Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner took to Instagram Live over the weekend to answer questions from fans, who asked the rocker which is his favourite venue to play at.

“I don’t know,” Faulkner began. “I like small shitholes and I like big arenas, like the Budokan [in Japan], and there are some arenas in America which are famous for football, or soccer, and they’ve all got their own magic. Some of the best shows I’ve ever done, the most magic, have been in little sweaty shitholes.”

He continued, “I think on the Redeemer Of Souls tour, in Japan, we did the Budokan in Tokyo, and then we oversold it, so we’d done a small theatre show on the side — we came back and did that. And it was about three thousand people; the Budokan was around eight, so it was a difference of around five thousand people… I’ll tell you what: at the Budokan, a bigger venue, so everyone has to be further back so everyone can see you, so you lose a bit of that connection with the audience, but what you get is the magic of the big arena.”

He went on to explain that in more intimate venues “you don’t have that distance between [you and] the crowd, so you could hear them — those crazy Japs, they were singing guitar solos.”

Richie added, “I could hear them singing notes as I was playing them; it was absolutely electric.”

Faulkner has been regularly communicating with fans over social media throughout isolation, even inviting them to join him for #LockdownRockdown, where he invited followers to contribute musical ideas to a riff he has posted online for download.

The Judas Priest muso also recently collaborated with Sideshow Collectibles for a short public service announcement that encouraged viewers to practice good hygiene amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“Hi everybody. Richie Faulkner here from Judas Priest,” the 40-year-old began. “I hope everyone’s staying healthy and clean and safe and keeping those hands washed during these turbulent times.”

“I wanted to take this opportunity to explain the importance of taking care of the things we love — things like our musical instruments and our amps and our pups and our pets and everyone, keeping ’em clean and healthy and fresh and nice.

“Also, all our nerd toys and the things that we play with and the things that we respect and the things that we grew up with. It’s all about keeping ’em nice, keeping ’em clean, keeping ’em free of the virus. So, keep your hands washed, stay inside and stay in Sideshow,” he added.

Watch Richie Faulkner talk Judas Priest on Instagram Live:

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