Pat Answers

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 4:43 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION: August 17, 2003

Long before the Lilith Fair, vocalist Pat Benatar showed young women it's cool for them to rock.

Beginning in 1979 the Long Island, N.Y., native unleashed a slew of high-charting radio singles, many of which were also in heavy rotation on MTV throughout the next decade.

Among Benatar's greatest hits: "Heartbreaker," "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," "Promises in the Dark," "Shadows of the Night," "Love is a Battlefield," "Invincible" and "We Belong."

Benatar stayed musically active during the 1990s, continuing to record and perform with her husband, guitarist/producer Neil Geraldo. The couple live in New York City with their two daughters, ages 18 and 9.

Benatar and Geraldo's latest project, "Go," was released on Tuesday and is Benatar's first new studio album in six years.

Benatar, who turned 50 in January, performs at the Mandalay Bay Beach at 9 Friday night. Last week the Sun caught up with the four-time Grammy Award winner for a phone interview from her hotel room in Lincoln, Neb.

Las Vegas Sun: "Go" is your first new album since 1997's "Innamorata." Why such a long break?

Pat Benatar: It took a couple of years writing it, and then it took a couple of years to actually do it, not consecutively obviously. Things just take a long time now because we have kids and a life, and that gets in the way of focus.

Sun: Each of your last few discs has been hailed as a "comeback effort." Realistically, what are your goals when you release a new album?

PB: Basically, you're just writing things that have relevance to where you're at in your life, on a personal level. And then musically you're trying to advance yourself forward so that you're not in a rut and rehashing old stuff.

And of course, you're trying to hit the common thread, because you're not really writing songs in a vacuum. It's not solely a selfish endeavor; it's not only for you. You get the most enjoyment out of doing it when it's like a conversation, so you need the other party on the other side.

Sun: Is it tough to attract new fans without the radio and video support you received back in your heyday?

PB: It is tough. You make records primarily just because you have to, because you can't just leave all that stuff in your head floating around. It drives you nuts.

At this stage of our lives, worrying about the success of a record is pretty low on the to-do list. Of course, it's always great when that happens because obviously the more records you sell the more people you've reached. But you have to live in the real world and know how the real world works, and we're pretty conscious of that. So anything that comes out of it will really be a bonus.

Sun: How do you choose your live set lists, with so many hits and the new material at your disposal?

PB: I really pay attention to what fans want to hear. We have an online fan club that does polls all the time. I always tell them, "You know, you all have got to get lives. You're spending way too much time on this Internet thing (laughs)."

But they're really helpful. They do these things all the time and you kind of get a feel for what it is that they really want to hear. We probably do 65 (percent) vintage stuff, 35 (percent) new stuff.

Sun: Are there any songs you'd prefer not to play anymore that you're more or less forced to include?

PB: The one song that I would like to just absolutely chuck would be "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." Twenty-two years of the same song ... you want to just slit your throat. But I could sing "Heartbreaker" until I'm dead. Some songs get old, are still locked into an era, and other songs transcend that.

Sun: You and your husband are together at home, in the studio and onstage. Are there times when you need a little space?

PB: We do make space. We do many things together, but we have a lot of things that we actually don't do together, too. This is the way our relationship began, and it's the only way we know how to do it. And we're actually pretty good at it.

Our personal relationship is very smooth. The only time that we ever get into it is over music, and that's fine with me because that makes for good writing.

Sun: But what happens in the studio stays in the studio?

PB: Oh no, I bring that right to the kitchen (laughs). "You're not changing that key, then you're gonna starve." I totally take it right home.

Sun: Do you bring your daughters on the road with you?

PB: Yeah, usually in the summertime. We primarily tour from June through September, and we pretty much stay home during the fall and winter.

This is probably our oldest girl's last time. She's 18, so I can't imagine she's going to want to do this anymore.

Sun: I read that early in your career, you tried doing away with your trademark look -- the headbands, the tights, the heavy eye makeup -- and your label basically wouldn't let you.

PB: It was ridiculous. It was the same old story. They're car salesmen and that's their job, so I totally understood why they wanted to do what they wanted to do. But they had no vision.

They saw something that was working and they were just looking at me shaking their heads like, "Why? Why? Why do you want to do this? It's not broken. What's wrong with you?" It was very difficult. I was very young and I had barely even figured out who I was on any level, I was constantly evolving, so to be pigeonholed like that was very frustrating.

Sun: In the last few months Jewel and Liz Phair have been criticized for doing the opposite from what you tried, changing their look or their sound to be more commercially viable. What are your thoughts?

PB: I think that it's very difficult to hold your ground. On one level as another female, I absolutely understand what they're doing because I think you've just got to get heard, whatever it takes, and then you can stop.

But at the same time, it makes me very sad. I hate that that part has never changed, that they're still in that place where somebody's making them feel like they have to do that in order to be heard.

For me, it's different now, I don't do that. I haven't done it for years, and there's not a chance that it will ever happen again. If you're dying to compete with 20-year-olds, you're gonna die. It's a big mistake.