The Metal Den’s Randy “Rocket” Cody recently conducted an interview with legendary ex-DEATH guitarist JAMES MURPHY.

Here are a few excerpts from the conversation:

TMD: Have you always been able to solo naturally on guitar? Or did you really have to work hard at getting good with that?

James: There’s was definitely work involved... but as I mentioned earlier, I feel I had a certain advantage from having spent so many years just listening intently to guitar playing on records. I had so many songs, solos and all, memorized in every nuance (but with no clue as to how to physically play them on the instrument), that it gave me an internalized instinct and understanding for guitar and music in general that was pure and uninhibited by trying to concurrently wrestle with the mechanics of actual playing. So, when I was finally able to actually learn those mechanics I already had a very clear concept of what the end result should sound like, and that served me very well, in that I never had the issue of technique getting in the way of the music... which is a problem you see quite often with young players. For me technique came last, so it was strictly a tool to get to the music in my head, and not an end unto itself."

TMD: How did you get the gig with Death?

James: "At the time I met Chuck I had already toured the year before with the Combat Records band AGENT STEEL in Europe and the UK. I showed up at a Death show in Tampa that was part of their touring cycle for the Leprosy album, and I walked past Chuck without realizing it in the parking lot. I happened to be wearing a shirt from that Agent Steel tour I had done and Chuck spotted it... turns out he was a fan and had the band’s albums. He commented “cool shirt, Agent Steel rules” as I was walking by and it sparked a conversation. I told him I was a huge fan and he learned of my experience as a touring musician, which he seemed very interested in, which in turn piqued my curiosity as to why he might be so focused on that. We were hanging out again after the show and I gave him my mother’s phone number, as I didn’t have one of my own, and told him to call and leave me a message if Rick ever quit. About 5 months later I had moved to Atlanta to try to get a job and enroll in the Atlanta Institute of Music. I did get a job, but couldn’t yet afford the tuition of the school so I was just hanging out, working a landscaping job, trying to figure out how to attend AIM and jamming with my roommate, who happened to be the guitarist of HALLOWS EVE.

Out of the blue one day Chuck called my mother, who passed him my number in Atlanta... he called me up to offer me the now vacant guitar position in Death and believe it or not, I told him that I was flattered but that I really wanted to stay in Atlanta and attend the school. The next morning I woke up and thought to myself, “what the hell is wrong with me??”, and called Chuck back to tell him I had reconsidered and would be packing up and coming back to Florida to join."

Read more here.