My Career in Five Songs
NEIL GIRALDO HAS a peculiar way of pronouncing the word guitar. He calls the instrument a git-tar, with a hard emphasis on the first syllable. One might think that he was raised amid the haystacks of Kornfield Kounty, the fictional town from TV’s Hee Haw, but the veteran guitarist, songwriter and producer actually hails from suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio.
“I’m Italian, so I’ve always pronounced it git-tar,” Giraldo explains. “Gui-tar always sounds so weird to me. I think I got it from my family. My parents came to the States from Sicily, so they spoke Italian, as did my grandparents. Maybe it’s from the way Italians say chitarra. I never really think about it till people point it out to me.”
Although Giraldo has performed with a variety of artists, including Rick Derringer, Jon Waite and Beth Hart, music fans know him best as the spitfire guitarist—and all-around musical partner—for his rock superstar wife, singer Pat Benatar. Their personal and professional association began in 1979, with the vocalist’s multi-Platinum debut, , and continues to this
