(Billboard) – If you’re reading these words, chances are Eddie Murphy is making music. “I never stop,” he says with a laugh — one of the most famous laughs in world history. It’s what Murphy’s been doing for much of the past five years — a time when he’s chosen to focus on his lifelong passion for recording music in his home studio over starring in movies.
Yet to those of us who’ve been watching Murphy since he first exploded as a superstar on “Saturday Night Life” in 1980, music has always played a significant part in his comedy, from his musical parodies on that show, right through to his Academy Award-nominated turn in Dreamgirls. Indeed, Murphy’s recorded three albums of music, starting with ‘How Could It Be’ in 1985, which hit No 26 on the Billboard 200 and featured “Party All The Time” — his collaboration with Rick James — a No 2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.
Today, he’s invited Billboard into his home studio to discuss the place of music in his life and his upcoming album ‘9’, being released independently on Feb 9. Murphy’s first new album since 1993’s ‘Love’s Alright’ is already off to a promising start: “Red Light” — a classic-sounding reggae jam featuring Snoop Lion — was released along with a video in September. He followed that up with “Promise (You Won’t Break My Heart)” — a pretty piece of vulnerable, Quiet Storm soul — which is fast rising on Billboard’s R&B Singles charts, entering this week at No 33 on the Adult R&B airplay chart without any major label push.
As Eddie Murphy explains here, his passion music is even bringing him back to the idea of performing live for people again as he explains here:
Eddie, what was the first music to really connect with you growing up?
The Beatles. I love the Beatles. The very first song in my memory is “Do You Want To Know A Secret?” (he sings the chorus) For years, I thought John was singing that song, but then I realized it was George. I remember standing by a radio and just listening to that song. Growing up, I liked all the stuff that everyone else was listening to, like Motown, but the biggest group of all was The Beatles.
Did you go to concerts growing up?
My first concert makes me sound like a real old man. My very first concert was Jackie Wilson. I was eight years old at the RKO Albee in Brooklyn in like 1969. My mother took me to see Jackie Wilson. The bill was Jackie, The Five Stairsteps and The Sandpebbles. That was a first concert.
That’s a very soulful start. When did you realize that you could sing?
You know what’s a trip? Music has always been around with me. Like I had a band before I did standup. I had a band when I was like 15 in high school. The name of the band was EMMK. It was the Eddie Murphy Mitchell Keiser Band. Mitchell Keiser was the guy who was my first comedy partner. We formed a band because we could both do impressions, and we were like “You know what would be really cool — if we could do Beatles impressions and get a real band playing.” So we got a band together and played behind us while we did Beatle impressions. Eventually, it turned into a real band.
Were you writing songs back then?
No, we were playing stuff like The Commodores’ “Sweet Love” and Earth, Wind & Fire songs. If you look back on the funny stuff that I’ve done over the years, there’s been a lot that had music in it. I was always singing parodies, but if you listened to it, what would make it funnier was that the singing would be kind of cool. I did all these different impressions and could do all these things with my voice because I have a really wide range when I sing.
Do you get something different from music than you do from comedy?
You know what? I do music all the time. Just when I’m around the house, I have my guitar and stuff with me all the time. I don’t do jokes all the time. (Laughs) It’s like one thing is constant, and the other is something I make money for doing. I love to make people laugh. But even if I was dead broke, I would play my guitar, but I would not be writing jokes.
Have you shared this music with lots of people in recent years?
No, I’ve been tracking and shelving it.
So what made you think that this is the time to put out an album, especially at a time when the whole idea of albums is being challenged?
I guess this all started when we tracked “Red Light.” We were so excited with it. We thought we should just put this really strong reggae track out, but not make a fuss, do it independent. Somehow that turned into, “Why don’t we put a whole album out?” Because we had a lot of strong material. We could put out a double album. If this album finds an audience, we have another album all ready.
Were you encouraged by the positive reception to “Red Light”?
Yeah, that’s what they told me. I haven’t seen it. I don’t be going on computers and all that stuff, and I really don’t be reading reviews. What if people said it sucked? That would hurt my feelings. So I don’t read that stuff.
Now “Promise (You Won’t Break My Heart)” is the second single and it’s already debuted this week in the Top 40 on Billboard R&B chart. How did that song start?
“Promise” started with me just playing the little guitar licks for about a month. Trent who helped me produce the album was like “You should write something to that.” Then that first line popped out. Sometimes it comes out all at once, and other times just in pieces.
Is guitar your main instrument?
Yeah, I play a little bit of piano, but mostly guitar.
Let’s talk about some of the songs on the album. “Mellow Miss Mary” – which Snoop is also on — sounds like a really moving love song to a particular popular weed.
Yeah, on the surface it sounds like you’re talking about a girl. That song originally started out back with Rick James, but then Rick kicked out. Rick loved that song. That’s how old that track is. It was supposed to be the new weed anthem.
