LOS ANGELES — He calls her Patricia, she calls him Spyder. As husband and wife, they are known on marquees as Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, and their love story is as legendary as it is long.
The rockers and recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees have been collaborating on music since 1979 when the release of Benatar's debut album, "In the Heat of the Night," featuring the seminal, hard-driving hit "Heartbreaker," rocketed Benatar and her band to superstardom. But when Benatar and Giraldo (a guitarist, songwriter and producer) fell in love, eventually marrying in 1982, their record company feared it would lose control of Benatar and tried to put a stop to the affair.
"They thought for some reason that if I wasn't with him, I could be easily controlled, and that was a big f— mistake," laughs Benatar about Chrysalis Records' attempts to undermine their love. "So people started to call us 'Romeo and Juliet' because we had so many people trying to destroy our relationship."
