When Kiss began working on their fifteenth album, Hot in the Shade, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons co-wrote the tracks separately and with outside songwriters. The first single, “Hide Your Heart,” was written by Stanley along with Holly Knight and Desmond Child, who previously co-wrote “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” and other songs in the band’s catalog. The band’s third single from Hot in the Shade, “Rise To It,” also came out of a session with Bob Halligan Jr., who co-wrote Kix’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes.”

Stanley also reached out to Michael Bolton, who had already co-written hits, “How Am I Supposed to Live Without You,” which became a No. 1 hit for Laura Branigan in 1982 before he released his version in 1989 and Cher’s 1988 hit “I Found Someone,” and more into the ’90s—“How Am I Supposed to Live Without You,” “Said I Loved You…But I Lied,” and his soulful take on the 1966 Percy Sledge classic “When A Man Loves a Woman.”

Bolton was also one of the few artists asked to co-write a song with Bob Dylan, which resulted in “Steel Bars” off Bolton’s seventh chart-topping album Time, Love and Tenderness in 1991 and co-wrote songs for Kenny Rogers, Gregg Allman, Barbra Streisand, Cher, Kanye West and Jay-Z, and collaborated with artists, songwriters, and producers, including Diane Warren, Desmond Child, Lady Gaga, Ne Yo, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, John “Mutt” Lange from the ’80s through 2000s.

‘Hot in the Shade’ and “Forever”

Released on January 5, 1990, “Forever” went to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was the band’s first Top 40 hit since “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” which peaked at No. 11 in 1979. 

I gotta tell you what I’m feelin’ inside
I could lie to myself, but it’s true
There’s no denying when I look in your eyes
Girl, I’m out of my head over you

I lived my life believin’ all love is blind
But everything about you is tellin’ me this time

It’s forever
This time I know and there’s no doubt in my mind
Forever
Until my life is through, girl I’ll be lovin’ you forever

I hear the echo of a promise I made
When you’re strong you can stand on your own
But those words grow distant as I look at your face
No, I don’t wanna go it alone

Paul Stanly v. Michael Bolton

The song was written by Stanley and Bolton after their brief meeting at the Sunset Marquis hotel in West Hollywood. Though Bolton, who embraced the song and went on to perform “Forever” live in concert, is credited, Stanley said he only had a small contribution to the song.

“Because it was somewhat uncharacteristic for Kiss, people pegged it as ‘a Michael Bolton song,’ since he was co-credited as songwriter,” wrote Stanley in his 2016 memoir Face the Music: A Life Exposed. “Surely I couldn’t have written it. In fact, after an all too brief initial writing session at the Sunset Marquis, Michael had so little to do with it that once it became a hit, he asked the Kiss office to fax him over a copy of the lyrics. Only then did he start performing the song in concert, and introducing it as a song he wrote for Kiss.”

Stanley insisted that the arrangement of “Forever” that the band wanted remained intact because he fought for it with the band’s label. “He [A&R rep] sat me down in his office and said I needed to re-edit it so it faded out on the chorus,” said Stanley. That was song-arranging 101, and even though it could be effective in some cases, it wasn’t right for that song. The ending was one of the qualities that made ‘Forever’ unique.”

He continued, “This desk expert pushed his opinion relentlessly, and with a tone that made it seem like more of a directive than a suggestion. I’d had enough. ‘I was doing this when you were in grade school,’ I told him. ‘I was at this label before you were here, and I’ll be here after you’re gone. So thanks, but no thanks.’ That was the end of the meeting.”

Photo: Brian Lowe