Pat Benatar vs. the Go-Go's

Interview With Pat Benatar
By Dara Nai

In 1979, a diminutive singer from New York named Pat Benatar released a pounding single called "Heartbreaker" from her debut album, In the Heat of the Night. "Heartbreaker" was an instant hit and became Benatar's dream-maker; In the Heat of the Night ended up being the seventh biggest selling album of 1980.

To date, Benatar has won a record-breaking four consecutive Grammys for Best Female Rock Vocal, had six albums go platinum, released multiple greatest hits compilations and continues to remind us that women kick some major rock-and-roll ass. Even if they are only five feet tall.

Benatar will perform her first-ever Club Skirts concert at Dinah Shore this year. Does playing at the biggest lesbian event of the year automatically make her a lesbian icon? Maybe, maybe not. But her impact on other female performers is undeniable.

During her blink-and-you-missed-it shows at the first Lilith Fair, her audience included the other female musicians and singers who clamored to hear the rock star's amazing vocals.

Recalling that appearance, Benatar later told Pennsylvania's Electric City: "I got to spend time with 12 of the newer females coming up. You know, history being history, everything that comes before has some impact on what follows, but you never really know how much. But hanging around with them backstage, I started to realize what kind of impact I had had, so it was fun."

Recently, I asked Benatar about the set she'll be performing at Dinah Shore, what she listens to in her car, and how it feels to have her songs on Guitar Hero.

AfterEllen.com: This is your first time doing the Dinah.
Pat Benatar: Yes, it is.

AE: Do you have any idea what to expect?
PB: [Laughs] Well, no, not exactly. I'm expecting a raucous, rocking crowd. That's what I'm hoping for.

AE: That's what you're going to get.
PB: That's great.

AE: Your show in Palm Springs is the first part of a larger, summer tour?
PB: Yes, this is the preliminary part of the summer tour. [The tour is] national and goes through September. The body of it starts in June, but [Palm Springs] is the warm-up, pre-tour event.

AE: What are we going to be hearing?
PB: It's a pretty mixed set. I mean, we try to cover most of the decades [laughs]. The classic hits are in there, and we have an acoustic set, which is really lovely — four or five songs we've taken and play them acoustically — everyone seems to really enjoy that. And then, some new things that we have coming out.

AE: It's been almost three decades since you started in the music industry, so you've seen it all. What do you think of today's celebrity train wrecks?
PB: I don't know. I think sometimes, it's the noisiest ones. You know what I mean? The ones that are having issues are noisy. There was always stuff going on — for certain when I was out there. It wasn't easier when I began in '79, but the world wasn't the same. Everything goes now, [but] it happens on both ends.

There are people that are performing who actually want to be hassled all the time; it's part of their thing. And, also, the people who are doing the hassling think that's part of their job description as well. [It] wasn't this intrusive [back then]. The world has gotten really small, and I think the level of respect for people's privacy and personal lives is just nonexistent now.

AE: Can you imagine having that level of scrutiny in 1979?
PB: No. I would have quit. I'm a private person. There would have been no way I could have handled any of that. Either that, or I would have been in jail for fist fights, so … [laughs]

AE: Literally, "Put up your dukes, let's get down to it?" That's not exactly model behavior for a trained opera singer.
PB: I was only a student. I studied for eight years, and then I had to leave New York and traveled a bunch of places with my former husband. I never completed that part of my education, so I decided when I got back into singing that opera had moved on. It wasn't exactly what I was interested in anymore. I started going in for rock and roll, which is what I really wanted to do.