Neil Giraldo and Geraldo Rivera walked into a room and the story that came out of it was pretty funny.
First of all, let’s get something straight: Giraldo’s last name is not pronounced like the journalist and political commentator’s first name. But as it turns out, there were some issues with the family handle that go way back and in certain eras, it was easy to think that might be the correct way to say it.
“It was a mistake in the spelling of my name,” the guitarist and Pat Benatar collaborator tells UCR. “It’s actually c-i, like Chiraldo, because it’s Sicilian, right? When the family came [to America], they thought the “C” was a “G” and they made it Giraldo, with a g-i-r [spelling]. But then when I joined [Rick Derringer’s band] Derringer, they made it g-e so then it became Geraldo like that. Of course, in the Hispanic community, it’s Her-aldo, right?”
Here’s where the famous media personality makes a cameo appearance in Neil’s world. “Geraldo Rivera would come up to me sometimes and he’d say, ‘People keep getting us mixed up,'” he laughs. “I go, ‘There’s no chance. You’re like five foot three and you don’t look like me. We’re not gonna get mixed up.’ He’s a really nice guy though. But [my last name] wasn’t meant to be [pronounced] Her-aldo. I kept [the Geraldo spelling] through the early records and then I [went back] to the regular spelling, Giraldo.”
What’s New With Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo?
The pair were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022 and several years later, they’re still maintaining an impressively busy schedule. There’s a new children’s book, inspired by their own grandchildren, My Grandma and Grandpa Rock! Benatar recently told UCR she’s got ideas for three more books in that field and is also reworking the Invincible musical that opened in 2022.
Giraldo has a similarly heavy slate of projects and continues to expand his Three Chord Bourbon line. A tour with Bryan Adams will bring the pair back to the concert stage in late October starting in Uncasville, Connecticut and is currently set to wrap up about a month later in Minneapolis.
READ MORE: Bryan Adams, Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo Announce Tour
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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
