Riley Green is opening up about his friendship with Ella Langley. The two have had two hit singles out together, and are nominated for four ACM Awards for their “You Look Like You Love Me” collaboration, including for Song of the Year and Music Event of the Year.
“I’ve been a big fan of Ella Langley for a long time,” Green reveals. “We met through a mutual friend, and I was kind of in as soon as I heard her voice and her twang, and how country she sounded, and also that she loved what I would call traditional country music. And then also, she’s from Alabama, so I kind of was pulling for her anyway. So, I was very fortunate to get her on tour.”
“You Look Like You Love Me,’ which also won a CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year, came after their first “Don’t Mind If I Do” duet, when they were already on Green’s Ain’t My Last Rodeo Tour.
“‘You Like You Love Me’ happened, which is something that I don’t think any of us had any idea about,” Green says. “I heard the song through our mutual friend. Ella played it for me some, and I wrote a verse for it, and it just became this giant hit song.”
Fortunately the admiration between the two goes both ways.
“His ideas are nuts and I love writing with him,” Langley tells Billboard of the song. “We were in a write and he was like, “So how’s your relationship life going?” and I said, “Honestly, I’m at the point where if they look like they love me, I just got to get out of there.” And he was like, ‘That’s a great song title.’”
Green and Langley have been dodging rumors that they are more than just friends. Country music fans are hoping a romance blossoms between the two, although Green says that’s unlikely.
“Ella’s probably too smart to date me anyway,” he says with a laugh on The Viall Files. “But I think that’s the country music fan. They love the Tim McGraws and Faith [Hill], the George [Jones] and Tammy [Wynette]. When we first started having the success with the song, I told Ella, ‘There are going to be a lot of things said.’ You really got to play into it or not play into it. It’s gonna be something that people enjoy, the same way we go listen to those songs. So it’s cool to have that moment on stage with her. The title track of my album is called ‘Don’t Mind If I Do,’ and that’s a really big song, so it’s cool to have that one. That’s a completely different type of song.”
Langley is heading into the 2025 ACM Awards as the most-nominated artist of the year. She already has one trophy, for New Female Artist of the Year.
The 2025 ACM Awards will air live on Prime Video from Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas on Thursday, May 8 at 8:00 PM ET. A very limited number of tickets are still available at SeatGeek. More information is available at ACMCountry.com.
Photo Credit: Caylee Robillard