Kiss – Forever

When Bolton Asked For A Fax Of His Own Lyrics

Kiss released “Forever” on January 5, 1990, as the second single from their fifteenth studio album Hot in the Shade. Paul Stanley had co-written the power ballad with Michael Bolton during a brief session at the Sunset Marquis hotel in West Hollywood, but according to Stanley’s 2016 memoir, Bolton contributed so little that after the song became a hit, he had to ask the Kiss office to fax him the lyrics. Only then did Bolton begin performing it in concert, introducing it as a song he wrote for Kiss. The track peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 21, 1990, becoming Kiss’s first Top 40 hit since “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” reached number 11 in 1979. After an 11-year drought, Kiss had finally scored a crossover hit during the non-makeup era, though Stanley spent years fighting assumptions that Bolton deserved primary credit for the song nobody thought Kiss could write.
The chart performance revealed how power ballads remained commercial gold in 1990. Hot in the Shade debuted at number 29 on the Billboard 200, eventually earning gold certification on December 20, 1989, barely two months after its October 18 release. The album contained 15 tracks, the most of any Kiss studio album, with a running time of nearly an hour. Despite the commercial success of “Forever,” Hot in the Shade became the first Kiss album since 1982’s Creatures of the Night not to achieve platinum status. The music video received heavy rotation on MTV, reaching number one on Dial MTV multiple times and landing at number 47 on MTV’s top 100 videos for 1990. The understated clip showed the band in sepia-toned monochrome playing in an empty room, perhaps Kiss’s most restrained visual statement ever. The single allowed Kiss to assemble a high-profile package tour with support from Faster Pussycat, Danger Danger, and Winger, proving arena rock still had legs as the 1980s ended.
Stanley explained in his memoir that people assumed Bolton wrote “Forever” because it felt uncharacteristic for Kiss. The label’s A&R representative insisted Stanley re-edit the song to fade out on the chorus, standard commercial practice. Stanley refused, telling the executive he’d been recording hits before the rep was in grade school and would still be at the label after the rep left. That argument preserved the arrangement Stanley envisioned, including the unique ending that separated “Forever” from typical power ballad formula. The song began with Stanley singing over acoustic guitar, the rest of the band joining during the first chorus. Bruce Kulick played both the opening acoustic intro and delivered an acoustic solo that became so iconic fans regularly asked him to perform it at weddings. Kulick later described how people requested he play that solo for hire, calling it trippy and pretty iconic.
Recording sessions at the Fortress in Hollywood during summer 1989 paired the stripped-down approach Stanley and Gene Simmons wanted after deciding to self-produce. The band polished their demos via overdubs instead of re-recording, keeping costs lower while maintaining rawness. Kulick handled all guitars including the bass lines, while Eric Carr’s heavy drumming elevated the track beyond standard ballad territory. Reviewers noted Carr’s hammering snare hits during the bridge added unexpected power to material that could have been syrupy. Michael Barbiero and Steve Thompson remixed the track at Electric Lady Recording Studios in New York for commercial single release, but the core arrangement remained Stanley’s vision. Phil Ashley contributed keyboards, adding texture without drowning the acoustic foundation Stanley insisted upon preserving.
Hot in the Shade marked Eric Carr’s final complete album before his death on November 24, 1991, from heart cancer complications during production of the next album Revenge. Carr sang lead vocals on “Little Caesar,” his only original composition featuring his voice after years of Stanley and Simmons rejecting his songs. The album included contributions from Tommy Thayer, who’d become the band’s spaceman in 2002, co-writing “Betrayed” and “The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away” with Simmons while playing guitar on demos. Other outside songwriters included Holly Knight, Desmond Child, Bob Halligan Jr., Vini Poncia, and Adam Mitchell, reflecting Kiss’s willingness to collaborate despite self-producing. The Egyptian sphinx wearing sunglasses on the album cover became iconic, replicated as a massive stage prop during the tour where the band emerged from its mouth while lasers shot from its eyes during certain songs.
The song’s influence established “Forever” as Kiss’s signature ballad alongside “Beth.” Bolton continued performing it at his concerts, crediting himself prominently despite Stanley’s public assertions about the minimal contribution. Bruce Kulick, who’d been in Blackjack with Bolton from 1979 to 1980 before the singer anglicized his name from Bolotin, maintained professional relationships with both parties. The Houston Press noted that Bolton, as Blackjack’s lead singer Michael Bolotin, had connected Kiss’s fourth lead guitarist to their biggest non-makeup hit through strange coincidence. Kulick played on several Bolton solo albums through 1987’s The Hunger, making their collaboration on “Forever” a reunion of sorts. The 2003 Kiss Symphony concert in Melbourne featured “Forever” performed with the Melbourne Symphony Ensemble, demonstrating the track’s orchestral possibilities.
Stanley’s battle with Bolton over songwriting credit became music industry legend, exemplifying tensions between rock authenticity and pop craftsmanship. Stanley told interviewers he’d reached out to Bolton because of his proven hit-making ability, having co-written Laura Branigan’s number one “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You” in 1982 and Cher’s 1988 hit “I Found Someone.” Bolton later co-wrote with Bob Dylan, resulting in “Steel Bars” for his 1991 album Time, Love and Tenderness, and contributed to projects by Kenny Rogers, Gregg Allman, Barbra Streisand, Kanye West, and Jay-Z throughout the 1980s and 2000s. His versatility made him a sought-after collaborator, but Stanley remained adamant that “Forever” was primarily his creation despite the co-credit. The song proved Kiss could craft commercially viable ballads without sacrificing credibility, though the irony remained that their biggest hit in over a decade carried Michael Bolton’s name whether Stanley liked it or not.
Kulick officially left Kiss in December 1996 when the original members reunited for the Alive/Worldwide Tour, though he wasn’t invited back when Ace Frehley departed again in 2002. He joined Grand Funk Railroad from 2000 to 2023 and released several solo albums while maintaining his Kiss legacy through fan expos and performances. At the November 2025 Kiss Kruise in Las Vegas, Kulick honored Eric Carr with “Carr Jam 1981” and performed “Forever” as part of his 18-song set celebrating his tenure. Carr’s posthumous 2023 Record Store Day release Rockology, compiled by Kulick, included demos Carr had written for Kiss albums that Stanley and Simmons rejected, revealing the creative tensions beneath Hot in the Shade‘s commercial surface. “Forever” became the song that saved Kiss’s commercial viability entering the 1990s, proving power ballads still sold even when co-credited to pop singers who allegedly needed lyrics faxed to them after hits were already certified. Stanley’s fight to maintain his arrangement against label pressure created one of Kiss’s most enduring moments, the acoustic intro and solo people hired Bruce Kulick to recreate at their weddings, the track that brought them back from obscurity one last time before the makeup returned and history repeated itself.