Riley Green’s Cereal Moment In Steamy ‘Worst Way’ Music Video Was 100% Real

When Riley Green first dropped the official music video for his latest No. 1 hit, “Worst Way” fans couldn’t stop talking about it. But it wasn’t just the incredibly steamy scenes that caused a buzz, it was also the hilarious breakfast moment that Green now reveals was partially inspired by his real life.

Towards the end of the video, after fans saw Green and the female lead tear through the house in a whirlwind of passion, the pair find themselves having a calmer moment in the kitchen. She is sitting on the countertop in nothing, but a red lingerie set and the country star’s jacket while he lounges in a bathrobe and backwards baseball cap, seductively eating a bowl of cereal.

According to Green, that scene wasn’t much of a stretch for him as he claims to be a big “cereal guy” in his real life.

“My friends make fun of me and say I eat like a kid ’cause I will eat cereal just constantly all day. I think probably Cinnamon Toast Crunch is the best cereal, but as an adult, I feel like I gotta eat something a little more healthy, so I go like a Honey Bunches of Oats,” he said honestly in a statement to his label.

The Alabama native went on to joke that he enjoyed his on-set snack so much that they kept having to refill the bowl while shooting.

“We had to reshoot it, so they wanted me to pretend to eat it, but I’ll probably eat four bowls of cereal in that sitting.”

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Toning Down The Spice Of The Video With Some Humor

In another interview with Audacy’s Katie Neal, Green revealed that his vision for this scene was inspired by one of the most iconic moments in the 1988 film Bull Durham. The original treatment that was pitched, he says, leaned heavily into a more serious take on the romantic storyline, and it made him blush just reading it Knowing he had to be the one to act in the video, Green says he wanted to dial back the spice levels and add a bit of humor.

“The first treatment they sent me, it made me turn red. I wanted to crawl under the table just reading it.”

He added, “I said, ‘there’s got to be something about this that’s a little funny, a little comedic relief.’”

Pulling Inspiration From Kevin Costner’s Character

This is where the idea for the cereal scene came into play.

“Bull Durham was one of my favorite Kevin Costner movies. Years ago I had a huge crush on Susan Sarandon and there’s a scene where they’re sitting in the kitchen, I think he’s smoking a joint, he’s got on her bathrobe and they’re eating cereal. And I was like, that’s the vibe I wanted. So the ‘throw in the wine and throw in the roses’ kind of cheesy looking at camera thing, it was like a Old Spice commercial and it ended up being a lot of fun. It’s not really comfortable shoot music video like that, but it ended up being a lot of fun.”

A Look Behind The Scenes

In addition to the romance and humor, the shoot also involved a fair amount of chaos, especially when it came to all the household destruction that occurred on the way to the bedroom. 

“I know we broke a picture of a dog. It was like a Carl kind of dog and we only had two of those. The glass was a certain kind of glass and then we had to bust through some ply sheet on a wall. So I think we only had two setups of that,” Green said, giving a behind-the-scenes look into the filming process. “Yeah, anytime you pulled the thing off of the table and salad lettuce goes everywhere, they had to pick all that back up and put in the bowl and do it again. So you wanted to get it right the first time.”

Green then admitted that nailing the cereal bowl toss into the sink on the first try was one of his proudest moments of the whole shoot.

“It flashed up and I just didn’t even look. It was awesome. I was really proud of that.”

“Worst Way” Lands Green His Fifth Career No. 1

“Worst Way” was just earned Riley Green his fifth career No. 1. It’s not just another milestone feet for the award-winning act, it’s also historic. This song marks only the second song solely written by the performing artist to reach the top of the Billboard Country Airplay chart since 2012, making Green just the sixth solo artist in two decades to do it. On top of all that, it also earned a RIAA double platinum certification today.

Like many of his other songs, Green says this one was written with his live show in mind. He opened up about wanting to create a highly talked about moment in his live sets and earn a reaction similar to the one Eric Church’s “Like A Wrecking Ball” received upon its 2015 release.

“I think about when I first started playing shows and playing covers, when I started writing just to replace those songs with originals. So I thought, man, I’ve always loved Eric Church’s ‘[Like A] Wrecking Ball’ and I’m ready to cover that. And that type of song, I thought, where could I write something that kind of replaces that in my set? And that was one of those things, I thought I’d like to have that kind of steamy moment in the show and it’s certainly done that.”

It’s safe to say that Riley Green far exceeded his goals with this tune as it has become a fan-favorite moment in his shows.