Country Fans Adopt Wildly Eclectic HeadHunters : Pop music: They don’t look or sing like traditional country artists--and they’re rowdy to boot.

Headheads?

Yes, that’s the nickname for the die-hard fans of the country-rock band the Kentucky HeadHunters. It’s a play on Deadheads --the fanatical fans of the Grateful Dead, whom the HeadHunters resemble.

Like the Dead, the HeadHunters (who will play Friday at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim and April 26 at the Greek Theatre) are a wildly eclectic band with a wide range of roots--including Southern rock, English rock, blues, gospel, bluegrass and country.

The country genre seems like the last place for a scruffy, loud band whose music is more like what you’d hear on a rock station--or a truck-stop bar. Yet this is the most popular new band in country. The HeadHunters’ debut album, “Pickin’ on Nashville” on Mercury Records, has sold more than 1.5 million copies since it came out in 1989.

“Most of those albums were sold to country fans. We don’t look or sing like traditional country artists, but the country fans have embraced us,” said Heads’ guitarist Richard Young, whose brother Fred is the band’s drummer. The rest of the lineup consists of their cousin, guitarist Greg Martin, and brothers Ricky and Doug Phelps (vocals and bass, respectively).

Not all country fans have embraced them. The band has never had a big country hit single, and most country acts are too straight to tour with this rowdy bunch. Much of its country support is from big-city country stations, which play more progressive music. This is one country band that may have as many fans on album-oriented rock stations.

The band’s new album, “Electric Barnyard,” is like a new edition of the first one. But, Richard Young insisted, the HeadHunters’ albums are tame next to their frantic, noisy performances.

“We’re more intense, ferocious and rocking live,” he said. “We really feed off the energy of our audience. That comes from playing together for so many years.”

Twenty-three to be exact.

The Young brothers and Martin, then in junior high school, started out together in the late ‘60s playing progressive Southern rock in a mildly successful band called Itchy Brother.

“We played hillbilly speed metal or hillbilly English rock or something like that--based on Cream and Led Zeppelin,” Young explained. “Needless to say, the world wasn’t ready for us then.”

That band folded in 1981, but the Youngs and Martin reorganized as the HeadHunters in 1986, recruiting the Phelps brothers--whose gospel and bluegrass roots added more dimension.

“The more different roots our members have the more interesting the music is,” said Young, 36 (the members’ ages range from 30 to 37).

The HeadHunters wound up in country by accident. An eight-song demonstration tape created a buzz in Nashville. “We didn’t go after those country labels; they came after us after they heard the tape,” Young said. “After years of looking for a deal, we would have signed a contract with anybody to record any kind of music.”

Mercury signed the band in 1989. The eight songs on the tape were refined, two more were added, and the result was the hit “Pickin’ on Nashville” album.

The group is becoming a popular touring band, having worked quite a bit with Hank Williams Jr.--who also puts on a rowdy show.

The HeadHunters, though, are more excited at the prospect of hitting the road with an even more appropriate act.

“We’ve been approached to play with the Dead--who are among our biggest heroes,” crowed Young. “Wouldn’t that be somethin’?”