Mark Connors

Mark Connors Biography

Mark Connors was born March 14 in New York City; however, Tucson, Arizona was home for the majority of his school years, where a favorite past-time was exploring the desert, hunting and camping out on his own. He was playing guitar and performing at age seven, and hosted his school’s radio station in 6th Grade, so there was little doubt where he was headed.

Mark’s family boasts three generations in the entertainment industry. They include actors, a film director and his grandfather, Louie Bond (aka Johnny Guitar), no stranger to early Hollywood who greatly encouraged his music career.

Mark fondly recalls playing around the Hollywood sets with two cousins who were child actors. At age 10 he was in the movie “The Black Gun” starring football star Jim Brown, and actress Mary Pickford, who was a friend of his grandfather’s, gave Mark one of her rings to give to his own true love when he grew up.

Mark was not, however, a child of privilege….quite to the contrary. His own horrific childhood experiences fire his abiding dedication today to support youth in crisis programs through his benefit concerts.

Shuffled from foster home to foster home by age four, Mark suffered neglect and cruelty before he was at last placed in a loving home. Scars on his back from a horse whipping serve to remind him of what helpless children can be forced to endure.

Reunited with his family at age ten proved a brief respite. His controlling step-father threw him out, and banned him from home and family, based solely on Mark’s determination to make music his career. At 12, young Mark found himself on the streets without shelter, money, or even a warm coat, with only the clothes on his back and the guitar his step-father broke to offer solace. Cold, hungry and frightened, he talks of walking the streets night after night with no place to go and finally building a make-shift fort in an alley for refuge.

Yet Mark’s challenging background makes his accomplishments and moral values even more significant. He talks regularly with troubled kids in shelters to offer them hope and encouragement, thereby honoring a promise he made to God. While eating from a cold can of beans he’d been forced to steal out of hunger, Mark vowed that when he grew up, he would do everything in his power to help kids like himself. (Years later, he returned to the same market where he stole food to make amends.) “I basically raised myself,” Mark recalls.

Even as a teen, Mark was displaying his life-long desire to help others by serving on an Arizona search and rescue team and he continued to rise above the cards life dealt him through sheer determination.

He was writing songs and fronting his own band, Black Diamonds, in his teens, attracting 2,000-3,000 fans. By graduation, he had mastered the guitar, drums, bass guitar and piano, and was backing vocals.

He was making his living promoting large concerts by the time he was 20, until tapped by a Young Americans talent scout and chosen to front the rock group, Freedom Jam, backed by American Showcase. Mark toured the country, playing to over one million high school students as part of his long-term plan to market and hone his stage skills.

During the 80’s, Mark fronted the band Victory, managed by Elton John’s manager, Charley Murdock. He also hosted “Rocks” TV show where he interviewed rock stars Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Ted Nugent, FireHouse Band, and others.

His big change from rock to country came in 1999 when he penned a song that attracted Nashville’s attention. “The song just didn’t have heart until it came out country,” says Mark. He has since recorded several albums, received a number of awards, and has been interviewed and performed on radio and television.

He has been recognized by the North American Country Music Association International with their Most Promising Album of the Year award for his first album; California Country Music Association’s Song of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year; KIKS FM Los Angeles country music radio station’s Artist of the Month Award, which was shared with Vince Gill, Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks and nine other country stars.

Mark has appeared on stage with Toby Keith, Montgomery Gentry, Randy Owens, Earl Scruggs, Jewell, Chris Young and Terri Clark, and joined in the celebration of Jimmy Dickens’ 83rd birthday on stage with Dickens and Porter Wagoner at the Grand Ole Opry. He has performed at the Country Music Hall of Fame Lounge with other country stars and was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet at the CMA Awards.

Mark says his biggest honor, however, was performing for 7,500 of our troops aboard the USS J.C. Stennis Aircraft Carrier in Iraq. He was also invited in 2007 to host and sing on Norway’s equivalent of America’s TV show, “The Bachelor”. He has appeared in People Magazine’s Country Special, in CMT Magazine and is featured on CMT’s compilation of songs with Johnny Cash, Emerson D