Richie Faulkner reveals stroke left him with lasting brain damage

After undergoing several open heart surgeries and an aortic aneurysm, guitarist Richie Faulkner of Judas Priest is still coping with problems, stating in a recent interview that lasting brain damage has been done. Emergency surgery was required after Faulkner collapsed onstage during Judas Priest‘s performance at the Louder Than Life Festival in Kentucky in 2021 due to a damaged aorta. Since then, other surgeries have been performed, and the results have lasted for a long time. In a recent interview with Premier Guitar, Faulkner revealed that approximately one month following his initial surgery, he suffered what he later discovered to be a transient ischemic attack (TIA), also known as a “mini-stroke.” Faulkner does not recall the details of that day, but he said that doctors warned him that TIAs can result in full-scale strokes. A year later, he had another TIA and had another heart surgery. By that time, Judas Priest had returned to touring with Faulker, with his doctors’ approval, but he could sense something was wrong.

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. 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.

However, Faulker admits that he was concerned that his illness was harming his playing and that he was disappointing Judas Priest fans.

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. 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.