Judas Priest rocker's horrifying onstage medical emergency

The rocker for Judas Priest suffered an aortic aneurysm while performing. Photo / Supplied

Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner nearly died on stage during a performance last week when he suffered an aortic aneurysm.

The rocker miraculously survived the often fatal heart condition, which occurs when the aorta - the large artery carrying blood to the heart - dissects or ruptures.

Now the 41-year-old musician has opened up about his near-death experience during a performance of the band's 1990 song Painkiller at Kentucky's Louder Than Life festival, reports Page Six.

"As I watch footage from the Louder Than Life Festival in Kentucky, I can see in my face the confusion and anguish I was feeling while playing Painkiller as my aorta ruptured and started to spill blood into my chest cavity," he recalled.

"Whatever the circumstances, when watching that footage, the truth is, knowing what I know now, I see a dying man," he told Rolling Stone in a written statement days after the incident on September 26.

"I was having what my doctor called an aortic aneurysm and complete aortic dissection. From what I've been told by my surgeon, people with this don't usually make it to the hospital alive."

Despite that, he managed to finish the show before he was rushed to hospital for emergency open-heart surgery, having parts of his chest "replaced with mechanical components".

"I'm literally made of metal now," he said.

The band, formed in 1969, postponed the rest of its US tour, but Faulkner says he is simply overcome with thankfulness to be alive.

The rocker for Judas Priest suffered an aortic aneurysm while performing. Photo / Supplied

"I've always been grateful for the opportunities I've been presented with. I've always considered myself THE most fortunate man ever — to be able to play my favourite music — with my favourite band — to my favourite people around the world," wrote Faulkner, who joined the group in 2011. "Today just being able to type this to you all is the biggest gift of all."

"We'd be lost without him," Faulkner's partner Mariah Lynch, wrote in an Instagram post.

If the setlist had been longer or the hospital further away, Faulkner is not sure he would have survived.

And he's now encouraging fans to get checked for unknown heart issues so they can avoid what he experienced.

"I don't even have high cholesterol and this could've been the end for me," he wrote.

"If you can get yourselves checked — do it for me please."