New JUDAS PRIEST Guitarist RICHIE FAULKNER Says Fans Have Been 'Really Accepting'

Baconmusic's James Allman conducted an interview with new JUDAS PRIEST guitarist Richie Faulkner (formerly of LAUREN HARRIS and DIRTY DEEDS) prior to the band's July 17, 2011 concert at the Dome in Doncaster, U.K. You can now watch the chat below.

All five members of JUDAS PRIESTRob Halford, Glenn Tipton, Ian Hill, Scott Travis, and Faulkner took part in a press conference on May 24 at the Renaissance Hotel at Highland and Hollywood in Los Angeles to answer questions about the upcoming "Epitaph" U.S. tour and to formally introduce Richie. A couple of excerpts from that question-and-answer session follow below.

Q: On YouTube, there are videos of you playing HENDRIX and ZEPPELIN riffs. Do you bring that sort of style to JUDAS PRIEST?

Faulkner: I came from that sort of era, yeah. That classic rock, ZEPPELIN, HENDRIX and all of that. I think [former JUDAS PRIEST guitarist] K.K.'s [Kenneth Downing] playing was Hendrix-inspired as well so that's kind of similar there. What it feels like to be a part of it? You can imagine it's a bit kind of surreal really. But as a fan of the band and of the genre, they are big shoes to fill and I know what I've got to do. Ken was in the band for a long time so I'm not trying to take away anything from that but as a fan and as part of the band now, it's exciting as a guitar player and as a musician.

Q: Was it difficult learning any of PRIEST's songs?

Faulkner: I knew some of them already, to be honest, and it's kind of where I come from musically. So it wasn't difficult in a sense that's what I've been brought up on and raised on. The ones I didn't know it was quite easy to go in.

Q: When did you first get exposed to JUDAS PRIEST?

Faulkner: I think it was around the "Painkiller" era and since then I've been in various cover bands growing up around London and stuff and we always played PRIEST songs. You know what I mean? So I was probably 15 or 16 or something like that, and I came in listening to "Painkiller" and then worked my way back through finding different songs through the back catalog. And I'm still finding new songs now, really. For different reasons, I liked "Turbo" and I liked "Stained Glass" and "Painkiller" they were my favorite three.

Q: Any certain songs you're looking forward to playing?

Faulkner: "Painkiller", because it's great to actually play from a rhythm guitar point of view and back up someone like Glenn. And lockin' in with Scott on drums no one plays that like he does, so from a rhythm guitar point of view, it's great to be backing up him and playing with Scott at the same time rather than from the point of a lead player.

Photo credit: Andrew Ogilvy