‘Rather Be’ by Riley Green – Lyrics & Meaning

As he showcases on his current Country Radio single, ‘Damn Good Day to Leave’, Riley Green loves a good ol’ I'm-not-really-heartbroken heartbreak song, and the first track to arrive from his 2024 album, ‘Rather Be’, follows in a similar vein.

Riley Green has been teasing ‘Rather Be’ for over a year, even adding it to his setlist from time to time, with fans celebrating the fact that it's been made available at long last.

Riley would be the first to admit this is not his classiest song, but it's not meant to be - it's a playful, tongue-in-cheek jibe at an ex - or at least, soon-to-be-ex - with the ‘Half Of Me’ hitmaker reeling off all the places he'd rather be spending his time than with her.

‘Rather Be’ is Riley Green's first solo release since his widely lauded Way Out Here EP, which spawned the fan-favourites, ‘Jesus Saves’ and ‘Worst Way’. The new track expected to lead the rollout for Riley's third studio album, which is due to arrive this Fall.

‘Rather Be’ opens with a staccato acoustic guitar and the soft cry of steel, before Riley Green's rugged drawl enters the fray joined by an emphatic, weighty electric guitar.

The raucous, gritty instrumental accentuates the wild, untamed spirit of the lyrics, with Riley testing out a new style of delivery with quick-fire, almost-rapped lines such as the hilarious, “I'd rather be stuck at your mama's watching midday re-runs of her favorite dramas / Wearin’ my pajamas neck deep in Days Of Our Lives”.

“I'd rather be seven beers deep with a Coleman cooler propping up my feet

My ass in a lawn chair floating on the breeze in a sun tracker

I'd rather be tucked in a pit blind somewhere on the Mississippi-Louisiana state line

Waiting on them Greenheads to do a fly by

Lip full of tobacco”

The first verse of ‘Rather Be’ reads like a Bass Pro Shops wish-list, with Riley Green underlining how he'd be much happier if he was drunk with his feet up on a Coleman cooler full of beers, while relaxing in a lawn chair in a Sun Tracker pontoon boat.

But hey, he's not fussy, as he'd also be very content in a ‘pit blind’ - a specific kind of hunting blind - at some point along the state line of Mississippi and Louisiana. He creates a peaceful ambience by describing how he'd simply be waiting for a group Greenhead horse-flies to start soaring past, with these insects usually found along marshes and wetlands, so Riley would likely encounter them while hunting. The ‘Different ‘Round Here’ hitmaker puts a metaphorical cherry on the top of his idyllic picture by fantasising about having a lip full of dipping tobacco.

“When I hear you bitch at me

It makes me think of all the

Places I'd rather be”

Riley Green spells it out in the concise hook, making no bones about how he'd much rather be anywhere other than with his ex when he hears her badgering and nagging him.

“I'd rather be stripping off shingles on a July roof

Down in Tishomingo

Workin’ like a dog, livin’ in a single-wide

Yes, I would

I'd rather be stuck at your mama's watching midday re-runs of her favorite dramas

Wearin’ my pajamas neck deep in Days Of Our Lives”

Riley Green delivers a subtle reference to the job he had prior to his music career taking off, with Riley working construction and framing houses in his home-state of Alabama.

While the first verse was full of activities Riley would obviously enjoy, the second finds him listing a few less-than-ideal scenarios that would still be more desirable than being with his ex. He emphasises that he'd rather return to his blue-collar job and strip shingles off a roof in the sweltering summer heat in Oklahoma, while living in a modest single-wide trailer, before serving up the best lyric of the song.

He delivers a cascading flurry of internal rhymes as he explains how he'd even rather spend the day with his ex-future-mother-in-law watching repeats of her favourite soap operas, with Riley creating the amusing image of him sat in his PJs with his ex's mom while they dive into yet another episode of the famous drama, Days Of Our Lives.

“Oh, let me hear it

How I leave my clothes on the floor

Track dirt through the door

And don't bother cleanin’ up

Let me hear ‘bout the guy you wish I was”

Riley Green mimicks all the complaints his old flame would direct at him, from the way he leaves his clothes on the floor to his refusal to clean up after himself when he brings dirt into the house on his boots. He invites her to tell him all the characteristics she wishes he had, reiterating in the process that he no longer cares, before he again indulges his imagination and conjures up situations he'd rather find himself in.

Riley Green hasn't delved into how ‘Rather Be’ came about just yet, but in an interview with Holler in April 2024, he shed some light on his forthcoming album, which is expected to feature the new single, explaining, “We're recording the next album, looking at a potential Fall release. There's a lot of new music coming this year. It's a cool time to be out on the road and try some of these new songs. The music comes first. If I write a song I'm excited about or that fans are excited about, I'm gonna record it and try to get it out as soon as I can”.

Riley went on to share, “We've been in the studio and cut about four songs, so we've got a lot of room on the album for what's next. But I think once we start getting close to six, seven or eight songs, and we look at what the album's missing and what those pieces are, I think that's when we'll go back through the catalogue and find those songs that raised their hands through me playing them on socials for fans”.

“I'd rather be seven beers deep with a Coleman cooler propping up my feet

My ass in a lawn chair floating on the breeze in a sun tracker

I'd rather be tucked in a pit blind somewhere on the Mississippi-Louisiana state line

Waiting on them Greenheads to do a fly by

Lip full of tobacco

-

When I hear you bitch at me

It makes me think of all the

Places I'd rather be

-

I'd rather be stripping off shingles on a July roof

Down in Tishomingo

Workin’ like a dog, livin’ in a single-wide

Yes, I would

I'd rather be stuck at your mama's watching midday re-runs of her favorite dramas

Wearin’ my pajamas neck deep in Days Of Our Lives

-

When I hear you bitch at me

It makes me think of all the

Places I'd rather be

Yeah, all the places I'd rather be

-

Oh, let me hear it

How I leave my clothes on the floor

Track dirt through the door

And don't bother cleanin’ up

Let me hear ‘bout the guy you wish I was

-

When I hear you bitch at me

It makes me think of all the

Places I'd rather be

When I hear you bitch at me

It makes me think of all the

Places I'd rather be

There's a lot of places I'd rather be”

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