Protesting gun violence, Pat Benatar won't sing 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot' on tour: 'I just can't'
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Medios y Media/Getty Images Pat Benatar
America is a battlefield, so Pat Benatar says she refuses to perform her 1980 classic "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" on tour in protest of gun violence.
"We're doing a lot of songs we don't always play," she says of the tour. "We have what we call the 'holy 14,' songs that if we don't play them, you'll give us [a hard time]." She declares, "And we're not doing 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot.' " The Grammy winner, who has been touring across the states with husband Neil Giraldo, called the decision her "small contribution to protesting" in an interview with USA Today published Thursday.
Fans "are having a heart attack" over the decision, Benatar says, "I'm sorry, in deference to the victims of the families of these mass shootings, I'm not singing it. I tell them, 'if you want to hear the song, go home and listen to it.' "
Medios y Media/Getty Images Pat Benatar
In the revered track the Grammy winner sings, "Why don't you hit me with your best shot / Hit me with your best shot / Fire away." While the title and track "is tongue in cheek," she says "you have to draw the line." The singer-songwriter explains, "I can't say those words out loud with a smile on my face. I just can't. I'm not going to go on stage and soap box — I go to my legislators — but that's my small contribution to protesting. I'm not going to sing it. Tough."
According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 356 mass shootings in 2022 so far in the U.S. The most recent instances occurred at an annual July 4 parade in Highland Park, Ill., an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., and a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y. Along with Benatar, Selena Gomez, Chris Evans, Rachel Brosnahan, Shonda Rhimes, and Matthew McConaughey have been among the stars to speak out against gun violence.
Benatar also touches on another contentious issue in the U.S. during her interview: the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which put an end to federal protections of abortion rights. "I'm worried, like all of us, about fundamental autonomy rights," Benatar says. "This is a slippery slope. It's about not abortion for me. I'm concerned that people are not paying attention to what this actually means."
Related content:
