Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner disclosed in a recent interview with Premier Guitar his experience with multiple strokes after emergency heart surgery in 2021.
“We went back out on the road in 2022 and have kind of been on the road since. But there’s a bit of collateral damage,” Faulkner explained. “Well, not a lot of people know — some nearest and dearest, they know about it. So about a month after the incident, I went back in, and we were walking the dog in the neighborhood back here [in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee], and I had the dog. [My girlfriend] Mariah had [our daughter] Daisy [with her].”
“And I felt it come, I felt it, and it came over me, and I knew it was coming, and it came over me, and my face went. I couldn’t talk,” he continued. “And Mariah was there. She took the dog, she had the baby, and she was holding me up. The neighbors were running out. I haven’t felt comfortable up until this point — and I’ll tell you why — explaining what happened. So long story short, we went into the hospital — this was a month after the surgery — we went back in, and it was the last thing I wanted to do. ‘F*ck hospitals.'”
“They saved my life, but I’ve had enough of them for a month, So I’m back in there. And they basically said, what I think it was, was a TIA, which means transient ischaemic attack, which is a TIA. It’s a small stroke,” Richie added.
“So they’re sure it’s that. They put me on some medication. Turned out later on, it was an actual stroke,” the guitarist said. “So Mariah thinks I had one in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. I don’t remember. I don’t recall anything. I remember small ones happening after the event.”
Faulkner described his subsequent health challenges: “I had another incident about a year after. I had another open-heart [surgery] — there was a leak, so they went in, opened it up again; I had another small one. So what happened was we went back out on the road, and I thought everything was fine.”
“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,” he stated. “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.”
The guitarist noticed persistent issues with his right hand and foot. “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,” he said.
“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,” Faulkner noted.
This disclosure follows Faulkner’s initial life-threatening aortic aneurysm during a Judas Priest performance at the Louder Than Life Festival in September 2021.
Multiple medical interventions and ongoing recovery efforts have marked the guitarist’s health journey.
Consequence revealed that Faulkner needed a second open-heart surgery to repair a critical leak between a synthetic graft and his aorta. This complication added another challenge to his recovery process.
Blabbermouth noted Faulkner’s dedication to performing. He continued touring with Judas Priest throughout his recovery period.
MetalSucks highlighted the band’s upcoming schedule. Judas Priest will perform at European and UK festivals from mid-April through late July 2025.
Faulkner’s determination remains evident. He continues to perform despite the stroke’s permanent effects on his right hand, which he considers his ‘engine room’ for guitar playing.
