Judas Priest’s Richie Faulker Thanks Surgeon who Saved his Life

The next time you hear Richie Faulker shredding in a new Judas Priest song, you can thank Dr. Siddharth Pahwa for the solo.

Faulkner is crediting Pahwa — a surgeon with Rudd Heart and Lung Center in Louisville, Kentucky — with saving his life after the guitarist suffered a heart attack while performing onstage. “It was about half way into the song,” Faulkner says of the September 26th incident. “Luckily, it was a short set, and we would have come off stage anyway. Otherwise, I don’t know I would have come off stage.”

Pahwa ended up operating on the 41-year-old guitarist for 10 hours to replace an aortic valve in his heart. In a video message, Faulkner thanks the surgeon, saying, “You saved my life. My little girl saw me come home, and that just means everything. So I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You gave me everything back, so whatever I can give to you guys in return is fine by me.”

Have you ever seen a performer get sick onstage?