When Michael Adams left Pepperdine University in 1989 to become president of Centre College, the university threw him a farewell party.
For entertainment, organizers asked a few faculty and staff members to put a band together. Twenty-nine years later, with Adams back at the university as chancellor, three of the band members are still performing together.
The Mesa Peak Band started as a way to say goodbye to a friend. But it quickly became a way for its members to perform the music they are passionate about and connect to Pepperdine students. The band has performed at the university for student events including My Tie, aka the President’s Reception, Rock the Brock, Convocation and Christmas parties. They have performed off campus at the Malibu Arts Festival, at Santa Monica Beach and in Washington D.C.
“I’m a bit of a shy person,” said Andrew K. Benton, Pepperdine president, guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist. “Music has always been a way that I have bridged my shyness to make friends. That’s what we do when we play for the students. We’re bridging the gap between where we are and our knowledge of Pepperdine.”
Benton is stepping down as president in July. The band does not know what they will do once Benton is gone, but no matter what, the students said they have enjoyed their music, and Benton and the other band members said their love of music will never go away.
Meet the band
The three members still playing together are Benton, Jeff Pippin, Pepperdine’s senior vice president and chief investment officer, and Chris Stivers, a communication professor and longtime Songfest music director. Recently the band has included opera instructor Ida Nicolosi, her former student Christy Panchal Klotz and drummer Logan Carroll, the son of former band member Robert Reber Carroll.
Benton began playing in bands at 14 when he and a few friends started We the People. Benton had taken six years of piano lessons and played the organ in the band for six years.
Pippin said the Mesa Peak Band tried out lots of names in their first few years, including the Mutant Ninja Administrators and Pepp and the Diners. Benton said members decided on Mid-Life Crisis when they were 30-something because they thought it was funny. Eventually they got too old for that name to be a joke, so they looked for another.
“We went with a name that nobody else could claim,” Benton said. “There were other bands out there that hadn’t played under that name Mid-Life Crisis for as long as we had, but still, I just didn’t like confusion.”
They landed on the Mesa Peak Band, a tribute to the highest point on Pepperdine’s campus.
Pippin started to teach himself to play the guitar in 1963 when his parents got him one for Christmas.
“By the end of the first day I could play a couple three-chord songs in the key of G,” Pippin said. “The guitar just kind of became my instrument, my buddy.”
Stivers saw Pippin play jazz at a faculty event and invited him to play with the Songfest band in 1989. That brought Pippin on the radar for the Adams farewell band and led to Pippin playing at Songfest every chance he got.
Stivers’ father taught at Pepperdine and would invite students over to his house for dinner. After they ate, the Stivers and their guests would gather around and sing songs. Stivers’ father would play the piano and students would bring their own instruments.
“I remember one student brought his stand up bass,” Stivers said. “Since it was such a pain to get in and out of his car, he just left it at our house.”
Stivers taught himself to play on that stand up bass and had his dad bring home other instruments for him to learn.
David Davenport, former Pepperdine president and band member, invited Stivers to play at that first farewell show.
“It sounded like fun,” Stivers said. “And it sounded like it was just going to be one time.”
Nearly three decades later, Stivers is still playing with Benton and Pippin, although the band still never knows which performance could be their last.
“We kind of dissolve every time we play,” Stivers said. “We just kind of know that, when called, we’re ready to serve.”
Benton and the students
Benton was inaugurated as president in 2000 and wanted to find a good way to get the students comfortable with him and his wife. He saw the President’s Reception as his opportunity.
“I decided I’d get the band together,” Benton said. “And not tell students.”
Benton said his surprise performance became the worst kept secret on campus after a few years but it kept serving its purpose.
“On the first day of classes, the freshmen seem very easy with me,” Benton said. “That makes me feel happy. When students feel closer and more engaged with their president, I think that’s a very good thing for them.”
The performances have left their marks on students. A Pepp Post poll of 51 students found that 86 percent of students enjoyed the Mesa Peak Band’s music.
“I feel like I’m an oldies fan,” said Megan Williams, a freshman media productions major. “So that was kind of fun. Just a different kind of genre. Especially with our demographic, I felt like it was super fun and just something different.”
The classic rock and roll songs bridge the age gap between the musicians and students, as 65 percent of students said they enjoyed the music despite not being familiar with the songs.
Freshman music major Keaton Woodburn said he enjoyed the music because it was not what students were expecting when they got to the President’s Reception.
The Pepp Post poll found that 86 percent of students liked seeing Benton do something he is passionate about.
“I think [My Tie] showed us another side of him,” said Sarah Perez, sophomore sports medicine major. “He wasn’t just the president, someone who was serious all the time, he was like us. He likes to have fun and he has hobbies and interests.”
Roughly 73 percent of students surveyed would prefer if the next president was in a band but said it would be fine with it if not. Another 20 percent thought the next president should be required to be in a band.
“[I would be disappointed] only because I’m a tour guide and I like to mention [the band] when I give tours here,” said Nicholas Rosenberg, a sophomore organizational communication major. “I will be sad if I can’t say that anymore, but as long as they’re a good president I can overlook the one thing.”
A presidential band, although rare, is not unique to Pepperdine. Ohio State President Michael Drake plays in a rock and roll band, Ghezal Barghouty wrote in an October 2017 article in The Lantern. Ferris State President David Eisler plays with his school’s pep band whenever he can, Michelle R. Martinelli wrote in a March 2018 USA Today article. And Herzing University President Renée Herzing plays in a rock cover band called Hell on Heels, Ben Stanley wrote in a July 2016 BizTimes article.
Beyond Pepperdine
Map of Performance Locations
The Mesa Peak Band has played outside of Pepperdine several times, including a set of British songs for an event at Santa Monica Beach, performances at the Malibu Arts Festival and a show in Washington D.C.
The D.C. show was for the American Council of Education, of which Benton was a chairman.
“I attended a party one year,” Benton said. “I walked in the room and I thought, ‘This is dead.’ I told the person who was organizing the party, ‘This is not a lot of fun.’ She said, ‘Can you do better?’ I said, ‘Yes. I can.’”
Benton came back the next year with the Mesa Peak Band and put on a two-hour show. Skunk Baxter, a former Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan guitarist, along with horn players who had worked with Aretha Franklin, played with the band in D.C.
While the band was driving to a practice before their show, someone shot at their van. Benton said it had nothing to do with their music, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I was leaning forward,” Stivers said. “At one point I decided to lean back, and it was at that point that the bullet went right in front of me, through the van.”
The incident gave the D.C. trip its name, the “Dodged the Bullet Tour.”
The future of the Mesa Peak Band
Benton said he hopes the band will continue, even if it means replacing him.
“I think we all will continue to play music,” Pippin said. “There will still be music on this campus.”
Stivers thinks Benton’s departure will be a big loss.
“Dr. Benton is the glue,” Stivers said. “He would not say he’s the star of the show, but he’s the glue that holds us together.”
Kyle McCabe completed the reporting for this story under the supervision of Dr. Christina Littlefield and Dr. Theresa de los Santos in Jour 241 in fall 2018. Dr. Littlefield supervised the web story.
