The two of them never got to meet, but Green imagines that if they did it, it would feel nostalgic and almost like they’ve known each other for forever.

Green described his deep connection to Haggard’s music, noting how some of his earliest memories involve both Haggard and his beloved grandfather, Buford, who passed away in 2010. He explained that much like a glass of bourbon, those memories have a way of capturing a moment and bringing people together, even the ones who are no longer around.

“Well, you know, this is a completely true story. First song I ever sang was ‘Mama Tried.’ My granddaddy Buford loved Merle Haggard. And, you know, my granddaddy Lennon was a hunter, the outdoorsman, never missed a ball game with any of his grandkids. And my granddaddy Buford was more artsy, wrote poems, really a witty guy, really good with words. And he had an old Epiphone guitar and we’d sit around and kind of play,” Green recalled.

The Alabama native went on to say when Haggard’s death was announced, it hit him so hard that it felt almost as if his own grandaddy had passed away for the second time.

“That was the only celebrity, somebody I’ve never met that I really had some type of emotional connection to, and that’s got to be through the stories and songs,” he continued. “Everything that he sang made me feel something and certainly takes me back to a place in my life. It’s got a nostalgia to it. A really cool thing is that bourbon can certainly have that too, you know?”

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The brand that Riley Green has partnered with created this Borbon in honor of the “Don’t Mind If I Do” singer’s passion for the great outdoors. Duck Club Bourbon is available at 92 proof with a suggested retail price of $30, and a 110-proof version, Duck Club Bourbon High Brass, priced at $40.

This appears to be a natural fit for Green, who enjoys a good glass of bourbon, whether he’s preparing to hit the stage, sitting in a duck blind, or hanging out around a campfire. He also opens up about the unique connection he sees between country music and bourbon and how the two have impacted his life.

When he thinks about what country music means to him, Green says he pictures sitting on a porch at sunset with his dad, grandpa, and friends, swapping stories and sharing laughs, likely with a drink nearby.

“Country music to me is storytelling. I mean, melodically, it goes in a lot of different directions and there’s some more poppy stuff and more traditional, but the storytelling is at the root of country music to me. What makes a song country is to have a story. And I think the best stories are told over a glass of bourbon on a porch somewhere.

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To ensure he keeps that feeling alive during his shows, the country star says he will have to add Duck Club to the list of dressing room requests on his rider.

“My rider has always been pretty simple,” he noted. “It’s like a case of water and some protein drinks and some granola bars, but now I’m going to have to have Duck Club on there. We’ll have a nice setup and we have a little bar in the backstage called the Duck Blind and we’ll make sure it’s stocked up with it. So I definitely won’t be going anywhere for a show without it there with me.”

Riley Green is gearing up to hit the road very soon, with upcoming dates on his Cowboy As it Gets Tour. The trek launches March 16 with stops across Australia and then returns to the U.S. in April for more dates across the country through August.

Fans can also find him appearing as a guest star in Season 1 of the new Yellowstone spinoff series, MARSHALS, premiering Sunday, March 1 (8:00–9:00 PM ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network and streaming on Paramount+.