Having established himself as one of the UK’s most talented young guitarists and spent some time touring with Lauren Harris (daughter of Steve), Richie Faulkner bagged the gig of a lifetime when he was picked to replace K.K. Downing in Judas Priest. Amongst other endeavours, he’s also written with the legendary Christopher Lee and plays in heavy metal supergroup Elegant Weapons. It’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about great rock music, so we got him to make us a playlist.
“The JIMI HENDRIX version of Wild Thing was the first thing I learned. I watched footage of Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival, where he burned the guitar and that whole thing was amazing to see. My dad’s friend had lent us his guitar double-cutaway Gibson painted a bright orangey pink and splashed with blues and reds, like a punk thing. So I went out onto the street with his guitar and I was loosely playing Wild Thing in front of the house. This little old lady put 10 pence on the wall, so that was the first money I ever made playing the guitar.
“Growing up in the 80s, BRYAN ADAMS was massive. My father took me to see the Into The Fire tour at Wembley. It was my first live gig in an arena and my dad used to take me out in the car preparing me for how loud it was going to be. We’d go out in the car and crank Reckless really loud and drive around listening to songs like Run To You at full volume.
“Everyone at school was getting into guitar music but instead of buying a Guns N’ Roses record like everyone else was, I bought Live After Death by IRON MAIDEN. I remember trying to learn Hallowed Be Thy Name with the light and shade and the different parts. The guitars panned left and right, so you had Adrian Smith on one side Dave Murray on the other. I’d learn Murray’s bits and then turn him off and play the gig, essentially.
Hendrix burning the guitar was amazing
Richie Faulkner
“After school my friends would go out and I’d just play guitar night after night [to] Iron Maiden. Fast forward 15 years and I’m out on the Somewhere Back in Time tour playing with Lauren Harris. We used to play a GUN cover called Steal Your Fire, which was such a great song. She shared her dad’s (Steve Harris’) DNA; I never saw Lauren back down from anything. And from my point of view, when Priest were looking, it was a big part of my CV. You know, ‘I’ve been around the world, I’ve been on that sort of schedule, played some big stages’. Apart from playing your instrument I think that helped in the audition process.
“Going back to my early influences, Maiden. Metallica and PANTERA were the big ones. I loved Pantera and songs like Five Minutes Alone. I remember my friend’s parents were away for the weekend, so everyone was at his house, smoking weed and drinking. We did a Ouija board ‘cause we wanted to speak to the Devil and everyone was calling names and being rude to it. Suddenly the Far Beyond Driven CD case just flew across the room. We stopped doing Ouija boards after that! I never got to see Pantera with Dimebag but obviously I became friends with [Pantera bassist and former Elegant Weapons bandmate] Rex Brown.
“METALLICA’s One had a big impact on me as well. …And Justice For All was the first Metallica album I heard. It was so different from anything I’d ever heard, kind of syncopated and complex. I was a big Kirk Hammett fan. I’d learn all his solos and it definitely influenced my own playing.
“I was discovering a lot of music in my early teens and I probably heard Painkiller by JUDAS PRIEST at around the same time. I’d heard songs like Another Thing Coming and Breaking The Law but this was something else. You hear that drum intro and that fast and heavy guitar-work and it’s just…whoa. Back to the Ouija boards, we once asked it, ‘Is Richie ever going to be in a famous band?’ and it didn’t say ‘Priest’ but it might have said ‘JP’, which wouldn’t have made much sense at the time.
“When I first started playing I was in a covers band and we did all the standards. When you’re a guitar player, you’re always trying to write interesting stuff, showing off a bit. The covers band showed me that some of the simplest stuff gets the biggest reaction, like Hi-Ho Silver Lining by JEFF BECK. Amazing guitar player, obviously, but also just a great simple pop song. When you’re serving your 10,000 hours in a covers band, you’re also distilling a lot of information about how songs are created.
“I then joined a band called Dirty Deeds with Tony Newton, who now plays in KK’s Priest. I did one album with them under the name DEEDS and there was some good stuff on there, songs like Valley Of The Kings. It was how I first met Steve Harris (who produced the album) and Lauren. It opened doors to a lot of things really. Not only Priest, but amazing opportunities like arranging music for CHRISTOPHER LEE’s metal album Charlemagne: The Omens of Death.
“It had these huge moments like the single Let Legend Mark Me As The King. His team sent the stuff, which was orchestra based, but they wanted it arranged for a heavy metal band. I sent them four or five tracks and Christopher said that he wanted it more metal, so I redid them. I didn’t get to play on the record because I got the call from Priest, but it was a joy to work with him and get to meet a legend like Christopher Lee.”
Elegant Weapons’ new album Evolution is out now via Exciter Records. Judas Priest play London Hammersmith on September 21
(LouderSound)
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