Riley Green grew up with all four grandparents in the same small Alabama town. His grandfather Buford turned his great-grandparents' house into a music hall where old-timers played on Friday nights. That upbringing birthed 'Grandpas Never Die,' and Riley gave both grandfathers official co-writer credits on the song.
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At 18:56 · chapter starts 18:00
Jacksonville, Alabama had about 8,000 people when school was in session at Jacksonville State, but Riley's actual community was even smaller — the Pleasant Valley and Williams communities, one flashing light, and a general store run by a 94-year-old named E.L. Green who doesn't charge tax and just guesses the price of things. Riley's parents were a carpenter father and schoolteacher mother, and all four grandparents lived in the same town, so he saw them every day. His granddaddy Buford turned his great-grandparents' house into an informal music hall — old-timers would come on Friday nights, play, and tell jokes, and young Riley would sit and watch how chords were made. [1] — Riley Green "Riley Green grew up with all four grandparents in the same small Alabama town. His grandfather Buford turned his great-grandparents' house …" 18:56 This tradition became 'Grandpas Never Die,' and Riley named both Buford and London as co-writers on the official song. His grandfather London got to see him play the Grand Ole Opry; Buford died in 2010 before the success came. Riley's grandmother Lola Jean is still alive — probably cutting grass right now, he says.
Riley Green named both his grandfathers as co-writers on his hit song 'Grandpas Never Die' as a tribute to their influence.
Riley Green's grandfather Buford, a major influence on his music, died in 2010 before seeing Riley achieve any real success.
Reggae didn't emerge from thin air — it was built layer by layer from mento in the 1940s, ska in the late 1950s, and rocksteady in the mid-1960s. Each stage absorbed new influences, from transistor radios picking up Miami R&B to the distinctive 2-and-4 rhythmic accent that defines the genre.
Before hip-hop existed, Jamaican DJs were already doing it. Electricity spreading across Jamaica enabled mobile 'sound systems,' and DJs developed toasting — speaking and singing over recorded music — a tradition that DJ Kool Herc brought from Kingston to the Bronx at age 12.
Joe Higgs is reggae's great unsung hero. This Kingston musician took teenage Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer under his wing and taught them how to sing, write songs, and make music — at a time when most artists would have focused on their own careers. Without him, the Wailers probably just would have sucked.
Reggae archivist Roger Steffens' analogy says it all: Bob Marley was reggae's Martin Luther King Jr., making the music universally palatable; Peter Tosh was its Malcolm X, inserting fierce militant political energy. Together, they gave the Wailers a depth no single voice could achieve alone.
King Tubby built his own hardware from cast-off recording gear to strip vocals and create dubbed-out instrumental reggae — essentially inventing electronic music in Kingston before Kraftwerk did it in Germany. The dubplate he created became the raw material for DJs to toast over, seeding hip-hop.
Two days before the 1976 Smile Jamaica anti-violence concert, gunmen shot Bob Marley in the chest and shoulder, shot Rita Marley, and wounded two others. He showed up and played anyway. The concert had already drawn accusations that Marley was a tool of the PNP government — a charge that frustrated him deeply.
Peter Tosh's killer was a man Tosh had taken in after prison, giving him shelter and food. The man repaid that generosity by holding Tosh hostage, torturing him for money, and shooting him in the head. It is one of the most brutal betrayals in music history.
The Windrush Generation brought Caribbean music to London after World War II, and reggae's 2-and-4 rhythm lodged itself deep in British culture — giving birth to ska bands like The Specials, pop acts like UB40, and even punk. Johnny Rotten was a reggae fan, and Public Image Limited has the dub influence to prove it.
Reggaetón didn't come from nowhere. It emerged from underground Spanish-language reggae-rap scenes in Panama and Puerto Rico, drawing directly on Jamaican reggae's rhythms and attitude. The line from Kingston to Bad Bunny's Super Bowl performance is a straight one.
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