Murphy was born in Sunflower, Mississippi and was educated in Memphis, where his father worked at the Peabody Hotel. He learned to play guitar when he was a child. In 1948 he moved to Chicago where he joined the Howlin’ Wolf Band. In 1978 he joined the Blues Brothers, appearing in all their movies, and remained with them until the early 2000’s. He had a stroke in 2002 but returned to perform a few years later, appearing at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in April 2013 at Madison Square Garden.(Wiki).
