Riley Green: Behind the Scenes of His Billboard Cover Shoot

Not too long ago, Riley Green started registering at hotels under a pseudonym. His fame had simply reached the level that necessitated it — but the move hasn’t come without some hiccups. Take this past March, when he was on tour in Australia.

“I locked my key in my room. Luckily, I had clothes on,” he recounts. “I went downstairs and [the front desk clerk] said, ‘We need to see your ID.’ I said, ‘I don’t have it. It’s in my room and it’s not going to [match] what’s on the room.’ ” Green takes a beat before deadpanning: “So I sleep outside.”

He’s clearly kidding about the last part. But the story illustrates just how crazy Green’s life has become since his flirty duet with Ella Langley, “You Look Like You Love Me,” came out in June 2024, followed by his smoldering “Worst Way” (with a correspondingly steamy video) and then another Langley duet, “Don’t Mind If I Do.” All three reached No. 1 on Billboard ’s Country Airplay chart, and they transformed Green, voted People ’s Sexiest Country Star Alive in November 2025, from a highly successful artist best known for plain-spoken songs celebrating traditional values into a shooting star — now with a catalog that has earned 5.9 billion on-demand official streams in the United States, according to Luminate — and the internet’s country boyfriend.

“It was a perfect storm of him being completely on his A game with his writing, his artistry and his looks, and having this pop culture moment with Ella,” says his longtime friend Carly Pearce, whose own alluring duet with Green, “If I Don’t Leave, I’m Gonna Stay,” is out now. “People were wrapped up in ‘Are they together? Are they not?’ He was just ready.”

Read the full Riley Green cover story here.

_Originally reported by [Billboard](https://www.billboard.com/photos/riley-green-photos-billboard-cover-shoot-1236257529/)._