Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner has shared an update on his health seven weeks after having life-saving heart surgery.

The guitarist suffered “an aortic aneurysm and complete aortic dissection” during the band’s performance at Louisville’s Louder Than Life festival in September.

The 41-year-old was rushed off stage and immediately underwent a 10-hour surgery, where five parts of his chest were replaced with “mechanical components”.

Now, almost two months later, Faulkner has given an update on his health in a post on Judas Priest’s official Instagram page.

“Hello there, maniacs! I just wanted to post, and I’ve had many of you asking for an update on how my recovery is going,” he began. “I was able to return home from hospital 10 days after my surgery to continue recovery at home. It has now been 7 weeks since the night it all happened and I’m feeling very strong and positive.

“My incisions have healed very well and I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m walking well and moving freely, I’m pretty active and I’m starting cardiac therapy very soon.”

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He continued: “I’m playing guitar everyday and with the love and support of my family, the continued support from you guys and the inspiration that I get from the guitar, I’ll be back on stage in no time! My surgeons are very pleased with my progress and have all reserved front row tickets for the next Priest show, haha.

“It’s Thanksgiving this month, and whether you celebrate it or not, I have a lot to give thanks for this year; Including all of you for your patience, your love and your support. Lots of love and I’ll see you down the front soon, horns held high. -Richie”

It comes after Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford admitted last month that he was “still shook up” by the onstage heart emergency his bandmate suffered, after footage starting circling online from the incident.

“I can’t look at that yet,” Halford explained. “I’m still shook up, emotionally. Eventually I’ll try to watch the footage, but [Faulkner] says in his own words when he looked at that footage he sees a dying man, which is basically what it was.”

He added: “And it’s just incredible that he got through that song and he came to the dressing room and he got changed. Even after the paramedics told him he needs to go the hospital and get a proper look at the stuff, he was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll be back. I’m going home for a couple days after this show, I’ll see you guys in Denver’ and walked out the door and then probably less than an hour later he was having over 10 hours of heart surgery. It’s just unbelievable.”

Meanwhile, Halford recently opened up about his private battle with prostate cancer, casually mentioning the diagnosis in a new interview – while reassuring fans that he’s now in remission.