Notable Achievers In Your Community : Education Was Drummed Into Rock Musician

As a cocky young man of 18 who just liked to beat the skins, the only subject Mark Sanders cared about in high school was music.

He didn’t even bother going to his graduation from Van Nuys High School in 1973 and hit the road with a friend, playing in New York clubs.

His parents worried about him.

“My parents always said to me that I should have something to fall back on,” said Sanders, now 39 of Sylmar. “But they never pressured me.”

Sanders followed his dreams of playing music and wound up playing drums for major groups of the 1970s--Al Stewart, Tower of Power, Captain and Tennille.

His first break came one night in the early 1970s while working at a big-band club on Ventura Boulevard. The regular drummer asked him to sit in. In the audience that night were The Jacksons.

They liked Sanders’ playing and asked him to audition. He toured with them for two years. In those days, playing with The Jacksons, he felt so much energy that two hours into a concert it seemed like they were just warming up, as if they could just keep playing even when the show was supposed to be over.

He enjoyed life on the road, the camaraderie among the musicians, the hotels and limousines.

But his parents still let him know they were worried, telling him he should think about going to college.

“Yeah, Mom, sure,” Sanders would respond. Even so, they gave him the freedom to pursue his music, saying, “We don’t care what you do just so long as you do it the best you can.”

That advice drove him in his music career, and it is still helping Sanders. Now the father of two children, Sanders is a junior at Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson where he recently won a $2,500 scholarship. In 1993, Sanders graduated summa cum laude and was class salutatorian at Mission College where he had a 4.0 grade-point average.

Now, Sanders is working for a teaching certificate. He wants to be an elementary school teacher, and someday teach high school math.

“They were right,” Sanders said of his parents, who live in North Hollywood and are about to move to Las Vegas. “I think they’re very proud. They’re very happy for me.”

It might have been easier to go to school when he was younger, he said. “But on the other hand, I wouldn’t get to do the music business.” Also, the music taught him a discipline that he now uses as a student.

Sanders says his life started to change after he got married 10 years ago. The road did not hold the same appeal it had. He would get a gig, travel in style with limos and hotels, and groupies, but then six months later be back in Los Angeles scrambling to find another gig.

He stopped taking the road assignments and worked more “casuals”--a music industry term for weddings, banquets and company functions--while also playing clubs in town. He took a job teaching drums at a music store in North Hollywood and learned what teaching is about.

“I got there originally thinking I’m going to make every drummer a great drummer,” Sanders said. But he soon found out that “not everybody is as driven.”

Although he still carries a drive for perfectionism, Sanders has learned to temper that impulse. He talks of how he wants to be an inspiring teacher, one who leads by example with his enthusiasm. Each student must be encouraged to succeed at his or her own level, he said, “as opposed to expecting the kids to be as crazy as me.”

He also hopes that his 3-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter go to college. Although family is now more important to him, music is still how he makes his living, and sometimes he takes a look over his shoulder at the life he has left behind.

“Sure, I miss the excitement, but I’m older now,” Sanders said. “There are more important things in life than having people standing up and clapping for you.”