Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner suffered a scary incident on stage back in 2021 when he collapsed with ruptured aorta during the band’s performance at the Louder Than Life Festival in Kentucky. Following emergency surgery and several other operations, Faulkner has been able to return to working with the band but the effects/damage remains.
In a new interview with Premier Guitar, Faulkner opened up about suffering a transient ischemic attack or a “mini-stroke” and that his performances have suffered as a result.
“There was something in my right hand — I thought it was my rings; I wore these stupid rings for some reason. And I thought it was that,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “So I took the rings off. I thought it was impeding something. I was changing my picks. There was something different. I could get through it, but there was something different about my right hand. And again, I could get through it. I was brushing my teeth one morning and I thought, ‘Something’s wrong with the right hand. Something’s different.'”
“They said that the fact that it hasn’t gone away means that it’s not a TIA; it’s a stroke,” he continued. “TIA damage can go away. Stroke — that’s it. It is damaged. You’ve got damage in your brain. Now I thought I had brain damage before, but this is real. It’s a small thing on the left side.”
Faulkner said he was worried about letting down fans with how his condition was affecting his playing. “I feel like I’ve got a lot of trust from the fanbase, from the guitar companies, the string companies. They back you. They put their bets on you and I don’t want anyone to know, because as soon as they know, they’re gonna lose faith, they’re gonna bail out,” he said. “And I felt that in a band like Priest, it’s gotta be world-class stuff and I don’t feel world-class. I went out there every night. I feel like a fraud because people don’t know — maybe. But one day they’re gonna find out. Someone’s gonna find out, someone’s gonna say he’s not playing that the same.”
Faulkner did go on to say, however, that he’s trying to make the best of the situation. “I know there’s a lot of people out there that play, they sing, whatever they do, and they feel like they’re not good enough or that we don’t have these issues as well, and it affects your mental health,” he said. “And I want them to know that they’re not alone. All of us, probably more people than we are all aware of, struggle with something somewhere.”
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