Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo invited The Vindys back for an encore.

The Youngstown band will open for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees for a 26-city tour running from April 18 through June 1. Last summer The Vindys opened for Benatar and Giraldo on a 22-city trek that was the group’s first cross-country tour.

“One time? It can be called lucky. But two times? OK, that’s on purpose,” lead singer Jackie Popovec said. “I think they recognized that their audience enjoys us being on the road with them. There are a lot of big Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo fans that have been wearing our T-shirts at their soundchecks, so we’re converting those fans into Vindys’ fans. And Pat sees online the reviews they gave us at the end of the night (on social media).”

The tour starts in Tulsa and swings through several southern states before moving to the northeast, midwest and a couple of shows in Canada.

Last year’s tour brought the band to MGM Northfield Park outside of Cleveland. The closest dates to their home base this time are shows May 12 at the Warner Theatre in Erie, Pa., and May 23 at Mershon Auditorium in Columbus. Both dates go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday

Looking over the itinerary, Popovec said the band is most excited about playing Memphis.

“That’s going to be at the Graceland Soundstage,” Popovec said. “And then, because we have a day off, we picked up a really important show for us that’s going to be at 3rd and Lindsley (in Nashville). It’s for a Lightning 100 radio program (an adult album alternative station) they do, so it’ll be a live show on the radio. This is our first Nashville show in years. I think it was pre-COVID, maybe 2019, the last time we were there.”

Popovec said the band first heard inklings in mid-December about the possibility of touring again with Benatar and Giraldo, but nothing would be definite until after the first of the year.

“Then that’s when the crazy fires were going on (in southern California),” she said. “In my head, I’m like, ‘They’re definitely not going,’ because I’m seeing social media posts of Hana Giraldo, their daughter, evacuating and this and that. ‘OK, well, this isn’t happening.”

Instead, they got a call later in January that the tour was on, and everything was confirmed last week.

The Vindys will go on the road with the same lineup as last summer — Popovec, lead vocals and guitar; John Anthony, guitar; Rick Deak, guitar; Nathan Anthony, keyboards; Brendan Burke, bass; and Owen Davis, drums — trimming the horn section that local audiences are used to seeing.

The unexpected touring opportunity won’t disrupt The Vindys’ plan to release new music. Popovec said they worked on recording new songs over the last several months whenever they had a free weekend.

“Little by little, we kept chipping away at it until it’s finished. So I’m really grateful that we have songs in the bag right now that will be released, whether we’re here (to record) or not.”

The next single, “Electric,” should be out before the tour starts in April. An EP that could become a full-length album tentatively is scheduled for release in the fall. “Elton Glasses Baby,” the single The Vindys released last summer, will be included on that record, which will be titled “Trap Door.”

“It’s going to be my answer to COVID,” Popovec said. “These songs have been written over 2020, ’21 and even ’22, and I kind of wanted that escapism feel of what it felt like and how weird it was after COVID.”