By Annie O’Neill EDITORIAL INTERN
Editor’s note: Outlaw Partners produces Wildlands and is the publisher of Explore Big Sky.
As the sun slipped behind Lone Mountain Friday night, fans filtered into the Big Sky Events Arena for Wildlands, buzzing for the headlining set from country star Riley Green. But before he ever stepped on stage, EBS got to know his fans more, and one question kept surfacing in the crowd: Are they here for the music, or the man?
Turns out, it’s complicated.
“Not too bad to look at”
A mother-daughter duo from Florida were among the first to weigh in. Daughter Ava Caracas held a handmade sign, and admitted that if Green ever looked her way, she wouldn’t have much to say. “I’d be speechless,” she said. Her mom, more composed, offered a review: “I mean, he’s not too bad to look at.” She was quick to add that her taste runs deeper than that; Ella Langley and Tucker Wettmore round out her list of country favorites alongside Green.
A group of women in their 40s through 60s, obviously having a hoot and visiting from Florida, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado and California, had their own verdict. Calling themselves the “Mild Wild” crew. One member, Ginger Lieser, traced her fandom to a specific video of Green doing farm work in which a stray nail went through his boot. “When he took off his boot, a husk of corn fell out,” she said, laughing.
When pressed Lieser didn’t hold back: “I broke up with Keanu Reeves for Riley Green.” Fellow group member Rachel Buchanan kept it simple: “But if he took his shirt off, that would be nice.”
The physique defense
Candice Wooten of Bozeman put a number on it. “Half here for the music, half here for how he looks on stage,” she said. When asked what her favorite part of the music was, she answered without hesitation: “The physique.”
Kendra Donaldson, a fan of a decade who first heard Green on the radio, said she’d be “in tears” if she got the chance to meet him. She introduced her boyfriend, standing nearby, as a good sport about the whole thing. “He’s my hall pass,” she said, using the term for the one celebrity a partner is allowed to have a free-pass crush on. Her boyfriend didn’t argue. “I can’t blame her,” he said. “Have you seen that mustache?”
Bozeman’s Lisa Kurokawa and her San Francisco friend Meagan McKeown put themselves at “50/50” on the music-versus-looks scale, though Kurokawa admitted, “his looks and mustache do not hurt.” McKeown had a plan in place in case she got the call to join him on stage: “I would just make sure before that I can sing all the girl duets… I’ve been practicing.”
Still, both were quick to credit the songwriting. Green sits as their No. 1 and No. 3 favorite artist, respectively, with “Change My Mind” and anything featuring Ella Langley topping their playlists. “I appreciate how genuine he is with his storytelling,” Kurokawa said, with McKeown pointing to the track “Stray Dog” as proof. “His storytelling is compelling, and his female duets are incredible. That is what will make me a long-term fan.”
To McKeown’s ear, Green sounds like something older: “He’s the modern callback to ’90s country,” she said. “Real country.” For these two, the songwriting had already made the case long before he walked on stage.
But fans weren’t the only ones singing his praises. The event’s merchandise stand sold more of the “Cowboy as It Gets” T-shirt, featuring Green’s face, than any other item that night. “All the girls are getting it,” one merch worker said.
Even the crew wasn’t immune. Usher Elijah Steer, when asked for his take, admitted he’d been “for sure looking” over his shoulder when he could. He noted Green’s appeal isn’t one-sided, either. His storytelling songs resonate strongly with male fans in the crowd, too.
More than one fan pointed to Green’s evolution over the years, crediting what’s commonly known online as a “glow-up,” slang for a noticeable transformation in someone’s appearance or style. “His glow-up needs to be studied,” said Addy Pocock, visiting from Rexburg, Idaho. A friend standing beside her chimed in with the specifics: “Yeah, the hair, the mustache, the muscles.”
“He has a song for everything”
Not every Wildlands fan was there chasing a glimpse of the mustache.
Joanna Moody said the connection for her runs deeper than looks. “Obviously looks are a plus, but his music touches my soul,” she said. If she got a moment with Green, she knew exactly what she’d say: “I’d tell him his music has changed my life. I’ve leaned into his music through every stage. He has a song for everything.”
The Swearingen family made the trip from St. Louis with their four kids, including a son experiencing his first-ever concert from his dad’s shoulders. Stephanie Swearingen said her family previously caught Green opening for Luke Combs back in St. Louis, calling Friday’s show a full-circle moment with “parallel journeys,” watching an artist grow alongside her own family. As a big fan, she joked that her husband might not be the one going home with her tonight: “My husband may be taking the kids home.”
If she got a minute with Green, family bonding was on her mind. “Can we go hunting with you?” she said. “I’d even let my boys go instead.”
That sense of a familiar, down home friend was a sentiment echoed across the crowd. For fans of Green it’s not only his stage presence, but the country singer’s storytelling that turns casual listeners into lifelong fans.
