Judas Priest’s lead guitarist Richie Faulkner recently gave an interview to Guitar World and opened up about how performing with the band saved his life.
On September 26, 2021, Richie Faulkner suddenly suffered an acute cardiac aortic dissection while on stage with his bandmates at the Louder Than Life Festival. The team immediately took the guitarist to the hospital, and he had severe open-heart surgery that lasted for hours.
After Rob Halford informed the fans that Faulkner felt better daily, the lead guitarist himself also talked about his health status. He mentioned that he started to feel more positive and strong. The guitarist also expressed he could not wait to meet his fans again soon.
Faulkner, who regained his health, recently recalled this challenging experience. As he revealed, doctors questioned how he survived so long in a situation like this, in which generally someone’s death happens suddenly.
Later, the doctors considered his high adrenaline might keep him alive as he performed on stage during the incident. Faulkner stated metal music and performing with Judas Priest might have saved his life.
Richie Faulkner explained in his words:
“One question I had for the doctors was how I was able to go on for so long because, yeah, once these things rupture, you’ve usually got minutes, and you’re gone. They think that maybe my adrenaline was so high because we were playing and that my heart was pumping hard enough and fast enough to keep me going long enough to get pumped up with more adrenaline and keep me going to the hospital. So I can literally say the power of heavy metal kept me alive long enough to save my life. I was literally, possibly saved by metal.”
Eventually, Richie Faulkner regained his health over time and received support from his family, bandmates, other important names, and fans. The guitarist has stated that he believed metal music saved his life, and his audience couldn’t be happier.
