Richie Faulkner on the “pressure” of nailing Judas Priest’s Painkiller guitar parts live: “You can’t mess it up – you’ve got one shot at it”
It’s no small feat to be tasked with assuming lead guitar duties for Judas Priest, one of the most iconic metal bands to ever exist.
Richie Faulkner is, of course, up to the task, but as he explains in a new interview with TribLive, he still feels the pressure to nail his guitar parts live, even after having been a member of the outfit since 2011.
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Pointing specifically to 1990 album Painkiller – of which the band is currently celebrating its 35th anniversary on tour – Faulkner reveals: “Whenever we play a song from the Painkiller record or when Rob mentions the Painkiller record, the roof just lifts off the room.”
The Painkiller album features, in addition to its ferocious title track, the likes of Night Crawler, Leather Rebel, A Touch of Evil and One Shot at Glory, with guitars played by KK Downing and Glenn Tipton.
Faulkner goes on: “To be back playing a celebration of that record is always uplifting from our point of view and the crowd as well.
“And the guitar playing on that record is stunning, as we all know: Painkiller, One Shot at Glory, Hell Patrol. All those tracks are relentless guitar playing, like a master, you put that on, learn that and you’ve probably got everything down in your toolbox for heavy metal guitar.
“It’s great to play live because you can’t mess it up, you’ve got one shot at it, you’ve got to get it right or close to right the first time. So it’s a bit of a challenge as a guitar player, but it’s really fun to play and the audience loves it, too.”
But while it’s important for Richie Faulkner to nail the classic guitar parts laid down by KK Downing and Glenn Tipton, he acknowledges that, on fresh Priest material, he wants to inject his own voice and style.
“It’s always been a hard thing for me to have my own voice,” he says while recounting the writing process for the band’s latest album Invincible Shield.
“I played in cover bands when I was younger, and so you make a living emulating everyone else. So you emulate everyone else, but you haven’t got your own voice. So it’s always been a challenge for me to have my own voice.
“So I always try and add a little bit more of whatever my voice is on the guitar solos. Something that if someone put the record on, they can identify it as mine. I don’t know if I ever achieved that. That’s not really for me to say. That’s for the listener to decide really, but I always try to do that, something that has my character in there somewhere, if that’s possible to do.”
In other news, Richie Faulkner recently revealed he works “three times a day” with a physio while on tour, to manage the damage caused by an aortic aneurysm and stroke he suffered onstage in 2021.
For a full list of upcoming Judas Priest tour dates, head to the band’s official website.
The post Richie Faulkner on the “pressure” of nailing Judas Priest’s Painkiller guitar parts live: “You can’t mess it up – you’ve got one shot at it” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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