If you ask the man from the US state of Mississippi about his musical influences, you travel with him, the born narrator, first back to the small town of Tupelo in the 1980s. It was here, in the birthplace of Elvis Presley, that Murry, who now lives in Ireland, gained his first musical experience. "There were a lot of churches in this area. I also went to church services regularly, plus I sang in the church choir, which rehearsed almost every day. At home I sang with my ma while she did the housework. I grew up listening to church music and gospel." Then a real aha moment for young Murry was a Tom Petty gig, "The first shows I went to were country concerts in the area, not bad. But then when I saw Tom Petty for the first time, it was awesome. I thought: Wow, this guy looks weird. I look weird. This all sounds a little weird. But that's the coolest guy I've ever seen! I want to do that too."
But back to Tupelo and its most famous son: One anecdote about the King always stuck in Murry's mind: "Elvis went with his mother one day to a store that sold all kinds of stuff, just a few houses away from where I lived as a kid. He wanted a rifle so bad. But his mother didn't like that at all, she had in mind that he should get a guitar. You know how it turned out ..." It was a similar story for Murry. Guns did fascinate him; fortunately, he then picked up the guitar to deal with traumatic events in his life. Guns and bullets still appear in his lyrics, but less frequently on the new album than on its predecessors. The memory of working on "The Stars Are God's Bullet Holes" make Murry rave ...