Pat Benatar And Her Spyder Are Weaving Their Way

 To Torrington’s Warner Theater

By John Voket

It’s surprising how many people know the title of the first song ever played when MTV began broadcasting on August 1, 198. It was, of course, “Video Killed the Radio Star,” by The Buggles. And while they will go down in trivia history for that distinction, from a music industry angle, that’s about as far as The Buggles ever got.

Fortunately, you can’t say the same thing for the second artist to be featured on MTV.

By the sweltering summer of 1981, Pat Benatar was already an established star with eight chart-topping hits and the first of three Grammy Awards to her credit when her hook-laden hit “You Better Run,” became the second video ever aired on MTV.

Going back even further than that, 30 years ago when Benatar made her first few tentative forays onto the stage at New York’s Catch a Rising Star, it wasn’t hard to see this petite but not demure young singer had that special combination of talent, looks and drive which destined her for greatness.

Today, at 54, Benatar and her husband of 25 years, Neil “Spyder” Giraldo are still generating new material for an album due out by fall, and touring intermittently sharing the billing as well they should. From the very first few bars of “Heartbreaker” back in 1979, it was clear that although it was her name on the marquee, Benatar clearly benefited from the expert guitar work of “Spyder” Giraldo, one of the more influential and underrated musicians to come out of the ‘80s music scene.

Anyone interested in checking out this husband and wife powerhouse can do so Thursday, March 15, when Benatar and Giraldo open their spring tour on the boards of Torrington’s historic Warner Theater. In advance of that appearance, and March 22 and 23 at BB King’s Blues Club in Manhattan, Benatar sat down with The Newtown Bee to talk music, healthy eating, and even a bit about… fashion!

Newtown Bee: First of all, congratulations on being the very first inductee into Entertainment Weekly’s Fashion Hall of Fame. Did you ever set out to be a fashion trendsetter?

Pat Benatar: Absolutely not, did you ever see those clothes??! What could be worse than the clothes we all wore in the ‘80s? It was nightmarish, but I love it because they were so campy.

I always tell my older daughter that we were right in the front of a trend, and we were wearing what was current at the time.

NB: Do you still get approached to model new fashions?

PB: Sometimes, yes. But it’s so much not my thing at this point in my life — I’m just not interested anymore, and I’m so busy with my family and the music, I don’t have time for that.

NB: Your old record company is in the process of releasing your remastered back catalog. How’s that working out keeping the Benatar brand out in front of the music consumers?

PB: EMI always wants to be releasing catalog material. And we have to try and stay on top of that to be sure they are releasing things we want them to, which is difficult because we’ve been independent of them for about 15 years.

We have our own releases that we do, and we keep working on ways to re-create what we call the “holy 12.” We have some control over the later material, but in the early contracts we didn’t have control over those things, which is why we try and have strict control over what comes out, especially in the United States.

NB: On another front, you have been an outstanding leader in terms of lending your voice to important causes from women’s heart health to sun safety and skin cancer prevention.

PB: We don’t do a lot of things outside of playing music and writing, but we did work with Coppertone on raising awareness for using sunscreen, and a few other causes. But we try and keep it low key — I just don’t want to get up there and hawk stuff.

NB: Speaking of the “holy 12,” I think “Hell is For Children” has impacted three generations bringing widespread awareness to the horrible situations of domestic violence and child abuse.

PB: It happens to be one of the songs I love to perform, and it has to be the one song we get the most feedback and mail about. Not a show goes by when someone doesn’t thank us for putting that song out.

I remember the day we were writing it, it was such a pure moment because none of us had ever experienced anything like that in our lives. But I had just finished reading a series in the paper and I was so struck by the statistics and the stories. I didn’t even realize this existed, I was so sheltered and naïve. So in a cathartic way to get it out of my system, we sat down and started writing. We had the lyrics and Spyder was trying to write something that sounded anguished in its delivery.

When it was happening, we knew we were in the middle of something that was happening for good, so to have it impact people like it does is really something special.

NB: Going back even further, this whole crazy ride you are on may never have happened if it wasn’t for folk singer Harry Chapin and a little play called The Zinger.

PB: I did do something with Harry, who was a good friend of mine at the time from New York. It was a science fiction musical. Up to that point I had only done theatrical music. I had studied opera for eight years so that was the beginnings of it.

At the same time I started doing Catch a Rising Star and meeting people who got things going for me.

NB: Are you planning to showcase new material, or get a new album out before the spring and summer tour?

PB: The record is probably a year away. We’re writing material for it now, but we will be showcasing some of the songs in front of people in the coming tour. I need to do that in front of people in order to check out my arrangements and see how I like it.

NB: From the first time I saw your band on stage during one of your earliest tours in 1979, I was struck by the incredible cohesiveness between you and Neil. From that point on when anyone talked about Pat Benatar, I would always chime in with something like, ‘...yeah, but have you checked out that guitar player?’

Were the fireworks between you two ignited by the music or the physical chemistry, or both?

PB: It all happened at the same time. I had signed on to Chrysalis with a fairly nondescript band of session guys who were playing together. So the record company wanted Mike Chapman to produce a few songs, and I started explaining to him what I wanted to do. It wasn’t so clear to the record company when they signed me – I think they thought they had a solo female who would have some faceless group behind her, which wasn’t my intention at all.

I wanted something like Keith and Mick, Page and Plant. And Mike said I have this 22-year-old kid who is coming off a tour with Rick Derringer and I want him to meet you. So he came down one day to the studio in New York, and he walked in and I leaned over to Mike and said, ‘I hope he can play, because HE’S IN THE BAND’ (laughing).

NB: You and Neil are self-professed exercise freaks, and I think that’s what helps you guys go so well on stage. And truth be told, except for the hair dye we’re all getting into these days, you both look great. Then I find out you actually have your very own organic health supplement?

PB: It’s called On the Rock Nutrition, and this was Neil’s baby all the way, I’m just the guinea pig. We pretty much eat organically anyway, and I don’t like the way synthetic vitamins feel in my body. So he worked with this organic lab to get this supplement out on the web, and things seem to be working really well.

It’s having great results and there’s nothing in it except pure freeze dried, good food. It’s really gentle the way it metabolizes and he’s really happy because it helps his sensitive stomach, so I’m really happy for him.

See Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo open their US tour at the Warner Theater in Torrington on March 15, or at B.B. King’s Blues Club in Manhattan March 22 and 23.