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The thrash metal guitarist says he could “barely walk for a week” after performing outdoors in unusually cold weather.

The post ANTHRAX Guitarist SCOTT IAN Reveals Painful Back Injury After Freezing Cruise Show appeared first on Metal Injection.

The post PHOTOS: John PayCheck & The Calvary Band Officially Kick Off 2026 ‘Better Plan’ Tour For A Packed House At The Southgate House Revival In Newport, Kentucky appeared first on INFRARED MAGAZINE.

R.I.P. .

The post R.I.P. Motörhead + Phil Campbell and The Bastard Sons guitarist Phil Campbell (1961-2026) first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.

Nearly five years on from a near-fatal medical emergency, Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner is still doing physiotherapy three times a day every time the band goes out on the road — and he has now opened up in full about the extent of the neurological damage he sustained in the aftermath of his 2021 aortic aneurysm.

Speaking to Charlie Kendall’s Metalshop, Faulkner addressed what it takes to keep himself functional on a Priest tour (transcribed by Blabbermouth). “I have to have a physio on the road with us,” he said. “We have a German guy called Bastian that comes out on the road with us, and I do physio with him every day, three times a day — morning, before the show, and after the show. And he works on my right side. Long story, some collateral damage from what happened affected my right side. So we’ve gotta keep the right side running and moving properly and stuff like that. So, yeah, it is a regime of, I’ve gotta watch my diet and physio every single day, and that’s just what it takes to keep it moving for me. And that’s just life. Consider myself very grateful. There are a lot of people out there with a lot worse than I have, and they have to deal with a lot of things every day. I’m still able to do what I do. I have to work at it, but that’s fine. I consider myself very grateful.”

Faulkner collapsed after Judas Priest‘s set at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky, in September 2021. It took surgeons at UofL Health’s Rudd Heart and Lung Center approximately ten hours to complete his first operation — an aortic valve and ascending aorta replacement with hemiarch replacement. What emerged in a candid April 2025 interview with Premier Guitar, and what Faulkner has continued to elaborate on since, is that the physical fallout extended well beyond his heart.

Roughly a month after the initial surgery, while walking the family dog near his home outside Nashville, Faulkner suffered what doctors later confirmed was a stroke. A second open-heart surgery followed when a leak was discovered. And through all of it, something was going wrong with his right hand — the picking hand. The connection only became clear after tests revealed damage to the left side of his brain.

“I haven’t felt comfortable up until this point — and I’ll tell you why — explaining what happened,” he said. “So long story short, we went into the hospital — this was a month after the surgery — we went back in, and it was the last thing I wanted to do. ‘Fuck hospitals.’ They saved my life, but I’ve had enough of them for a month. So I’m back in there. And they basically said, what I think it was, was a TIA, which means transient ischaemic attack, which is a TIA. It’s a small stroke. So they’re sure it’s that. They put me on some medication. Turned out later on, it was an actual stroke. So Mariah thinks I had one in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. I don’t remember. I don’t recall anything. I remember small ones happening after the event. I was in the bathroom — it kind of went fuzzy, and I sort of fell over. I think they were the TIAs, the mini ones. And the hospital said is when you have those, the danger is that there’s a big one coming or a normal stroke coming. So that seems to be what happened — when we were out walking the dog, that’s what happened. And it was obvious — Mariah said, ‘Your face went, you couldn’t talk.’ It was like a weight was pulling me down. I was gonna fall over if she wasn’t holding me up.”

The right-hand problems that followed sent him in circles. He changed his picks. He took his rings off. He assumed it was something minor. It was only when he noticed the same issue in his right foot that the picture started to come together. “I was brushing my teeth one morning, and I thought, ‘Something’s wrong with the right hand. Something’s different,’” he recalled. “And the right foot, the right leg. So we went back in. We’d done some tests. They found some damage on the left side of the brain, which affects the right side. Now, fortunately, I don’t play guitar with my foot, so that’s fine. I can get away with that. But my hand, obviously, that’s our engine room.”

The damage has made rhythm work — the foundation of what Faulkner does in Priest — unpredictable night to night. “When we play with Priest, we go out… I mean, you go out, and you think, ‘How is it gonna be tonight?’” He said. “And it’s not so much the solo stuff because the solo stuff you can kind of adapt. It’s the rhythm — the coordinated rhythm patterns and stuff like that. It’s gotta be locked in. And I felt that in a band like Priest, it’s gotta be world-class stuff, and I don’t feel world-class. I went out there every night. I feel like a fraud because people don’t know — maybe. But one day they’re gonna find out. Someone’s gonna find out, someone’s gonna say he’s not playing that the same. [Priest‘s latest album, 2024’s] Invincible Shield, we came to record the guitars [at my home studio], and I couldn’t play what was on the demos from a year before. And we went out with [my side project], Elegant Weapons, in 2023, playing with the band. It’s, like, ‘I can’t do that. What’s going on?’ And the more I practiced, the worse it got. When you practice, you hopefully get better. It was getting worse.”

He described the emotional toll of performing under those conditions with brutal honesty. “I go out every night thinking… Sometimes I come off stage, and I call home, and I say, ‘I can’t fucking do it. I can’t do it. I can’t do it.’ There’s stuff that I used to play — I used to think something, and it would come out. And now I’m up there struggling to play like a rhythm pattern. ‘I can’t do it. I can’t. I’m gonna quit. I can’t do it.’ And then you have a good one. So who wants that? But that’s the way it is. That’s the truth. So that’s what I struggle with. That’s the collateral damage.”

Part of what kept him from disclosing any of this sooner was fear — specifically, the fear of what it might cost him professionally. “There’s a lot of fear from my side about being found out,” he admitted. “I feel like I’ve got a lot of trust from the fanbase, from the guitar companies, the string companies. They back you. They put their bets on you, and I don’t want anyone to know, because as soon as they know, they’re gonna lose faith, they’re gonna bail out. I’m not gonna be appealing to them anymore, or I’m gonna let the fans down.”

He cited two reasons for finally speaking out. The first was personal relief. The second was the hope that other musicians dealing with hidden struggles might feel less alone. “I know there are a lot of people out there that play, they sing, whatever they do, and they feel like they’re not good enough or that we don’t have these issues as well, and it affects your mental health,” he said. “And I want them to know that they’re not alone. All of us, probably more people than we are all aware of, struggle with something somewhere.”

As for Judas Priest heading back out on the road, Faulkner said the band remains in good shape collectively. “Everyone’s healthy. So why not? They love what they do. So why not?” He added that vocalist Rob Halford‘s own attitude sets the tone: “He says if he can do it, why not do it? Why not carry on? And he’s doing great.”

Faulkner joined Judas Priest in 2011 as the replacement for founding guitarist K.K. Downing. He and his partner, Mariah Lynch — daughter of former Dokken guitarist George Lynch — have a daughter, Daisy Mae, born in July 2020.

The post RICHIE FAULKNER Reveals He Does Physical Therapy Three Times A Day While Tour With JUDAS PRIEST: “Some Collateral Damage Of What Happened Affected My Right Side'” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Cradle Of Filth is apparently set to start recording their fifteenth record, and there’s no word from Dani Filth regarding the rather public lineup changes.

The post CRADLE OF FILTH Set To Record A New Album, No Word On New Lineup appeared first on Metal Injection.

California’s Olivia Austin has been releasing music under the moniker Operelly for a few years, and last year she shared her debut EP Handwriting Practice No.1 via deadAir Records, which is home to acts like Jane Remover and Prostitute. Now she’s back with her second EP, *FLUTTERS AWAY*. *FLUTTERS AWAY* flits between electronic and acoustic,…

The post Stream Operelly’s Cool New EP <em>*FLUTTERS AWAY*</em> appeared first on Stereogum.

Last year CMAT stole the spotlight with her latest record EURO-COUNTRY, which was nominated for a Mercury Prize (it ended up going to Sam Fender’s People Watching). The Irish singer-songwriter made her triumphant TV debut in September on Kimmel, and last month she brought a grandiose performance to Colbert. Now, she recruited none other than British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver for her EURO-COUNTRY track “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station.”

The post CMAT Shares “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station” Video With Jamie Oliver, Covers Girls Aloud With Katy J Pearson appeared first on Stereogum.

Phil Campbell, the Welsh guitarist who spent 31 years as the riff backbone of Motörhead, died today (March 14, 2026). He was 64.

The news broke via a statement posted to the social media pages of Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, the band he led alongside his sons Todd, Dane, and Tyla. Campbell had quietly been receiving medical care for some time — in February 2026, the group called off a run of dates across Australia and Europe at the advice of doctors. “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this is likely to cause our fans,” the band wrote at the time, “but Phil‘s health will always be our number one priority.”

The family’s announcement Saturday confirmed the worst. “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved father, Philip Anthony Campbell, who passed away peacefully last night following a long and courageous battle in intensive care after a complex major operation. Phil was a devoted husband, a wonderful father, and a proud and loving grandfather, known affectionately as ‘Bampi.’ He was deeply loved by all who knew him and will be missed immensely. His legacy, music, and the memories he created with so many will live on forever. We kindly ask that our family’s privacy be respected during this incredibly difficult time.”

Born Philip Anthony Campbell on May 7, 1961, in Pontypridd, near Cardiff, Wales, he picked up a guitar at age 10 and was performing with cabaret and pub bands around South Wales by the time he was 13. He co-founded NWOBHM outfit Persian Risk in 1979, cutting his teeth on the circuit before his life changed completely in 1984. When Motörhead held auditions for a new guitarist following Brian Robertson‘s exit, Campbell threw his name in. Lemmy Kilmister had only intended to take on one player — but the chemistry between Campbell and fellow auditionee Michael “Würzel” Burston was impossible to ignore. Lemmy kept them both.

Campbell made his studio debut with the band on 1986’s Orgasmatron. Looking back on that record, he was typically candid: “I thought the songs were pretty good but to be honest, me and Lem were never really happy with the production at the end. The production was a bit strange for the time, I don’t think it quite worked. I’d love to remix that, get my son to remix it actually. Maybe one day we can get that done? But lots of people like the album so who am I to say.”

When Würzel departed in 1995, Campbell became Motörhead‘s sole guitarist — a role he held for another two decades, across 16 studio albums in total, right up through 2015’s Bad Magic. During that run, the band won their first Grammy Award in 2005 for Best Metal Performance, awarded for their cover of Metallica‘s “Whiplash.” Campbell consistently credited the band’s endurance to something simpler than talent or ambition. “We believed in each other,” he said. “We wrote the music for ourselves, we didn’t write for fans or record companies. It was all music that got us off — it floated our boat and that’s what made it all fun. Regardless of all the other things going on, we could pick up our instruments, crank it up and be away in another world. None of us were qualified to do anything else, anyway, so it definitely helped!”

The death of Lemmy Kilmister in December 2015 brought Motörhead to an abrupt close. Campbell channeled his grief into something close to home — literally. He launched Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons with his three sons in 2016, and drew the comparison to his old band without hesitation. “We’re a party band,” he told Louder Sound once. “Same as Motörhead. We were a party band of sorts as well. People just used to come and get drunk and have a good time.”

The band released a self-titled debut EP in 2016, followed by full-lengths The Age of Absurdity (2018) and Kings of the Asylum (2023), the latter through Nuclear Blast Records. On the side, Campbell released his first solo album, Old Lions Still Roar, in 2019, featuring guest appearances from Rob Halford, Dee Snider and Alice Cooper, among others. At the time of his death, he was working on new material alongside Julian Jenkins, vocalist for hard rock outfit Fury. He is survived by his wife Gaynor and their three sons.

The connection between Campbell and Motörhead‘s founding frontman ran deeper than 31 years of band membership. It stretched all the way back to a Hawkwind show that a 12-year-old Campbell attended in Wales — where he managed to get Lemmy‘s autograph. Years later, that same kid would become the cornerstone of Lemmy‘s band. He kept it going long after Lemmy was gone, and he only stopped when his body gave out.

The post PHIL CAMPBELL Dead At 64: MOTÖRHEAD Guitarist’s Family Confirms He “Passed Away Peacefully” After Battle In Intensive Care appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Legendary guitarist Phil Campbell — best known for his decades with Motörhead — has died at the age of 64.

The post PHIL CAMPBELL Of MOTÖRHEAD Dead At 64 appeared first on Metal Injection.