Pat Benatar is refusing to perform her hit 1980 song “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” in the wake of the horrific mass shootings across America this year.
Speaking to USA Today, the rock singer said she will avoid performing the track during her current tour in “protest” of gun violence.
Instead, the 69-year-old singer will perform her other classics, including “Love Is A Battlefield” and “We Belong.”
This year alone, the country suffered high-profile gun-related attacks, in places such as Uvalde, Texas; Buffalo, New York; and Highland Park, Illinois.
“We’re not doing ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ and fans are having a heart attack,” Benatar told the outlet. “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 if people want to hear the song, they should simply “go home and listen to it.”
She said the song “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 soapbox — I go to my legislators,” she said, adding, “That’s my small contribution to protesting. I’m not going to sing it. Tough.”
According to Gun Violence Archive, there have been 356 mass shootings in the US this year alone.
On May 14, 10 people were gunned down in a hate-fueled mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, NY.
Ten days later, 19 children and two teachers were killed in the horrific Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
On July 4, seven people were killed after a gunman opened fire at the Highland Park parade in Illinois using a “high-powered” rifle.