Veterans Day is next Wednesday. Riley Green has two men on his mind when it comes around.
Most folks know Riley these days as a coach on NBC’s “The Voice,” and the Live Shows start this Monday, Nov 9. Off camera, his granddaddies come up a lot.
“The military has always been really close to my heart. Both of my granddaddies served,” Riley said in a short interview clip for Blue Star Families, a nonprofit that supports military families. Whiskey Riff shared his words last Veterans Day.
His granddaddy Buford Green served in the Air Force. His other granddaddy, Lendon, served in the Army.
Buford was the music man of the family. “My Grandaddy Buford was the country guy,” Riley told Taste of Country in 2019. “He was really into like Merle Haggard, Roy Acuff, Hank Williams and … that was what I learned to sing and play.”
Riley never sang along with his guitar until Buford started pushing him. The two of them later turned an old sawmill on his great-grandparents’ property into a little music hall.
Lendon was the outdoorsman. Riley still remembers a night of fishing with him on Lake Guntersville. “I remember him saying, ‘Riley reach over there in that third draw of the tackle box on the left and get that blue spinner bait out with a yellow tail on it,'” he told Taste of Country.
Buford passed away in 2010 and Lendon in 2018. Riley has called them “just great role models,” and he wrote one of his best-loved songs about the two of them.
So how do you honor two men like that at the same time?
In 2023, Riley started a charity fund for them and named it the Buford Bonds Charitable Fund. The name takes one piece from each granddaddy. “Buford” comes from Buford Green. “Bonds” comes from Lendon, whose full name was Lendon Bonds. Put together, it sounds like one real Alabama fella.
“My grandaddies were huge inspirations on me, my songwriting and what is most important to me,” Riley said when the fund got started, as quoted by MusicRow.
The fund kicked off in October 2023 with an album release show in Nashville that raised more than $50,000. Much of the money goes to military causes like Folds of Honor, which pays for school for the families of fallen and disabled service members. It also helps children’s charities such as St. Jude.
Lendon also passed down a love that ended up in the fund. “My granddaddy Lendon played golf at Stoney Brook about every day with his brothers, and I learned to play golf with him,” Riley told The Anniston Star.
On April 17, 2025, the fund held its first Buford Bonds Foundation Golf Tournament at Silver Lakes, not far from Riley’s hometown. More than 130 golfers played on 31 teams, and ABC Audio reported that the day raised more than $150,000. That evening, country singer Jamey Johnson joined a writers round at the music hall Buford built.
Jamey posted a short look at the day on his own channel.
A quick look at the first Buford Bonds golf day
Riley kept it going. In February, the city of Gadsden announced he would come home on April 14 for a celebrity golf tournament at Silver Lakes and an acoustic benefit show. “I’m looking forward to coming home and raising some money for the community that helped me get my start,” he said.
His granddaddies live on in his music, too. Taste of Country reported that Lendon got to hear Riley’s song about the two of them before he passed away.
Monday night, Riley will be back in his coach’s chair, two days before Veterans Day. Buford and Lendon won’t be on the show, but their names will be out there working all the same.