Kaleb Sanders has taken the unconventional approach to becoming one of country music’s rising young artists.
He’s got a new single, “Tell That To a Heart,” a soulful country power ballad that may provide the Florida native’s the musical boost needed to elevate his Nashville star power. For a relatively new artist, nearly 400,000 Spotify monthly listeners have taken notice of his melodies. And the streaming numbers continue to rise.
The real success story, however, may be the musical manner in which Sanders decided on a Music City career path. With zero music experience prior to his decision, Sanders’ ambitions at first may have sounded more like one giant pop country pipe dream than a legitimate bluegrass blueprint.
Convincing others would be a formidable task as well. First he had to a difficult phone call to his family to explain why he was ditching college in order to return home to the family farm. The goal was to split time between working on a tractor each day while working on his new craft—learning guitar via the internet—at night.
Sanders then had the opportunity to pick the brain of a country music legend—whose cold advice to Sanders was for him to stay on the family farm.
With all the obstacles, Sanders was never deterred. “I thought to myself, Why am I in school for business management?” he says. “I’m gonna go work on a farm, learn some basic traits. After work, I’ll just YouTube how to play guitar every day for however many years it takes. And that’s what I did.”
Given the situation, becoming a country music star with little to no music background was comparable to slamming a basketball despite being a weak, skinny, and unathletic teenager. But that’s where Sanders had the psychological edge. He had already spent late nights training—with the help of his father on the backyard basketball court—elevating his game from 12th man “sympathy selection” to rim-rattling high school guard who can also nail the trey with ease.
In Sanders’ mind, if you can work your way to slamming a basketball, anything is possible.
“I just worked every day,” he says. “I didn’t stop shooting. When I wasn’t in class I would always have a basketball in my hand. I got to the gym earlier and stayed later, even when I was exhausted.”
Sanders now uses the same work ethic that once helped him in athletics to make a splash in Nashville. In addition to “Tell That to a Heart,” songs like “Marlboro Man” and “If They Sold It at a Bar” have already topped a million Spotify streams—impressive for a young indie artist. At the same time as his six-string knowledge keeps improving each day through YouTube, his music catalog of both original and cover songs continues satisfying his rapidly growing fan base.
Meanwhile his winning strategy will always have room for staying in top physical shape. And even when his schedule continues to fill with songwriting sessions and social media strategies, reverting back to the physically underdeveloped teenager will never be an option.
“I was the scrawny kid at the end of the bench,” he recalls. “So I’d always be the one who coach would be like, ‘Get this kid a sandwich.’ I was so sick of hearing that. So I’ve been pretty consistent in the gym ever since high school.”
A Mindset Built from the End of the Bench
If Sanders could go back and rewrite his high school scouting report, he says he’s compare his hoop game with that of JJ Redick, the current Los Angeles Lakers coach. Attending many Orlando Magic games while Redick hit the hardwoods for seven seasons, Sanders naturally attempted to emulate the shooting guard’s overall game.
“I was really good at slipping away and getting in the corner for a three,” he says. “I loved shooting threes, and most of the time I could take you off the dribble. I’d fake jab-step, then I’d be able to kind of get around you.”
He admits his shooting talents offset lack of ball handling skills needed by an elite guard. However, just making it to the Villages Charter High School starting five was a major achievement. All the backyard work needed to improve his game came following a rough intro to the team.
“Coach was like, ‘Hey, we’re really on the fence about this, but we’ll let you join the team,’” he recalls. “He said because I had a bunch of pals on here, I’d be good for the morale. “I was usually pretty bummed out, because my friends were really good already.”
While he mostly rode the bench early on, his father was most responsible for driving him to become a better athlete mainly through a steady dose of repetition, practice and gathering as much basketball knowledge as needed.
“I’d come home after the game, and he’d be fired up,” he recalls. “I’m like, ‘Why are you so excited? I didn’t play.’ He was like, ‘But when you did, do you see what you were able to do? Here’s how you can improve.’ He always found the positive in something [that seemed] dismal.”
Sanders recalls the pair staying up and analyzing Larry Bird DVDs to soak in whatever pro pointers could help him. He also remembers his father setting up lights in the backyard in order keep the training sessions going long after team practice and homework were finished.
“No matter how his day was after work, he’d come out there, put the lights on about sunset,” he says. “He’d rebound, throw me the ball, and just talk to me.”
While he steadily became a better shooter, the real challenge was to finally dunk a basketball. From studying YouTube videos and magazine articles, to performing countless sets and reps of box jumps and backboard leaps, it all paid off his junior season, when the 6’2 Sanders took it to the rim and laid down his first jam.
“It was incredible,” he recalls “By the first game that season, I was able to dunk, finally,” he says. “I worked so hard at it.”
Kaleb Sanders Is Running the Show with an All-Around Training Regimen
Sanders’ mindset motivation is never again be the skinny kid who sat at the end of the bench. The artist now takes the same training approach that he developed as a scholastic athlete. Today, it’s about becoming the most stage ready artist Nashville has seen since Dylan Scott or Tucker Wetmore.
Now 28 Sanders continues getting more shredded with age. He credits a nonstop training routine that has him in the gym at least six days a week as his key to staying in shape.
Sanders incorporates a bodybuilding style a traditional three-on, one-off split. Day 1 it’s an upper-body push day consisting of chest, shoulders, triceps, followed by a pull day of back and biceps. Day 3 is always leg day with core thrown in when he gets the opportunity—which sometimes could be challenging considering his ever-growing schedule.
“My favorite days at the gym are the ones that I didn’t want to go,” he says. “The days when I can’t get off the couch or I’m spending late nights working and I’m so tired are the days when something good happens.”
When showtime approaches, the best workout he says is a good old dose of cardio, especially when showtime calls for a heart-pumping, energetic performance. For this, Sanders’s first conditioning choice is get a good run in. “I love to go run,” he says. “I get burst of energy after running about two to three miles. I’ll do that about four times a week.”
When it comes to nutrition, Sanders is ready yet to be committed to counting macros. However, as an outdoorsman, Sanders usually has a freezer full of fresh meat—this year it’s elk—at hand. As Sanders’ road schedule continues to expand, he’s develop a healthy habit of bringing enough meat to keep him full on the road and avoiding the post-concert junk food onslaught that hits many artists. “I’ll prep for the weekend usually, and we’ll put it in a fridge. We have a fridge on the bus. It’s like a little mini fridge, and we’ll just keep the bus on all weekend.”
Staying Laser-Focused Requires a Plan of Attack as Well
Sanders has learned that making the jump from tractor-riding guitar novice to rising pop country artist requires heavy amounts of both focus and discipline. And it’s not just from a performance perspective. His unique path sometimes requires brushing off criticism—especially when it come from boyhood idol.
Sanders recalls one awkward moment when he was able to ask country legend Travis Tritt some career advice. As the father of close friend and fellow artist Tristan, Sanders was hoping to get the usual show-biz tips such as how to improve his songwriting or onstage presence. The elder Tritt’s straight-shooting suggestion wasn’t quite what he was expecting.
“He told me to stay the hell out of Nashville,” Sanders recalls. “I told him that I don’t know what else to do. He said something like, ‘You’ll figure it out.’”
Tritt’s soul-crushing tip may have ruined other young artists—instead it helped fuel Sanders’ mental drive even more. One surprising method Sanders uses to help enhance his mental discipline has been through bow hunting. The outdoorsman calls it a combination of cognitive challenge and physical endurance. According to Sanders, the extended hours needed to locate and navigate an area, then measuring wind direction, before sitting and waiting patiently and silently for what feels like forever is a mental exercise like no other. And oftentimes the results of the hard work comes up empty. Sanders and company have to backtrack silently and then do it all again the following day.
“It’s so much focus, it’s like, hours will go by and I’ll be like, hunt’s over. We can’t get them today,” he says. “We gotta back out as to not scare them away. But oftentimes you could track a group for weeks. It’s incredible.”
Kaleb Sanders Is Now Built for a Long and Successful Country Music Career
One of Sanders’ early music motivations was grandfather—a bluegrass picker in his day. He decided to pursue music following his grandfather’s passing. While music has run in the family for generations, the singer’s journey has become a team effort. It may have started during his backyard days when his father’s influence helped create a stronger all-around mindset. To this day, Sanders’ mental toughness may have never been more evident than when he had to break his decision to his family.
“I called [my family] and I was like, college isn’t working out,” he recalls. “I’d really like to head back home. They were like, ‘Not in this house. We’ll help you find a place, but like, you’re going to gain your independence.”
While his family always offered support, the tough love most needed came from his best friend and singer Tristan, who was aware of both Sanders’ talents and reluctance to showcase his skills onstage about a decade ago. One remedy was offering Sanders a friendly vocal challenge: Perform by a certain date, or else…
In front of a packed open-mike night, Sanders opted to sing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”—made famous by Jeff Buckley in 1994. The reaction that night was the motivational catalyst needed to move forward.
“Hearing that from my best friend Tristan—that I was good—was really cool and validating, because he’s a musician himself,” Sanders says. “And I looked up to his a dad a lot as well.”
Despite the initial harsh words, another piece of advice stuck with Sanders: Give the people what they want. As his original musical tastes may veer toward the pop country end, when a call for Creed classics comes from the audience, be prepared.
“Travis’ voice rang in my head,” he said. “He was like, Man, you got to be a human jukebox. When you’re doing the cover gigs, you got to be able to play the songs. So I just like, sat down every day after I got off the farm, and I would just learn a new song, learn a new chord, learn a new whatever.”
Today, as Sanders’ presence keeps expanding in country music, so has his team. With songwriters social media personnel and a tour manager helping him along the way, Sanders is relishing the rapid increase in popularity. It’s another motivational tool the kid who started on the end of the basketball bench uses to continue blazing his country music journey.
“The train is moving, and I can feel it,” he says. “I’m excited. The fact that I have a team is insane. I always knew I had had some grit, but I never knew I would make it this far in in a place where other people kind of decide my fate.”
