“Sometimes I come off stage, call home and say, ‘I can’t f**king do it’”: Richie Faulkner reveals he suffered a stroke while recovering from aortic aneurysm – but isn’t ready to leave Judas Priest yet
Richie Faulkner of Judas Priest has revealed he suffered a stroke while he was recovering from an aortic aneurysm he experienced onstage back in 2021, and says it continues to affect his guitar playing.
After undergoing a ten-hour life-saving operation after the show, Faulkner was recovering at home, but while taking his dog for a walk a month afterward, he suffered a stroke. Speaking to Premier Guitar [via Metal Hammer], Faulkner explains that doctors initially believed he had experienced a transient ischaemic attack, similar to the mini stroke Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain had in 2023. However, it was later diagnosed as a stroke which has left part of his brain irreparably damaged.
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“They found some damage on the left side of the brain, which affects the right side,” he explains. “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. Everything started clicking into place in regards to what I was feeling on stage. There was something that was wrong.”
“So, as I said, we’d done some more tests. They found the damage. They said 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.”
The stroke means that Faulkner’s guitar playing has been affected, but he isn’t ready to step down from Judas Priest just yet.
“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,” he says. “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.”
There are times where Faulkner feels his struggles are more evident than others, but he’s trying to find the humour in it all.
“We did an Elegant Weapons gig in Paris in ’23. We did [Judas Priest’s] Painkiller,” he says. “I was awful. It’s on YouTube. If anyone wants to go and have a laugh, go and check that out. Fuck, it’s bad. Everyone else was great, but the guy [who is actually] in the band – fucking, ‘Ah, I don’t know what…’ Well, there you go. But yeah, so maybe just gives a bit of understanding into what it is. But even if not, I’ve got it out there.
“It’s out there. I don’t have to hide behind it anymore. And again, hopefully, maybe it helps someone else that might be struggling with their struggle to think, ‘This is okay’ and ‘I’m not alone. How do I turn this into a positive for myself?’ So, that’s it, really.”
The post “Sometimes I come off stage, call home and say, ‘I can’t f**king do it’”: Richie Faulkner reveals he suffered a stroke while recovering from aortic aneurysm – but isn’t ready to leave Judas Priest yet appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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