Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner talks suffering a stroke & brain damage after heart surgery

Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner went through “major emergency heart surgery” in 2021 after his aorta ruptured onstage at Louisville festival Louder Than Life. He’s now given an update on his condition, and his recovery from the surgery, in a new interview with Premier Guitar. “There’s a bit of collateral damage,” he told them, explaining that he has brain damage from a stroke he had a month after the initial surgery.

“So what happened was we went back out on the road, and I thought everything was fine,” he told Premier Guitar (as transcribed by 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.’ And the right foot, the right leg. So we went back in. We’d done some tests. They found some damage on the left side of the brain, which affects the right side. Now, fortunately, I don’t play guitar with my foot, so that’s fine. I can get away with that. But my hand, obviously, that’s our engine room. And everything started clicking into place in regards to what I was feeling on stage. There was something that was wrong. Something was impeding, something wasn’t right. So, as I said, we’d done some more tests. They found the damage. They said that the fact that 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.”

On his decision to discuss his condition publicly for the first time, Faulkner told Premiere Guitar, “Because every time I go out — we do an onstage soundcheck. People are standing right where the cameras are and they’re right in front. And I’m thinking they’re gonna know, they’re gonna say I’m not playing ‘Painkiller’ right. Again, it is the rhythms more than anything. And I just thought if I kind of free that up, if I make that accessible, then the truth is the truth. You can’t argue the truth. That’s the way it is. I still play, we’re still writing records, we’re still playing as hard as we can — it doesn’t affect that — but there’s just little things I have to do. But I go out every night thinking… Sometimes I come off stage and I call home and I say, ‘I can’t fucking do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it.’ There’s stuff that I used to play — I used to think something and it would come out. And now I’m up there struggling to play like a rhythm pattern. ‘I can’t do it. I can’t. I’m gonna quit. I can’t do it.’ And then you have a good one. So who wants that? But that’s the way it is. That’s the truth. So that’s what I struggle with. That’s the collateral damage.”

Watch the interview in full below.

Judas Priest will be on tour hrough the spring and summer in Latin America, Europe, and the UK. See all dates below.

JUDAS PRIEST: 2025 TOUR DATES
Apr. 16, 2025 Brasilia, Brazil Arena Of Rock
Apr. 19, 2025 São Paulo, Brazil Monsters of Rock 2025
Apr. 20, 2025 São Paulo, Brazil Vibra São Paulo
Apr. 23, 2025 Santiago, Chile Movistar Arena
Apr. 26, 2025 Villa Martelli, Argentina Masters Of Rock, Argentina
Apr. 30, 2025 Bogotá, Colombia Coliseo Medplus Bogotá
May 2, 2025 San Salvador, El Salvador Complejo Deportivo Cuscatlán
May 4, 2025 Ciudad De México, Mexico Arena CDMX
May 7, 2025 Monterrey, Mexico Arena Monterrey
Jun. 12, 2025 Turku, Finland Rockfest 2025
Jun. 14, 2025 Hamar, Norway Tjuvholmen Kro
Jun. 17, 2025 Stuttgart, Germany Schleyerhalle
Jun. 18, 2025 Frankfurt Am Main, Germany HESSENTAG FESTIVAL
Jun. 21, 2025 Clisson, France Hellfest 2025
Jun. 22, 2025 Dessel, Belgium Graspop Metal Meeting 2025
Jun. 25, 2025 Viveiro, Spain Resurrection Fest
Jun. 27 – 29, 2025 Lisboa, Portugal Evil Live Festival 2025
Jun. 29, 2025 Santa Coloma De Gramenet, Spain Rock Fest Barcelona
Jun. 30, 2025 Bilbo, Spain Miribilla. Anfiteatro/Basketball
Jul. 2, 2025 Ferrara, Italy Ferrara Summer Festival
Jul. 3, 2025 Zürich, Switzerland Hallenstadion
Jul. 5, 2025 Hannover, Germany The Scorpions “60th Anniversary – Coming Home”
Jul. 7, 2025 Łódź, Poland Atlas Arena
Jul. 10, 2025 Rättvik, Sweden Dalhalla
Jul. 13, 2025 München, Germany Olympiahalle
Jul. 15, 2025 Carcassonne, France Festival de Carcassonne
Jul. 17, 2025 Sion, Switzerland Sion Sous Les Étoiles
Jul. 19, 2025 Esch-sur-alzette, Luxembourg Rockhal
Jul. 20, 2025 Oberhausen, Germany Rudolf Weber-ARENA
Jul. 23, 2025 Scarborough, United Kingdom Scarborough Open Air Theatre
Jul. 25, 2025 London, United Kingdom The O2