Richie Faulkner stepped in as Judas Priest’s lead guitarist at a tumultuous time. Founding member K.K. Downing left the band just before their Epitaph World Tour, which was set to be their final one. Flash forward to 2024, and Richie Faulkner and Judas Priest are going as strong as ever, with their upcoming album Invincible Shield coming out on March 7th.

He sat down for a chat with Ultimate Guitar and talks all things Priest, including “Painkiller” and the health of Glenn Tipton. Glenn Tipton disclosed publicly that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2018. He wouldn’t be touring full-time with the band, but he’d still contribute to writing and recording new music from Judas Priest. Here’s what Richie had to say about Glenn.

“As always, he has good days and bad days. I think that’s the nature of the challenge he’s going through. And there was no difference in the studio really, there’s good days and bad days. It was important for all of us that Glenn was involved in a creative sense, as well. The stuff that Glenn comes up with makes it ‘Priest,’ those little twists and turns.

And also, he comes up with stuff that I don’t come up with, and I come up with stuff that he doesn’t come up with. So, as a team, you come up with stuff you wouldn’t come up with on your own. It’s a vital part of the formula. And while writing, if he wasn’t feeling too good and wasn’t playing well that day, he’d translate the ideas through me. And the same in the recording.

If he could play the song, he’d play it. If he couldn’t, then I would take on that duty. And that’s how we got through it.”

He then went into what the most fun Judas Priest songs to play live were, and had a special mention for “Painkiller”.

“From the point of view of growing up and listening to some of those songs, and you’re now playing them and you’re representing those songs in the best way you can. And obviously the new ones. But songs like ‘The Sentinel,’ ‘Victim of Changes,’ ‘Rises from Ruins’ from the ‘Firepower’ record, ‘Killing Machine,’ even ‘Turbo Lover’ is such a great live song.

‘Painkiller’ is always fun. ‘Painkiller’ is like a tornado. You’re part of a tornado, but you’re creating the tornado, as well. The five of us up there are creating this tornado that could go off course at any moment, and you have to tame the tornado to some degree… But also go with it. And it can go off the rails at any time.”

Judas Priest are ready to hit the road for Invincible Shield starting on March 11th, 2024 in Glasgow, UK for their first tour of the UK in quite a while. They were previously held up by tour dates with Ozzy Osbourne, but are now free from that commitment. They’re then on the road up until October 10th-13th for Aftershock Festival in Sacramento, CA.

Get full tour dates on their website.

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Source: Ultimate Guitar

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