Richie Faulkner

Faulkner was born in London, and lived in Stockholm, Sweden, where he worked as a sausage seller between 1995 and 2000, and learned to speak Swedish while living in the country. His inspiration to pick up a guitar was watching recordings of Jimi Hendrix's concerts at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1970. Faulkner got his first guitar when he was around 7 or 8 years old. His father played guitar and was a fan of Hendrix and bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, and used to show him a few chords. The first song he learned to play on guitar was The Troggs' 1966 single "Wild Thing". When Faulkner was about 13 years old, he connected with the owner of a local music shop who played in a cover band, covering material from Iron Maiden to Thin Lizzy to UFO. He asked Faulkner to play a couple of songs with him at some gigs, which was his introduction to the world of gigging. In the early stages of his career, Faulkner played in bands such as Dirty Deeds, Voodoo Six (which he co-founded with bassist Tony Newton), Ace Mafia, Parramon, and Lauren Harris' band. His first signed band was Deeds, and their album, 2002's Blown, was produced by Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris. With Faulkner on guitar, the Lauren Harris band was the opening act on Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time World Tour in 2008. …

Faulkner is in a relationship with Mariah Lynch, the daughter of guitarist George Lynch. The couple's first child, a daughter, was born on 8 July 2020. On 27 September 2021, Judas Priest had to postpone their "50 Heavy Metal Years Tour" in the United States due to Faulkner undergoing major emergency heart surgery. The band announced on social media that they will look to reschedule the tour following updates from Faulkner's doctors. In a statement shared on Judas Priest's official website on 5 October 2021, Faulkner explained that when the band was performing "Painkiller" at Louder Than Life in Kentucky on 26 September 2021, his aorta ruptured and started to spill blood into his chest cavity. Faulkner's doctor told him he had an aortic aneurysm and complete aortic dissection, which is often fatal. Faulkner was taken to a nearby hospital, the Rudd Heart & Lung Center (which is only 4 miles away from the venue), and quickly went into what turned out to be a 10½ hour emergency open heart surgery where five parts of his heart were replaced with mechanical components. Faulkner said that this was totally unexpected for him since he had no history of a bad heart, no clogged arteries nor high cholesterol, and then urged the fans to get themselves checked.