Java with Jamie: Rock star Neil Giraldo strives to bring hope
He's a rock star who has played, written and produced with some of the biggest names in music, including his wife, Pat Benatar. In this week's Java with Jamie, we sit down with Neil Giraldo at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills and find out how he's trying to bring people hope, not just through music.
You don't drink coffee?
"I do not drink coffee," said Giraldo.
So we're going to learn how to make an espresso martini.
Neil Giraldo doesn't just make music. He is also the founder of Three Chord Bourbon. Today he brought along mixologist Paul Zahn to the Canyon Club.
"I consider this like the cousin of the espresso martini," said Zahn as he mixed a variation of the drink.
This is a perfect drink for 11:10 in the morning.
"It's late already for me. I've been up since 3:30, so this is afternoon," said Giraldo.
Giraldo is an early riser so that he can tackle all of his many projects.
"I try to deliver hope in everything I do," said Giraldo. "I want people to feel good about themselves. I'm writing two books. One is a memoir, as a story. The story's important. I don't care about myself. I want the story being told. That's really important. And it's also, there's a playbook in there of every song I ever recorded and produced and wrote, and stuff that people don't know what, how that happened.
"And the other book is sort of like, a philosophy, because I studied the 'I Ching,' it's got to have saved my life," said Giraldo. "And it's sort of like how to eliminate the noise that's out there, that gets in people's heads, that stops them from being who they really want to be, and deliver hope to them, right?"
Giraldo is an inspiration himself. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, his Sicilian parents gave him a guitar at age six. By age 12 he discovered the piano.
"And then my uncle Timmy was only four years older than me and he came to live with my family," said Girlado. "So he was my mentor. His influence all of a sudden took me from the Italian song culture into rock and roll."
Giraldo has performed, written and produced for artists like Rick Derringer, John Waite, and Rick Springfield, to name a few.
Just like all of us listening, each song comes with a memory for Giraldo.
"Like 'Jesse's Girl' when we were doing that, Rick had this pit bull, and we were in the room and he was behind the glass where he was singing the guide, rough vocal, and the drummer was there and I was doing the guitar," said Giraldo. "So I'm there and he lets the dog into the studio. I'm standing there, he comes right up to me, puts his nose right there by my crotch, and I looked at him and he goes, 'Don't move.' I go, 'Great. Thanks for that.' I think of that stuff."
Some of Giraldo's biggest hits came with his musical partner and wife of more than 40 years, Pat Benatar. The two have sold more than 35 million albums together, won five Grammy Awards, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.
"I received a call that someone wanted to put a band together, and they were a singer and they were looking for a musical partner to be able to kind of like Led Zeppelin, like the Rolling Stones, you know, guitar and voice," said Giraldo. "We made a lot of great records, I believe, and it was fine. It was a perfect opportunity for me, because all I wanted was a great singer, and all she wanted was a musician that she can, you know, co-write with, somebody that could do the work that she hates, like produce records, write, arrange, these things."
So you were good partners, both professionally and personally?
"Yeah, because we were professional partners first, and that was the core, that was the beginning. That's what remained throughout the career," said Giraldo.
A career that Neil Giraldo found after struggling in childhood.
"I had all these crazy neuroses that I had. It was awful," said Giraldo. "Like agoraphobia, claustrophobia. Anxiety attacks. I never could go to school. I was always sick. It was terrible. But when I put a guitar on me, or piano, I just was able to kind of tunnel-vision myself."
And making music has now led to so much more. Soon Giraldo plans to start a podcast called "Three Chord Sipping Sessions."
"I'm always doing something. I love it. There's no need to stop," said Giraldo.
His advice to others who want to be successful but don't know where to start?
"Keep your eyes and head open and you know, and not let the noise live rent-free in your head. Can destroy people's lives. You know, don't let that noise get in," said Giraldo.
Giraldo loves his kids and grandkids, and also gives back to charity. He has been a longtime advocate for the support of children and their well-being.
