'Hit Men' musician teaches kids to rock

My sons Albert and Lennon saw "School of Rock" and started taking drum and guitar lessons. Last Thursday I had Hit Men drummer Steve Murphy on the show. He was an instructor at the School of Rock in Montclair on and asked him about teaching the kids.

"You have to check your ego about the songs and the albums that you grew up listening to and realize that they're not going to sound like that," Murphy said. "Some kids just blow your mind with how good they are and some kids just need a little extra work."

Murphy was once a member of the Alan Parsons Live Project, and has toured with "Happy Together" along with Jack Bruce, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Mickey Dolenz, Todd Rungren and Dave Mason, among countless others. He says "it was a lot of fun."

In addition, Murphy is a die hard Rangers fan. Imagine being a fan and getting to sing the National Anthem at a game.

For Murphy, who's also a vocalist, it's happened several times over the last 10 years.

"It's been a dream come true for me," Murphy says. "Being a New York Rangers fan is my second passion right after music."

So what's it like?

"You're about 15 feet on the ice, they pull out the blue carpet with the Rangers logo and you have both teams staring at you. it's not a packed Garden but you have about 12 or 13 thousand people there at that point."

As for kneeling, he said "no one takes a knee on the ice; that hasn't happened yet."

Steve Trevelise is on the air from Monday-Thursday, 7 to 11 p.m. Tweet him @realstevetrev or @nj1015.