Pat Benatar explains why she refuses to sing her biggest hit ever

Pat Benatar, the rock and roll singer and songwriter, will be inducted into the Rock and Hall of Fame in November of 2022. Her induction was introduced this year and her string of hits, live tour and continuous body of work got her to the pinnacle of her career along with her nomination and eventual induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

If you go to see Pat Benatar perform with her husband and writing and performing partner Neil Giraldo and expect to hear her monster hit “Hit me with Your Best Shot” forget it. Pat won’t be singing her top 10 hit and arguably her biggest hit of her music catalog.

Pat has stopped performing "Hit Me with your Best Shot" because of her protest against gun violence.

"We're not doing 'Hit Me with Your Best Shot' and fans are having a heart attack," Benatar told USA Today in a recent interview. "And I'm like, I'm sorry, in deference to the victims of the families of these mass shootings, I'm not singing it."

Pat admits that the song doesn’t make a reference to or promotes or condones gun use but she wants to draw a line.

She is aware that her fans will be upset with the fact that she won’t perform the song but she again says that she wants to do her part to end the violence and mass shootings that have crippled communities recently in Buffalo, Texas and Illinois.

This is a unique situation in which an artist refuses to sing a major hit of their own catalog because of the unintentional message that it might send out. Pat Benatar is going out on a limb to take a stand and making it widely known to her audience that this is how she feels and this omission of her song will make a stand to end gun violence and mass shootings.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.

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