Miscommunication nearly cost Richie Faulkner his career-defining role in Judas Priest. According to vocalist Rob Halford, the new guitarist repeatedly ignored the heavy metal legends’ initial invitations to join, mistakenly believing the emails were nothing more than spam.
The revelation came during an interview with David Ellefson at a Rock-N-Roll Fantasy Camp in Scottsdale, Arizona, where Halford discussed the band’s frantic search to replace founding guitarist K.K. Downing in 2011.
“It was tough. We didn’t know what we were going to do,” Halford admitted. The search had to be discreet, but the band’s method of finding their new member was entirely modern: “We found him on the internet,” Halford confessed. After Glenn Tipton and Halford saw him play, the Metal Gods were convinced: “That’s the guy.”
However, the attempts to contact Faulkner were met with silence. Halford explained that the guitarist’s previous experience playing with various acts, including Lauren Harris, didn’t make him immune to skepticism about unsolicited emails.
“With Richie, we sent him emails and he kept deleting them because he thought it was a joke,” Halford stated. The confusion lasted through multiple attempts. “Honestly, we sent him six emails — delete, delete, delete. And then somehow somebody said, ‘You keep deleting these emails from Judas Priest?’ [and Richie said], ‘Oh, it’s spam dude, it’s spam.’ [And someone told him] ‘No, it’s not. They really want you to be in touch.'”
Once the misunderstanding was cleared, Faulkner traveled to London to meet the band. The initial meeting was laid back, allowing the core members to gauge the chemistry beyond the guitar work.
“Richie came up to London and we just chit-chatted briefly,” Halford recalled. The ultimate test, however, was in the music. “We need a few moments and the feels are there and so we talked for about 10 minutes and I said, ‘Let’s just jam.'”
The guitarist was sent to Tipton’s studio to warm up. “So we set up a stack for him in Glenn‘s studio and I said, ‘Just go and play and get loose.’ He goes up in the room and starts playing and we just look at each other — ‘This is the guy,'” the singer concluded.
Faulkner officially joined Judas Priest in 2011 and has since been credited by his bandmates with breathing new life into the group, contributing significantly to the writing of albums like Redeemer of Souls, Firepower, and Invincible Shield.
