Mark Sandman - Early Life

Early Life

Mark Sandman was born into a Jewish American family in Newton, Massachusetts. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts, then worked a variety of blue-collar jobs, including construction, taxi driving, and commercial fishing. Sandman once noted he would often earn considerable overtime pay, which allowed him to take leave of work and travel outside of New England to places such as rural Colorado -- the setting for a number of Treat Her Right and Morphine songs penned by Sandman, including "Thursday," "The Jury," and "I Think She Likes Me."

Two tragic events impacted Sandman's life and would later influence his music: he was robbed and stabbed in the chest during a robbery in his cab, and his two brothers died. These events would later be recounted in the Treat Her Right song "No Reason." His mother, Guitelle Sandman, later self-published Four Minus Three: A Mother's Story, a book about the loss of her three sons.

Few details are publicly known about Sandman's personal life. Fans have often speculated that many of Sandman's songs were autobiographical, which to this day remains unconfirmed. Although Sandman served as an unofficial spokesman for Morphine, he avoided answering questions about his personal life or his professional experiences outside of the music business. Sandman was reported to have been particularly secretive about his age, becoming angry with any reporter who expressed an interest in revealing it publicly. Some speculated that Sandman was sensitive to the fact that he was generally 10 to 20 years older than most of the indie rock figures popular during the 1990s. This was most notable in a famously contentious interview conducted by journalist Seth Mnookin for the now-defunct online music magazine Addicted to Noise.