Pat Benatar: The Time She Got ‘Violent’ in a Recording Studio
Pat Benatar dealt with plenty of sexism in her career, but there is one instance in particular that stands out from the rest.
Benatar and Neil Giraldo sat down with Billy Corgan for his podcast, The Magnificent Others. Corgan touched on how Benatar’s break-neck release schedule began to slow down around 1985, which was when she and Giraldo welcomed their first child, Haley. At that point, Benatar’s contract with Chrysalis Records had her on a schedule of releasing an album every nine months.
The powerhouse singer recalled taking a lunch meeting with record executives about six weeks after she gave birth. Unsurprisingly, the executives were not sympathetic to the fact that Benatar was still recovering from childbirth and caring for a newborn; they wanted to know when they could expect her seventh studio album.
Benatar explains, “Now, I’m breastfeeding, and I’m freaking out, and I got this s— all padded in my shirt because I’m going to have to leave my child for the first time, and it’s not even two months. And they’re telling me, ‘Okay, that’s great you guys had a baby and all that, but chop-chop.’”
The album Benatar and Giraldo then started working on was aptly named Seven the Hard Way. It was recorded, in part, at Capitol Studios in Hollywood. Benatar said of recording the album, “It was the only time I was violent in the studio. I threw a stool through the glass window in Capitol Records.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Benatar said that during the recording of Seven the Hard Way, she had a Winnebago outside of the studio where her parents would stay and watch her child, since she was under pressure to complete her album.
“So, talk about sexism,” said Benatar. “Oh, yeah. And misogyny. Right there. No slack.”
