Cillian Murphy says he was offered a record deal when he was a teenager

‘Peaky Blinders’ star played guitar in a Frank Zappa-inspired acid jazz band

Cillian Murphy has revealed he almost embarked down a very different career path, when he was offered a record deal as a teenager.

In his youth, the Peaky Blinders actor played guitar in a band called The Sons of Mr Green Genes.

Speaking to BBC Radio 6 Music, Murphy was asked about his musical past.

“Yes, that is true,” he said. “I played in bands in my teens and then when I was about 18 or 19, we were offered a deal and it didn’t work out.

“So that was the end of the dream,” he added. The actor described his band’s sound as being influenced by acid jazz, although he noted that “we were probably a bit late to the party with that sound”.  

The Sons of Mr Green Genes took their name from a song on Frank Zappa’s 1969 album Hot Rats.

 “There was a lot of instrumental music and a lot of excessively long guitar solos and stuff like that,” he said.

However, he denied harbouring any negative feelings over the music career falling through.

“It’s a treacherous industry, isn’t it?” he said. “All the lads that I was in the band with we’re [still] such good friends now, and I don’t know if that would have actually stayed the case if we’d have been put through the jaws of the music industry as youngsters.”

Murphy is set to host his own 12-episode music show on 6 Music called Limited Edition, which begins on Monday 19 October.