Keith Anderson stands 6 feet, 2 inches tall and strikes an imposing figure on stage.
He's football-player big, 215 to 220 pounds, ripped with muscles from his days in competitive weight lifting. He played football in college and was inches from playing pro baseball after high school. He tore a rotator cuff, and that ended that.
His life story has made for good reading in the year since he splashed onto the national scene with his rollicking, sexually charged ditty "Pickin' Wildflowers." Along the way, though, the story has become larger than the man, and facts have become lost in the retelling.
"Two magazines that reviewed my album last year had me at 28 (years old), then a month later at 37," Anderson, 35, joked during a phone call from Nashville last week. "I aged quickly that month."
He's also not 6-5, as some have reported, and his weight is well below the 240 to 250 pounds reported by others.
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These days, there's no telling what you'll hear about Anderson, a one-time bodybuilder, model and engineer who has emerged in the past year as country music's next big thing.
"It's just been one of those years when so many dreams have come true," says Anderson, who speaks with the giddy tone of a man who is seeing his rock 'n' roll fantasies realized.
Last year, Anderson released his debut album, the honky-tonk rich, Southern-rocking "Three Chord Country and American Rock & Roll," a wild and confident romp through the simplistic and colorful backroads of Anderson's rural upbringing. Anderson teamed up with Nashville's songwriting elite — veterans like Jeffrey Steele and Big & Rich's John Rich — to pen country rockers about Saturday nights in "Podunk," living life large in "XXL" and crafting a "Plan B" for life.
The album was met with mixed reviews from the critics but overwhelming adoration by the fans drawn in by the first two singles, "XXL" and "Pickin' Wildflowers." Radio recently started spinning a third single, the uptempo ballad "Every Time I Hear Your Name," which Anderson believes could be the key to pushing record sales of the 8-month-old disc past gold (500,000).
Anderson, a native of rural Miami, Okla., had been a fixture in Nashville for several years before he landed his Arista record deal. He co-penned the 2001 Garth Brooks-George Jones hit "Beer Run (B Double E Double Are You In?)." In 2004, Gretchen Wilson included his song "The Bed" on her debut album.
Meanwhile, Anderson and his band, who headline City Limits Wednesday, were making a case for Anderson's solo career at Nashville bars, dives and showcases, peddling a high-energy brand of pop-rock country that was infectious.
Soon after the album's release last May, Anderson hit the road with country superstars Rascal Flatts. His days of playing before audiences numbering in the hundreds were gone; the crowds swelled to thousands.
"It's awesome playing for that many people. You go from playing 500 a night to playing 15,000 a night," he said, and it's apparent in his voice that he is struck by everything he has experienced in the past several months.
"To all of a sudden have people own your album and singing all the words to your songs is a pretty amazing thing."
Quick Take
Keith Anderson in concert
With the Drew Davis Band
When: 9 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25
Where: City Limits, 6350 E. Tanque Verde Road, at East Pima Street
Tickets: $15 in advance at City Limits, 733-6262, or Ticketmaster, 321-1000; $17 day of show
Et cetera: See related interview with Drew Davis, Page 27.
