Richie Faulkner of Judas Priest States His Ability to Play Guitar is Affected by Recent Stroke

Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner states that a recent stroke he suffered has partially hampered his ability to play guitar.

In a recent interview Premier Guitar, Faulkner stated that he has had several open heart surgeries in addition to complications from an aortic aneurysm. He also stated some permanent brain damage seems to have set in. In 2021, while performing at the Louder Than Life music festival in Louisville, Kentucky, he collapsed onstage due to a ruptured aorta. He was rushed to the local hospital to undergo emergency surgery. In the years following, more heart surgeries have followed this event

In the interview, Faulkner stated he suffered a TIA (transient ischemic attack) a month after the initial operation on his heart. He stated this was a "mini-stroke" and that he does not remember all of the details that day, the doctors informed him that it could lead to full-blown strokes. A year later, he experienced another TIA and went in for another heart surgery. Judas Priest had resumed touring, with Faulkner after he had obtained medical clearance from the doctors. But he suspected something was not right. In an interview with Blabbermouth, "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. 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'."

He was examined by doctors and informed it was not just mini-strokes he'd been having. "They said that the fact it hasn't gone away means that it's not a TIA; it's a stroke. 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 feels guilty about letting down the fans of Judas Priest because his playing is not up to its usual standards. "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. 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."

Despite all of this, Faulkner has tried 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. 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."