When The Voice returns for Season 30 in September 2026, the coaching panel will feature Riley Green, Queen Latifah, Kelly Clarkson, and Adam Levine. But Green may have one advantage that the other coaches do not, a custom built feature attached to his red chair.
The country singer revealed during a July 14 interview with Dayton radio station K99.1 that host and executive producer Carson Daly arranged for a special hat holster to be added to his chair after Green realized his signature cowboy hat would not work with the chair’s high back.
“Carson asked me, ‘What are you going to do with your hat? Are you going to wear it during the show?’” Green recalled. “I told him, ‘I can’t really wear it because of the chair. It would be cool to have a little holster for it.’”
According to Green, Daly immediately responded, “I’m one of the executive producers. I can probably get that done.”
When Green returned to the NBC set, the chair had already been modified.
“The next thing I knew, I had a little holster for my hat,” he said. “Nobody else has that.”
What started as a simple convenience quickly turned into part of Green’s recruiting strategy during the Blind Auditions, which have already been filmed.
“I found out that when you’re trying to get somebody to pick your team, being able to pull the hat out and put it on lets them know you’re serious,” Green joked. “That’s another little strategy.”
Green is currently filming the Battle Rounds with his team and fellow coaches, along with an additional competition round scheduled for later in July.
As exciting as the experience has been, Green admitted that one part of the job has been much harder than expected: telling contestants they are not advancing.
Speaking on Theo Von’s podcast on July 15, he said it becomes difficult to keep finding new ways to give constructive feedback.
“It gets tough to find new things to say when somebody’s not quite good,” he admitted. “I don’t want to say the same thing over and over again.”
Green said many contestants are clearly talented, but the pressure of performing on a televised stage can affect their performance.
“They walk out there with the chairs turned around, the lights on, the cameras rolling, and you can hear them getting out of breath,” he said. “A lot of it is nerves. These are people’s dreams.”
The singer said he can relate to those feelings because he still finds it surreal that he is sitting in one of the famous red chairs himself.
“I can’t believe I’m on the show,” Green said. “It’ll be cool to try to help these contestants along the way.”