NEIL GIRALDO

Pat Benatar's right-hand man (and husband) on how he wound up with Jeff Beck's pickups, his approach to singable guitar solos - and why being listed among the generally unsung greats ain't so bad after all

- Joe Bosso

AT THE START of our interview, Neil Giraldo wants to first talk about Jeff Beck, whom he calls his "top, number one influence," beginning with the British legend's time in the Yardbirds. "Early on, I heard the way Jeff attacked the instrument - it was like a compressor," he says. "It's not that it was loud, but it was right there, always. There are so many beautiful things about his playing. He started out playing one way, but he evolved into a whole other type of playing. That's such a special thing to be able to grow like that, and he did it spectacularly. He could play a symphony with one string."

Giraldo never got a chance to meet his idol, but he segues to an amusing anecdote involving Beck. "My good friend Seymour Duncan made pickups for me, and he made pickups for Jeff Beck," he says. "He sent me some pickups, I put them in my Strat, and I called him and said, 'I love them.' Then Seymour called me back and said, 'I've got good news and bad news.' I was like, 'Oh, shit,' and he went, 'The bad news is I sent you Jeff Beck's pickups, and he got yours.' I said, 'But Seymour, I love these,' and he said, "The good news is he's not giving yours back.' I didn't have to give his back, either. I thought that was really funny."