{"id":213423,"date":"2025-09-09T17:58:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T17:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/213423\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T17:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T17:58:10","slug":"pat-benatar-neil-giraldos-kids-book-shows-grandparents-rocking-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/213423\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo’s Kid’s Book Shows Grandparents Rocking Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s fair to say that when Pat Benatar<\/a> and her then-future husband Neil Giraldo were in the studio during the summer of 1979 to record her debut album, In the Heat of the Night, the idea of a children\u2019s book wasn\u2019t on their radar.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut 46 years, 11 studio albums, four Grammy Awards and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction later, the couple are grandparents to three (Stevie, 7, Lola, 6 and Cash, 2 ) \u2014 and now, co-authors of My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!<\/a>, a children\u2019s book publishing Tuesday (Sept. 9).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAbout a year ago the oldest one, Stevie \u2014 she\u2019s very precocious and very smart \u2014 was talking to us and saying, \u2018Well, everybody\u2019s grandma and grandpa have a tour bus.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Actually, no, everyone\u2019s grandma and grandpa do not have a tour bus,\u2019\u201d Benatar, who published a memoir, Between a Heart and a Rock Place, in 2010, tells Billboard via Zoom from the couple\u2019s home in California. \u201cY\u2019know, they come out and see us and come onstage \u2014 not when we\u2019re performing, but when it\u2019s empty \u2014 and they were under the impression that everyone\u2019s grandparents did this. So we started to tell them about how there were so many different kinds of grandparents \u2014 the way they look, the jobs they have and all that kind of stuff. And that\u2019s how the book was born<\/a>; we said, \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be fun to make a little book for the kids about how all grandparents rock?\u2019 That\u2019s literally how we started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGiraldo \u2014 who\u2019s been working on two books<\/a> of his own \u2014 also credits Rob Light, their agent at Creative Artists Agency, with encouraging the project. \u201cHe goes, \u2018You guys should do a grandparents\u2019 book. I don\u2019t have a book I can read to my grandchild about grandparents,’\u201d Giraldo recalls. \u201cI said, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s probably a pretty good idea. We love our grandbabies. We\u2019re avid readers, Patricia and I. Why don\u2019t we write a grandparents\u2019 book?\u2019 I was never thinking about that, but it worked out great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPublished by Source Books, My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!\u2019s 37 pages feature Benatar and Giraldo\u2019s musings about the wild world of grandparents, with illustrations by Tiffany Everett. \u201cI think we basically wanted to include everyone,\u201d explains Giraldo. Benatar adds, \u201cWe wanted to make it inclusive and universal so that [readers] could see all the different ways people look \u2014 glasses, no hair, different grandparent names. When you\u2019re reading books<\/a> to children you want them to find relevance in the book for themselves, which is why we made it so diverse \u2014 and then also for the adults that are reading the book, we\u2019re hoping they see themselves when they\u2019re reading it so it has that kind of relevance to their family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe process of writing the book, meanwhile, was not dissimilar to the way the couple has approached songwriting over the years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe did it the same way we write songs,\u201d Benatar explains. \u201cWe don\u2019t write in the same room; we start our ideas separately and then bring them together and start to collaborate together. The same thing happened with this book; we just tossed out a few ideas. Then he went his way, I went my way and we came back together, and that\u2019s pretty much the same way we write songs.\u201d Giraldo notes that \u201cit was actually a pretty quick process, quicker than writing a song, believe it or not. We just ping-ponged back and forth with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the writing they also had a built-in test market at home with the three grandchildren. \u201cWe read it to them every step of the way,\u201d Benatar says. The older two were not sparing in their suggestions about how to improve the work, especially as it pertained to their appearances on the pages.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe got a lot of critique,\u201d Benatar says with a laugh. \u201cThe middle child, Lola, she\u2019s so darling; she\u2019s like, \u2018I don\u2019t wanna wear pants! Why is my hair brown?\u2019 Or we\u2019d get, \u2018Why is she on every page and I\u2019m not on every page?!\u2019 \u2013 and we put them all together on every page, so they were part of every aspect.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTiffany, the illustrator, was amazing because she really was so generous and patient. I\u2019d say, \u2018We have tears. We gotta put some ruffles on that shirt. She\u2019s having a heart attack!\u2019 And she took everything we gave her and just did it beautifully.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBenatar and Giraldo \u2014 who\u2019s portrayed as a percussionist in the book rather than a guitarist \u2014 have also recorded an audio version of My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!, and they acknowledge they\u2019ve \u201ctalked a little bit\u201d about other applications for the project, such as a cartoon. Giraldo even hints at \u201canother project that I have to keep kinda quiet about that may have something to do with\u201d the book, while Benatar says she has three more children\u2019s book ideas in the works now.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s really fun, and just a whole other world,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s relatively quick, so it\u2019s not like making an album that you\u2019re taking a year or so to write 15 songs and then you\u2019re spending 16 hours a day in a studio trying to get it right. This is a whole other thing, a nice change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair is hitting the road again starting Tuesday (Sept. 9) for a few headlining shows, then will go out supporting Bryan Adams starting in late October through Nov. 26. \u201cHe\u2019s a great guy,\u201d Benatar notes, \u201csweet as could be, and it\u2019s fun and it\u2019s easy and it\u2019s quick, and then we get to go home.\u201d As for the prospect of new music \u2014 it\u2019s been 22 years since their last album, five years since their last fresh song \u2014 Benatar and Giraldo caution fans not to hold their breath, but don\u2019t rule it out, either.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe have about 135 songs written \u2014 a lot, because we write all the time. That\u2019s what we do,\u201d Benatar says. \u201cBut the idea of going in [the studio] for 16 hours a day, knowing that maybe it\u2019s not going to get [heard] as much as you\u2019d like to, I\u2019m not sure I want to put in that much time to do that. I\u2019d rather put time into something I know is going to have reach, that people are gonna see and enjoy.\u201d Giraldo, however, says he has \u201ca crazy idea\u2026about a way we can do a record together\u201d that he hopes will inspire Benatar.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been talking to her about that: \u2018It\u2019s gonna be nothing like you expect. And in order for it to work you have to follow me on this one really close \u2014 not that you\u2019ve never followed me before, \u2018cause you\u2019ve gone down those crazy roads I took \u2014 but this one, it\u2019s a deep, deep cliff.\u2019 I\u2019m really excited about it,\u201d he continues, \u201c\u2019cause at this age in our life, in the music world, we\u2019re not out to prove anything and we\u2019re not out to make hit records. We don\u2019t care about any of that. We just want to make music, and if 10 people like it, great, or if nobody loves it or a million people like it, I don\u2019t care. As long as we like it, we don\u2019t care. So we\u2019ll see if I can convince her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s fair to say that when Pat Benatar and her then-future husband Neil Giraldo were in the studio…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":213424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[5801,1022,171,7775,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-213423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-billboard-family","9":"tag-books","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-genre-rock","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115175640597885037","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}