Judas Priest Star Suffered Brain Damage From Stroke

04-05-2025

Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner reveals in a new interview that he suffered brain damage from a stroke. While he did not share exactly when the stroke occurred, it was in the years the aortic aneurysm that he suffered while stage during the Louder Than Life Festival in Louisville, KY in 2021.

Following that attack, he underwent open-heart surgery. And now he has shared that he has suffered a stroke that caused brain damage. He shared with Premier Guitar, "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. 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.

"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." Watch the full interview below: