Pat Benatar Won’t Sing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” On Tour Because Of Mass Shootings

Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Pat Benatar Won’t Sing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” On Tour Because Of Mass Shootings

Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Pat Benatar said that she won’t sing one of her most popular songs, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” on tour anymore because of mass shootings. In a new interview with USA Today, Benatar explained why the song has been largely absent from her set since she hit the road earlier this year — per Setlist.fm, she’s only performed the song twice in 2022, once in February and once in May.

“We’re not doing ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ and fans are having a heart attack and I’m like, I’m sorry, in deference to the victims of the families of these mass shootings, I’m not singing it,” Benatar said in the interview. “I tell them, if you want to hear the song, go home and listen to it. [The title] is tongue in cheek, but you have to draw the line. I can’t say those words out loud with a smile on my face, I just can’t. I’m not going to go on stage and soap box – I go to my legislators – but that’s my small contribution to protesting. I’m not going to sing it. Tough.”

Benatar is being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame this fall.

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