If he wasnt already, Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner is now officially a metal god. Not only did Faulkner survive a near-fatal rupture of his aorta, but as his heart was spilling blood into his chest cavity, Richie didnt miss a single note of his solo in Painkiller.
As I watch footage from the Louder Than Life Festival in Kentucky, I can see in my face the confusion and anguish I was feeling whilst playing Painkiller as my aorta ruptured and started to spill blood into my chest cavity, Faulker wrote after successful heart surgery. I was having what my doctor called an aortic aneurysm and complete aortic dissection. From what Ive been told by my surgeon, people with this dont usually make it to the hospital alive.
According to the National Library of Medicine via Nashville Vein Center, only about one in five people survive a ruptured aortic aneurysm.
Fan-shot footage from Judas Priests Louder Than Life set shows the confusion and anguish on Faulkners face as he shreds through Painkiller, which ended up being Priests final song of the night. Despite his aorta literally rupturing onstage, Faulkner absolutely crushed the lengthy solo to one of the most metal songs in history.
The amazing Heart & Lung Center was 4 miles away from the gig site if it had been further away Faulkner pondered. We can always drive ourselves crazy with these things but Im still alive thankfully. Whatever the circumstances, when watching that footage, the truth is, knowing what I know now, I see a dying man.