To adapt to different environments, S. aureus relies on a complex and finely tuned regulatory network. While some of these networks have been well elucidated, the functions of more than 50% of the transcriptional regulators in S. aureus remain unexplored. Here, we assess the contribution of the LacI family of metabolic regulators to staphylococcal virulence. Through the use of transcriptomics and proteomics, we revealed that a number of virulence factors are differentially regulated in the absence of purR. Our findings highlight that S. aureus repurposes a metabolic regulator to directly control the expression of virulence factors, and by doing so, tempers its pathogenesis.