From Infobeat news service:
*** Pat Benatar keeping in touch with fans online(Launch) -
Pat Benatar and her husband, guitarist Neil Geraldo, had a lot of help putting together the
booklet for their box set,"Synchronistic Wanderings: Recorded Anthology
1979-1999." When assembling the package and the rarities, they had to
ask some of their fans for help. Benatar and Geraldo appeared on the TV
show "The View" Wednesday morning and their fans were there in force for
them. The duo said that the Internet has given them a chance to keep
in touch and
chat with their die-hard fans. "Oh yeah, we do that all the time,"
Benatar said of the group's online chats. "They're great. We have a
great
online fan club - they're fantastic."
"They're everywhere,"
Geraldo added. "In fact, we did this TV show and they were all in
front.
They know everything. They know more stuff than we do. We had to call
them a few
times because we didn't have copies of things and they have everything.
If you're
missing stuff, you just go there and call them and they get it for you.
We needed
some single sleeves that I couldn't find and they had 'em."
Pat Benatar's daughter starting band
(Launch) - Pat Benatar and her husband Neil Geraldo have two daughters and the eldest, Gina, is
starting to use her genetic gifts. Benatar and Geraldo said that Gina has finally come around to
making music with a new all-girl pop combo. "Our older one just was wishing we could have been
plumbers or something," Benatar said. "She now has a band of her own called Glow. It's three
girls and they're kind of like the 'N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, but girls. They just had their first
gig and they did great. And we just recorded two songs for their demo." "Oh my God, if you think
my wife is difficult, my daughter is unbelievable," Geraldo said. "I make a track for her, we write
the song, I'm in the studio and I'm putting this thing together, and I go, 'Well, Gina, what do you
think?' And she goes, 'What's that goofy noise there? What is that? Can you make it slower? I
don't like this, I don't like that.' It's unbelievable."
ALL STAR (CDNOW daily news)
12/9/99
Pat Benatar's Daughter Goes Pop
by Steve Baltin
With parents like Pat Benatar and
Neil Geraldo (Benatar's longtime
guitarist/producer and husband of 15
years), it's not surprising that a
teenage girl, aged 15, would want to
go into the music business.
What is perhaps surprising is that
Haley Geraldo, the eldest daughter of
the couple responsible for such
hard-rocking hits as "Heartbreaker,"
"Hit Me With Your Best Shot," "Hell is for Children," and "I
Need a Lover," is going the Britney Spears route.
Haley and two of her close friends have recently formed a
teenage pop trio. The all-girl group, calling itself Glo, has
yet to make its way into the public eye, but the band has
gone into the studio with Haley's famous parents.
While most people might think mom, the definitive female
rock singer of her era, would be having a conniption over
Haley's decision to follow this musical path, mom says that's
not the case. "I’m proud of her because she’s working her
little fanny off and she’s doing great," Benatar says.
In fact, mom is being so supportive she provided the girls
with a sort-of coming out gift. "We even wrote them a song
that sounds just like all that other [pop] stuff," she says.
While the song is definitely not the normal Benatar fare, she
says she had a good time writing it. "It’s really fun because
it’s so mindless and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I love
pop music. It’s so easy."
Although Haley was happy to take the song, she's still a
teenager in the sense that mom, no matter how cool she
might be, is an embarrassment at times. " The first time we
went to meet 'NSync, I was backstage and I was taking
pictures with them and they were asking me to sign
autographs," Benatar recalls somewhat jokingly. "When
Haley came out, she was all huffy in the car and she said,
'God, it was like you were having the meet and greet.'"
With the success of band's like 'NSync and Christina
Aguilera and Glo's hit-making lineage, can it be long before
Glo is hosting its own meet and greets? One source who is
familiar with them has little doubt the trio will be signed
quickly. Are all you record execs listening?
HX Magazine
January 2000
"Hellion with Children"
PAT BENATAR ON WOMEN IN ROCK, 80'S VIDEOS AND LIFE AS A SOCCER MOM
BY AUSTIN DOWNEY
What would you expect to find inside the suburban L.A. home of rock
legend Pat Benatar? Garish costumes carefully preserved from the
singer's days as an 80's video queen?
A collection of Japanese headbands? Surely you'd spot her 4 Grammy
Awards on the mantle, right? Wrong. Benatar and her husband, musical
collaborator and bandmate of two decades, Neil Geraldo [sic], are too
busy raising thier daughters, age 5 and 15, to rest on their rock
laurels. But fans can check out thier new, three-CD anthology,
Synchronistic Wanderings, a collection of classic Benatar album cuts,
live performances and hit singles. We recently caught up with Benatar in
a stately suite at the Mark Hotel on the Upper East Side, where we
chatted about her history as a woman in rock and her new life as a
soccer mom.
HX: Your new album clearly goes beyond the standard greatest hits
formula. How did this project come about?
PB: When we left Chrysalis in 91 or 92, one of the ways they could
generate income from us was with compilations. We didn't want tired
collections of radio edits, but we were never consulted. So now that
it's the 20th anniversary of my first album, we and EMI, which is now
what Chrysalis was, wanted to go back and do it right.
HX: And how did you pick the title?
PB: I was trying to find something that would encapsulate the musical
journey, a zen-like phrase that would describe what the box is about.
HX: What was it like when you were trying to get your music heard in the
70's?
PB: I always called it the gauntlet! It was hard; you had to get your
fists up every single day, because before you could get to the point,
which was music, you had to get through the garbage__ideas like you
could only have one female in the top 10 at one time.
HX: Did you eventually feel comfortable with your level of control?
PB: Well, the attitudes never really changed. We'd be at board meetings
with the president and vice president of the label, and we're generating
billions of dollars. But when I'd leave the meeting, somebody would go,
"Hey, nice pants!"
HX: What was the New York scene like then?
PB: It was no-holds-barred, a great scene. It was nuts! It was crazy,
with so much music happening everywhere, all the time.
HX: To what do you attribute your breakthrough success?
PB: I was really persistent, like a Jack Russell [terrier]. The more
they put obstacles in front of me, the harder I worked. Then, somewhere
along the line, the music and my band started to have a life of it's
own, and somebody realized that they could really make money off us.
It's all about timing too. And I had Neil. We did it together. Once Neil
came into the picture, his contribution to the songwriting, his guitar
playing, gave us a serious edge. Together, we were formidable.
HX: How's family life?
PB: Well, we have two girls; one is 15, and one is 5. It's the best
thing you could ever do in life. If you think the music business can
make your life insane, there's nothing more insane than having two kids.
Our house is a nuthouse!
HX: So your oldest was born in 85? At the height of it all?
PB: Yeah! And they didn't have any handbooks on how to be a rock-n-roll
mom! [Laughs.] Here's my favorite story from that time. So, I've had a
baby, but I'm trying to get it together and maintain my edge and still
be cool. And I'm doing this interview with Rolling Stone on the phone,
and from the bathroom you can hear my daughter calling, "Mommy, wipe
me!"
HX: I think your 80's videos are just as memorable as "Thriller". Did
you set out to do those big productions?
PB: We had no clue what we were doing! [Laughs.] It wasn't like we'd
ever seen anything like this before. Back then, you had all these
directors who wanted to be filmmakers, and who though, "Perfect, I can
make a *baby* film!" And we're going, "Okay, sure, we'll go along!"
HX: How was mastering the choreography?
PB: [Laughs.] Oh, I really can't dance. I'm so uncoordinated, it's
beyond me. I mean, I really have two left feet. The one thing about
being on the edge of something like video, is that, looking back, those
things tend to be really campy 10, 20 years later. I never took any of
it seriously, but we had a ball doing it. And I was crippled at the end
of it!
HX: And you're working on a new album?
PB: It will probably be done in April or May; we're only about six weeks
into it.
HX: How will the new music reflect your life now?
PB: Music should always reflect where you're at. I take the girls to
soccer games and scream just like the other moms. And my daughters are
mortified at what I did in the 80's__the eldest is into all the boy
vocal groups! [Laughs.] Your time factor and focus changes. But in
general, it's much more efficient and better for me now. I don't have
time to freak out anymore! Just get on with it!
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