Kevin Cronin

Murphy, extremely talented dude.

He was more of a blue-eyed soul guy.

He was all about R&B, and he played great piano, great guitar, sang, had a really unique voice.

Yeah, I guess, yeah.

Maybe not your type.

But he was Irving's... Irving had Gary, and Irving's partner, Don and Champagne, had Murph.

So when I joined the band, the expectation was... I think the word was out that REO was maybe gonna make a change at lead singer, but the expectation was it was gonna be Murphy.

Rich Rath came and found me.

And so when I left, Murphy was the obvious replacement.

So they made a couple of albums with Murph, and it never really gelled musically.

Murphy's, like I say, extremely gifted, but...

Gary's more country, Murph was more R&B, and it just never felt right to me.

There was no bitterness about it.

I knew that I cooked my own goose as far as that was concerned.

I didn't hold it against them for firing me.

But I wasn't a huge fan of those records.

There was one song called Lost in a Dream that Murphy wrote with Bruce Hall, who ended up joining REO.

I really dug that song.

That was the title song of the middle album that they made, Lost in a Dream.

But the next album,