He returned to Aurora in the early 1970s, married, had three children, divorced, was an instructor at the Fox Valley Raiders Drum And Bugle Corps and was on their board of directors.

[1] He was a professional musician in both Chicago and Los Angeles as a studio drummer, jingle producer, educator, live performer, and manufacturer, serving as Operations Director for DW drums.

He toured five years with the Grammy Award-winning band Chicago as a drum and computer technician, bridging the gap into digital technology, developing protocol for use of sequencing in live performance; executing the same for Yanni and Manhattan Transfer.

In 1989, Murphy was the drummer for the Bee Gees in their concerts in Australia, supporting their 1989 One for All World Tour[2] promoting their album One.

[3] They performed on four continents for a total of twenty-five concerts (eleven in Europe, six in Australia, two in Japan, and six in the U.S.