Eddie Murphy: ‘Even If I Was Dead Broke, I’d Play My Guitar’

Comedy icon Eddie Murphy recently opened up about his music passion, branding it personally more important than acting.

Chatting with Billboard, Eddie revealed that he wouldn’t do comedy in certain life situations, but would never give up on music. “I do music all the time,” he explained. “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,” Murphy continued. “I’m not s–tting on comedy. 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.”

Discussing his upcoming album “9,” Eddie named Stevie Wonder as an “African American national treasure” everybody loves, just to focus on future touring plans.

“It’s been so long since I’ve been on the stage, I can’t say I miss it,” the actor said. “But I’d like to do it again. But if I get back onstage, I want to do something really, really special. Do some sh-t I haven’t done. I’ll tell you, I had a band Psychedelic Soul with Larry Graham about eighteen, twenty years ago, and we did some dates. We did like the Montreux Jazz Festival, and that was a lot of fun. So doing music and comedy together would be really great.”

Asked about the state of music industry, Eddie confessed that he’s not involved with the business to give an expert opinion, but noted that the speed of modern times is something he most definitely likes.

“What I like now is that we could track something, shoot something and just put it up on YouTube the day you cut it. I love that. I could track that new track ‘Temporary’ the other day, shoot a video and put it up Friday. I like that. And you can put a blast out and let people know you have something new and not have to wait for radio,” Murphy concluded.