In the shadows of the Cleveland Public Library, two writers discussed their new children’s book on Wednesday night.
The authors of “My Grandma and Grandpa Rock” are 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo.
At the library's Martin Luther King Jr. branch in University Circle, the couple touched on their careers, life parenting two girls and now enjoying three grandkids.
“If you have children and you take them to school, no matter if you think you’re cool, they don’t think you’re cool at all … unless we got them NSYNC tickets,” Giraldo said. “But the grandchildren, that’s the secret! They think you’re cool.”
Spending time with the grandkids led to their new book, about the different vocations that grandparents might have: Plumber, teacher or even rock star. The library chat was moderated by Jason Hanley, the Rock Hall’s VP of education. He called their book “welcoming” for its diverse characters.
“The great thing about little kids is that they’re not born prejudiced,” Benatar said. “They love everybody. They have no idea that they ‘shouldn’t’ [or] ‘couldn’t.’ This is reiterating that for them to be able to articulate it.”
When asked by an audience member if their publisher pushed back on the book and its message given the current political climate Benatar said “absolutely not.” Giraldo agreed.
“We should all be living together,” he said. “There shouldn't be … problems with race or any of this. Too much anger, too much hate. This is ridiculous.”
Benatar recalled including herself in her husband‘s Sicilian heritage and his roots in Parma, referring to herself as a “Clevelander by marriage.” She elicited cheers with a shout out to “Buckeye nation,” saying that as a New Yorker she’d never been to the Midwest until meeting her husband, whom she affectionately refers to a “Spider.” The duo visit Northeast Ohio frequently, even driving through his old neighborhoods earlier this year.
“They tore the high school down,” he said. “I went to three high schools. It was a difficult time. My parents and my sister couldn’t understand me. I could barely understand me. I struggle with a lot of emotional neurosis. So when I do speak to people, I want to explain to them that if I can do this, anybody can.”
Near the end of their appearance, Giraldo gave props to another Ohioan, the late Rick Derringer, who helped give him his start in the music business. He also discussed one of the most enduring songs of his career, the anti-child abuse anthem “Hell is For Children.” The song began as a poem written by Benatar and her longtime bassist, Roger Capps.
“We gave the song to Spider, this poem we had written,” she said. “We said, ‘Can you make the music cry [with] the anguish and the harm in what we’ve written?’”
“The lyric was so beautiful and so powerful, it wasn’t really difficult for me,” he said.
That song struck a chord with Carrie Waller from North Olmsted. She was at the library as a Benatar fan since the late 1970s. Afterward, she said that particular song spoke to her.
“She sings from the soul,” Waller said. “There’s only a couple singers that sing from the soul: her and Gladys Knight. ‘Hell is For Children,’ because I grew up with that, it touches you. It got me choked up a little bit.”
The new children’s book isn’t Benatar’s first foray in literature: She wrote her memoir, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” in 2010. During their chat at the library, Giraldo said he hopes to finish his own memoir by next year.
