RICHIE FAULKNER

On September 26, 2021, while onstage with Judas Priest in Louisville, 42-year-old guitarist Richie Faulkner came incredibly close to dying. Lucky for all of us, he's here to tell the tale- and what a tale it is...

- Jon Wiederhorn

TIPTON'S TWO CENTS: "[Richie Faulkner] never puts that guitar down. I spoke to him briefly two or three nights ago, and he sounded good. But you have to be careful with any problems like that because what you need is rest. And what he wants to do is play the guitar, and that's not always restful" - GLENN TIPTON, APRIL 2022

FOR JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Richie Faulkner, September 26, 2021, started out like any other gig day. The band was scheduled to play support to Metallica on the fourth and final night of the Louder Than Life Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. Faulkner was a little tired, but after two and a half weeks on tour, that was hardly unusual.

He poured himself a vodka and Red Bull and downed it. Combined with the adrenaline of playing to a sold-out crowd, he soon perked up and was excited to take the stage dressed in trademark studded black leather vest and black leather pants, and wielding a trademark Gibson Flying V. Judas Priest opened with "One Shot at Glory" from 1990's Painkiller, then launched into "Lightning Strike" from 2018's Firepower. By the third song, the 1982 anthem "You've Got Another Thing Comin'," they were locked in and celebrating career-spanning songs on their long-delayed (due to Covid) 50th Anniversary tour.