Pat Benatar Reveals How a Halloween Costume Shaped Her Iconic Look
“That was literally one of those ‘aha’ moments,” she told host Melissa Etheridge.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
Pat Benatar and her producer/guitarist, partner, and husband, Neil Giraldo, have long been known for pushing boundaries in their music, earning a reputation for tackling tough subject matter. But the four-time GRAMMY Award winners are just as iconic for breaking the mold with their image.
On “Melissa’s Basement,” Benatar and Giraldo spoke with Melissa Etheridge about Benatar’s onstage persona and the band’s bold visual style.
“Your look was so fresh, and it was a look that Freddie Mercury was trying to do — he was the closest that got to it,” Etheridge said. “But you were finally that woman who could stand up in the spandex like no one else.”
Benatar made waves as one of the first singers to embrace skintight leggings, leotards, elaborate eye makeup, and other unconventional styles. As it turns out, the look was born from a Halloween costume.
“For Halloween in 1978, we went to Cafe Figaro in the Village, and then we were going back up to Catch a Rising Star when we were done. All of us from Catch went down dressed up, and I’m like a sci-fi freak,” Benatar explained.
“One of my absolute crappiest love movies is ‘Cat-Women of the Moon,’ and I loved Sophia Loren, and I loved Audrey Hepburn with those eye makeup looks. So I made this crazy costume with all this eye makeup, a ray gun, little boots, and tights — and I won! Then we were all like, ‘Let’s go back up to Catch and celebrate,’ and we decided to perform in costume. That was literally one of those ‘aha’ moments.”
Benatar said she immediately knew she had tapped into something special based on both her own reaction and the audience’s.
“What happened in that costume, to me and the audience, changed everything,” she said. “The next day, I took the ray gun out of it, but I went home thinking, ‘Hmm, what was that all about?’”
“And I just did it again, and again, and again—and that was it.”
Giraldo, the “mad scientist” behind the signature Benatar sound, also discussed his work arranging and producing Rick Springfield’s GRAMMY-winning hit “Jessie’s Girl.”
“I did it because the producer we were working with — I was co-producing a record with him — decided to do a couple of songs by Rick Springfield,” he said. “He asked me if I would come in and work on it with him — produce it, arrange it, and do all the stuff I do to make records. When I heard the demo, I thought it was a great song, and I said, ‘Man, this could be a hit.’”
