Rock legends Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo still going strong after 40 years

During their 40 years (and counting) of creating music together, rock icons Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo have never rested on their laurels.

And with a seemingly endless string of hits like “Heartbreaker,” “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” “Fire and Ice,” “Love Is a Battlefield” and “We Belong,” the pair could have easily chosen to sit back and let the royalty checks roll in.

But since joining forces in 1979, the pair has pushed the limits of what they – and rock music – could accomplish, which led to the release of 12 studio albums, most recently “Go” in 2003, and dozens of singles, including “Dancing Through the Wreckage,” which was included on the “Served Like a Girl” soundtrack, and 2017’s non-album single “Shine,” a song of empowerment Benatar co-wrote with Linda Perry (4 Non Blondes).

“We won’t be silent/We raise our voices/Dignity, pride/These are our choices,” Benatar sings.

“ ‘Shine’ just felt like a call to duty for me,” she told Viva magazine in 2017. “I wanted to use my voice and do something – make a strong statement for women’s rights. By joining together as strong women and lifting each other up, we will show the world that women’s rights must continue to move forward – we’re not going back.”

Benatar and Giraldo have made their fair share of history along the way; Benatar’s “You Better Run” was the second video ever played on MTV, after “Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles, and Benatar won four consecutive Grammys for best female rock vocal performance.

She’s been nominated for five other Grammys over the years. According to Benatar, life with Giraldo is an opposites attract sort of thing.

“We work in our own little worlds, and that’s why it all functions for us,” she told Viva magazine. “While he’s a flurry of activity from the moment he wakes up, I’m more of a thinker: I basically want to be reading books and writing all day, while he is constantly in motion.”

Though it’s been a while since the pair released a new album, they’ve never stopped performing. Benatar and Giraldo headlined at Northern Quest Resort and Casino in 2012 and 2016 and the Coeur d’Alene Casino in 2014.

As part of their 40th anniversary tour, Benatar and Giraldo will return to Northern Quest on Sunday, this time joined by Melissa Etheridge, a legend in her own right.

Benatar and Giraldo have spent a majority of their lives onstage, and soon, the pair’s life story will be coming to the Broadway stage.

Back in 2016, Deadline announced that Gary Lennon (“Power,” “Orange Is the New Black”) had signed on to write the book for a musical that would tell the story of Benatar and Giraldo’s personal (they wed in 1982) and professional relationship.

As per a concert review from June, Benatar and Giraldo announced that they had finished the musical and shared a song from the show, “After the Fall.”

Fingers crossed Inland Northwest fans get the same sneak peek at what’s to come for this dynamic duo.