How Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo’s Grandkids Inspired Them to Write a Children’s Book, Because ‘All Grandparents Rock’

It’s fair to say that when Pat Benatar and her then-future husband Neil Giraldo were in the studio during the summer of 1979 to record her debut album, In the Heat of the Night, the idea of a children’s book wasn’t on their radar.

But 46 years, 11 studio albums, four Grammy Awards and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction later, the couple are grandparents to three (Stevie, 7, Lola, 6 and Cash, 2 ) — and now, co-authors of My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!, a children’s book publishing Tuesday (Sept. 9).

“About a year ago the oldest one, Stevie — she’s very precocious and very smart — was talking to us and saying, ‘Well, everybody’s grandma and grandpa have a tour bus.’ And I said, ‘Actually, no, everyone’s grandma and grandpa do not have a tour bus,’” Benatar, who published a memoir, Between a Heart and a Rock Place, in 2010, tells Billboard via Zoom from the couple’s home in California. “Y’know, they come out and see us and come onstage — not when we’re performing, but when it’s empty — and they were under the impression that everyone’s grandparents did this. So we started to tell them about how there were so many different kinds of grandparents — the way they look, the jobs they have and all that kind of stuff. And that’s how the book was born; we said, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to make a little book for the kids about how all grandparents rock?’ That’s literally how we started.”

Giraldo — who’s been working on two books of his own — also credits Rob Light, their agent at Creative Artists Agency, with encouraging the project. “He goes, ‘You guys should do a grandparents’ book. I don’t have a book I can read to my grandchild about grandparents,’” Giraldo recalls. “I said, ‘Yeah, that’s probably a pretty good idea. We love our grandbabies. We’re avid readers, Patricia and I. Why don’t we write a grandparents’ book?’ I was never thinking about that, but it worked out great.”

Published by Source Books, My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!’s 37 pages feature Benatar and Giraldo’s musings about the wild world of grandparents, with illustrations by Tiffany Everett. “I think we basically wanted to include everyone,” explains Giraldo. Benatar adds, “We wanted to make it inclusive and universal so that [readers] could see all the different ways people look — glasses, no hair, different grandparent names. When you’re reading books to children you want them to find relevance in the book for themselves, which is why we made it so diverse — and then also for the adults that are reading the book, we’re hoping they see themselves when they’re reading it so it has that kind of relevance to their family.”

The process of writing the book, meanwhile, was not dissimilar to the way the couple has approached songwriting over the years.

“We did it the same way we write songs,” Benatar explains. “We don’t write in the same room; we start our ideas separately and then bring them together and start to collaborate together. The same thing happened with this book; we just tossed out a few ideas. Then he went his way, I went my way and we came back together, and that’s pretty much the same way we write songs.” Giraldo notes that “it was actually a pretty quick process, quicker than writing a song, believe it or not. We just ping-ponged back and forth with it.”

During the writing they also had a built-in test market at home with the three grandchildren. “We read it to them every step of the way,” Benatar says. The older two were not sparing in their suggestions about how to improve the work, especially as it pertained to their appearances on the pages.

“We got a lot of critique,” Benatar says with a laugh. “The middle child, Lola, she’s so darling; she’s like, ‘I don’t wanna wear pants! Why is my hair brown?’ Or we’d get, ‘Why is she on every page and I’m not on every page?!’ – and we put them all together on every page, so they were part of every aspect.

“Tiffany, the illustrator, was amazing because she really was so generous and patient. I’d say, ‘We have tears. We gotta put some ruffles on that shirt. She’s having a heart attack!’ And she took everything we gave her and just did it beautifully.”

Benatar and Giraldo — who’s portrayed as a percussionist in the book rather than a guitarist — have also recorded an audio version of My Grandma and Grandpa Rock!, and they acknowledge they’ve “talked a little bit” about other applications for the project, such as a cartoon. Giraldo even hints at “another project that I have to keep kinda quiet about that may have something to do with” the book, while Benatar says she has three more children’s book ideas in the works now.

“It’s really fun, and just a whole other world,” she explains. “It’s relatively quick, so it’s not like making an album that you’re taking a year or so to write 15 songs and then you’re spending 16 hours a day in a studio trying to get it right. This is a whole other thing, a nice change.”

The pair is hitting the road again starting Tuesday (Sept. 9) for a few headlining shows, then will go out supporting Bryan Adams starting in late October through Nov. 26. “He’s a great guy,” Benatar notes, “sweet as could be, and it’s fun and it’s easy and it’s quick, and then we get to go home.” As for the prospect of new music — it’s been 22 years since their last album, five years since their last fresh song — Benatar and Giraldo caution fans not to hold their breath, but don’t rule it out, either.

“We have about 135 songs written — a lot, because we write all the time. That’s what we do,” Benatar says. “But the idea of going in [the studio] for 16 hours a day, knowing that maybe it’s not going to get [heard] as much as you’d like to, I’m not sure I want to put in that much time to do that. I’d rather put time into something I know is going to have reach, that people are gonna see and enjoy.” Giraldo, however, says he has “a crazy idea…about a way we can do a record together” that he hopes will inspire Benatar.

“I’ve been talking to her about that: ‘It’s gonna be nothing like you expect. And in order for it to work you have to follow me on this one really close — not that you’ve never followed me before, ‘cause you’ve gone down those crazy roads I took — but this one, it’s a deep, deep cliff.’ I’m really excited about it,” he continues, “’cause at this age in our life, in the music world, we’re not out to prove anything and we’re not out to make hit records. We don’t care about any of that. We just want to make music, and if 10 people like it, great, or if nobody loves it or a million people like it, I don’t care. As long as we like it, we don’t care. So we’ll see if I can convince her.”