Richie Faulkner says he ‘probably’ would have been able to handle Judas Priest’s songs with only one guitar

During an appearance on the In The Trenches With Ryan Roxie video podcast, Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner spoke about the band’s recent announcement that it would embark on the next leg of its 50th-anniversary tour as a quartet.

Rob [Halford, Priest singer] called me up and he said, ‘Faulkner, would you be able to handle all the guitar parts on your own without a second guitar player?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I probably would be able to handle them. It would probably take a bit of moving around and doing things a bit differently — a couple of more pedals and stuff like that.’ ‘Cause he was thinking… I think one time Priest were a four-piece and he was thinking about going back to that and Glenn [Tipton, Priest‘s longtime guitarist who is battling Parkinson’s disease] coming out when he could. I think that was the idea in his mind. And I said, ‘Whatever you wanna do, boss. If that’s what you’re thinking, if everyone else is on board with it, whatever you wanna do.’ So I went and bought… I think I bought three harmonizer pedals to try some stuff out. Long story short, we went back on the decision.”

Richie Faulkner

According to Faulkner, Priest probably would have been able to pull off most of its material with only one guitarist.

The set we’ve got at the moment, apart from the rhythm guitar underneath the solos, there’s not a lot of harmony stuff going on.“Victim Of Changes”… I’ve been playing Thin Lizzy in cover bands all my life with one guitar. You work out both parts anyway.”

Richie Faulkner