Riley Green’s poignant new single, “I Wish Grandpas Never Died,” is resonating with fans everywhere and his recently-released music video proves how much fans are connecting to the song’s emotional lyrics.
The live performance clip was shot in Phenix City, Alabama and showcases Green’s home state crowd belting out the lyrics as he delivers a stunning acoustic performance of the song.
At one point in the clip, the audience takes over for a full-on sing-along. As the camera pans across the crowd, thousands of fans are seen swaying and waving their arms in the air as they belt out the chorus: “I wish even cars had truck beds / Every road was named Copperhead/ And coolers never run out of cold Bud Light / I wish high school home teams never lost / And backroad-drinking kids never got caught / I wish the price of gas was low and cotton was high / I wish honky-tonks didn’t have no closing time / And I wish grandpas never died.”
Written by Green with posthumous writing credits given to his two grandfathers, Lendon Bonds and Buford Green, “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” almost didn’t make its way onto Green’s debut album, Different ‘Round Here. He recently revealed that it was the last song he wrote for the album and that it was added due to the demand of his fans.
“We actually had the album done,” he shared during an interview with his record label. “I had no plans of putting it on this record. I wrote the song and I played it at a show. Somebody videoed it with their iPhone and put it on YouTube and it got a million something views. And I started playing it at shows and people were singing it and people were requesting it. Every picture I posted on Instagram there was 10 people going, ‘When are you going to release Grandpa’s Never Died?’”
“So,” he continued, “I went to the label and said, ‘Look at this.’ And to their credit, they jumped on board with it. We went and cut the song, added it to the record and it very possibly could be one of the biggest tracks on the record. So hats off to the fans for running to this song and showing that they were passionate about it.”
The live version of “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” is available to stream and download now.
