ACM Awards 2020: Riley Green Calls First Nomination ‘Such an Honor’

It might have been unexpected, but Riley Green is celebrating his first-ever major awards nomination! The Alabama native is nominated for one ACM Award, for New Male Artist of the Year, a category he shares with Jordan Davis, Russell Dickerson, Cody Johnson and Morgan Wallen.

“It is such an honor to be nominated,” Green said in a statement. “The country music community has been so accepting of me as a new artist and this for me is validation that all of our hard work is paying off. It doesn’t seem real to have my name included with all the other great nominees but I sure appreciate it.”

Green was just given one of the five coveted slots in the New Faces Show at Country Radio Seminar, where Green performed his latest single, “I Wish Grandpas Never Died.” The song, which is currently in the Top 15, was inspired by Green’s own beloved grandparent.

“My Grandaddy Buford was the country guy,” Green told Taste of Country. “He was really into like Merle Haggard, Roy Acuff, Hank WIlliams … That was what I learned to sing and play. I never sang when I played guitar until my grandaddy started pushing me, and me and him would sit around and he’d fiddle on the harmonica a little bit. That was where I got my traditional roots.”

If “I Wish Grandpas Never Died” makes it to the top of the charts, it will be Green’s second No. 1 hit. His first was with “There Was This Girl,” and he admits he has trouble believing that the song became such a hit.

“I don’t know that it’s sunk in,” Green told PopCulture.com. “I mean, I really never thought I would have a song on the radio, much less a No. 1, and the coolest thing to me, from a songwriter’s side of it, is that people are relating to how I grew up all over the country.”

The 2020 ACM Awards will air live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 5, at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Keith Urban will make serve as the host of the televised ceremony.

Green is currently serving as the opening act on Jason Aldean‘s We Back Tour. Find dates at Green’s website.

Photo Credit: Getty / Terry Wyatt