This was actually the PG-13 version…
Several months ago, Riley Green released a super steamy, very much not safe for work new music video for his song “Worst Way,” which finds him fully leaning into the sexy country heartthrob image that the ladies are absolutely in love with… as he should, honestly.
“Worst Way” was first part of his Way Out Here EP, then on his third studio album Don’t Mind If I Do last year. It was a solo write by Riley, and quickly became a fan-favorite for its sensual, seductive lyrics and departure from what Riley normally writes about, which is heartbreak and losing a girl… the complete opposite of this song. The video has over six million views now, and obviously, a lot of the ladies haven’t been able to stop watching it.
Serving as his current single, “Worst Way” has been climbing up the country charts, and it’s looking like it will be his fifth #1 hit at country radio once it’s all said and done. Sonically and lyrically, it’s definitely unique in Riley’s catalog, as he typically talks more about sadness and heartbreak than the really intimate parts of being in love.
But clearly, it’s working for him, and in a recent interview with Katie Neal for Audacy’s Katie & Company, Riley talked about how the music video came to be. He joked that it was “AI,” but in reality, he knew he had to make it somewhat funny in order to be able to really buy in. He took inspiration from one of his favorite Kevin Costner movies Bull Durham, specifically the scene where you see him in a bathrobe eating cereal:
“AI… what they can do with computers now is crazy. I think I got sent a treatment and it was really, like, right at it. And it was very… I said, there’s gotta be something about this that is a little funny. Like a little comedic relief. And the movie ‘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 that’s the vibe I wanted. Throwing the wine and throwing the roses, the kind of cheesy looking at camera thing. It was like an Old Spice commercial, you know. It ended up being a lot of fun. It’s not it’s not really comfortable shooting a music video like that, but it ended up being a lot of fun.”
He talked about how they only had a couple chances to get parts of the video right because they had to break a couple things, and put a hole through some sheet rock, but he managed to get the cereal throwing right in one take, which he says he’s really proud of:
“I know we broke a picture of a dog, Carl kind of a dog. And we only had two of those, the glass was like a certain kind of glass. and then we had to bust through some sheet rock on the wall, so I think we only had like two set ups of that. Anytime you like pulled the thing off the table and salad lettuce goes everywhere, they had to pick all that back up and put it in the bowl and do it again.
So you want to get it right the first time. I was really proud that my cereal throw into the sink was one take. It splashed up, I didn’t even look, it was awesome. I was really proud of that.”
It’s funny to imagine what the final product is was the tame version of the first treatment he got, because Riley explained that the first one was much more raunchy, and he “turned red” and “wanted to crawl under the table just reading it.” I can’t lie and say I would love to see that version, or at the very least read the treatment…
“I couldn’t do it… I’ll be honest with you, I read the first treatment they sent me and it made me turn red. I wanted to crawl under the table just reading it. We gotta figure something else out.”
I do think the humor in the music video, of course paired with steamier parts of it, fit his personality better, and the video now has over 13 million views on YouTube, so he definitely made the right call and he should have another huge radio hit on his hands very soon.
I’m sure you’ve already seen it before, but just in case you need a little pick me up on this Thursday afternoon…
“Worst Way”