02:22
Ralph Murphy Highlight
If you don't expose yourself to some level of risk, you can't learn.
About Ralph
- Says he's done everything in the music business: he's owned labels, been a session musician, written number-one hits.
- Grew up in Canada; heard about the folk music scene in Los Angeles and decided to move down to California.
- Says that everything in his life before then was grey, so he was in search of some color.
- He realized their relaxed approach to songwriting wasn't working for him, so he moved again, this time to New York City.
- While working as a session musician, he heard the Beatles for the first time and knew he had to go to Liverpool.
- He was only 19 years old, and he was broke, so he lied and said he was a chef in order to get boat passage.
- Within two years, he had a record deal with his group, The Guardsmen, kicking off a long, illustrious career.
- A few years later, a song that he wrote hit number one on the charts; has since written for acts like Shania Twain and Randy Travis.
