KISS, Wild Turkey, and Hot in the Shade

Saying farewell to the “hottest band in the world” as they conclude their 50-year touring career. Hot in the Shade and Wild Turkey 101: KISS's "Hot in the Shade" and Wild Turkey 101

RRWS Episode 9 | Originally published December 1, 2023

As of the time I'm recording this, the band KISS is about to embark on what they say are their final two shows as a full band with makeup and the big stage show, performing at Madison Square Garden this weekend. It's going to be a pretty exciting weekend. I considered going for a while, but the airfares were a little too high, so I'll be sitting home, maybe catching the pay-per-view, or maybe just listening to some KISS and having some fun.

But I wanted to talk about an album that doesn't get a lot of love from KISS fans or the public in general. It's the album that got me into KISS. The record that made me a fan. I'm talking about "Hot in the Shade," released in 1989.

It marks an interesting phase in the band's history. You've got an album cover that's a departure from their previous ones: a picture of the Sphinx with sunglasses on it. Very 1990. And the feel is a little different from what they'd been doing the previous six or seven years. Of course there's the signature hard rock style. The makeup had been off their faces for about seven years at this point (they took it off in '83). "Hot in the Shade" was meant to be a return to their hard rock roots, although if you listen to the record, there's still a lot of Paul Stanley pop in it. But I love that.

Track by track

"Rise to It" opens the album and brings classic KISS energy. Upbeat tempo, catchy chorus, starts off with a little slide guitar. Sets the stage for the album. Good song. I've always liked it. The video features Paul and Gene, who at this point had been performing without makeup for about seven years, putting on pre-show makeup at the beginning. Maybe a little foreshadowing of things to come.

"Betrayed" has a driving rhythm and good, gritty guitar work with good vocals from Gene. It's just missing a little something. Not very memorable.

KISS' Paul Stanley, live, 2019 in Sioux Falls, SD

"Hide Your Heart" is where things get memorable. It showcases the melodic, storytelling side of KISS. Written by Paul Stanley with help from hit writers Desmond Child and Holly Knight, who were behind a lot of the big hits from the '80s if you look into their credits. This is a fascinating song. It was supposed to have appeared on their previous record, "Crazy Nights," but didn't make the cut.

"Hide Your Heart" was a story. You could call it a ballad, although ballads now tend to mean a slow love song. Really, a ballad is a song that tells a story, and this one definitely does. It may not stand up entirely to our views today on race and culture (why is Tito the bad guy from the shady side of town?), but I won't go much further into that. It was also recorded by Bonnie Tyler (who apparently needed another song about doing something to a heart), by former KISS guitarist Ace Frehley on his "Trouble Walkin'" record, and by Southern rockers Molly Hatchet. I've listened to them all. You should not. They're all pretty bad. The KISS version is honestly the best. A guilty pleasure for me.

Paul Stanley sounds great on it. He co-wrote it, so he should. Bruce Kulick, who'd been the guitarist in KISS for going on four or five years at this point, plays soaring leads with a tone and style that are perfect for the song. Kulick is one of my favorite guitarists in KISS. I love Ace, but Bruce was the guitarist in the band when I became a fan. He's one of those guitarists, like Eddie Van Halen and a handful of others, where when you hear their tone and playing style, you know exactly who it is. I think he's a really great and underrated player. He's got a great lead on this. I never skip "Hide Your Heart" when it comes on, and I guess just like "West Side Story," which is kind of an analog to this song's story, I always get drawn in.

"Prisoner of Love" is forgettable. We'll move on.

"Read My Body" has catchy, cheesy lyrics and an upbeat tempo. I mentioned "Bang Bang You" earlier from "Crazy Nights." "Read My Body" is in this category, which I call Paul Stanley Weird Sexual Innuendo Music. "Let's Put the X in Sex" from "Smashes, Thrashes & Hits" is another one. "Rock Hard" from "Lick It Up" is probably the most famous. And then there's this. It's fun. It's silly. It's Paul at his cheesy, horny best.

"Loves a Slap in the Face" is another forgettable Simmons track, in my opinion. A lot of Gene's songs in the '80s were that way. When you watch the KISS documentaries, you hear about how Gene was trying to get into acting and building his empire. I think some of the songs he wrote during this period reflect that. Not his best work. "Revenge," the next album, has some great Gene songs. This one is just okay.

"Forever" is the power ballad. Every band in this era had one. This was not KISS's first foray into this territory, but it was their strongest for sure. Co-written by Michael Bolton, who knew a thing or two about writing '80s love songs. It actually became one of KISS's biggest hits. Pretty good for a band that was always commercially successful (sold a lot of records, concert tickets, and merchandise) but didn't really chart very well on the Billboard charts. "Forever" was an exception.

Kulick's guitar work on this one is really strong. His acoustic solo is a nice change from your typical ballad solo, which tended to be a soaring electric guitar lead like on "Hide Your Heart." This is a nice acoustic solo. For an analog from this time, you might look to Guns N' Roses' "Patience" with Slash's guitar lead. Similar type thing, but the way Kulick did this one is really good.

I also think of Eric Carr a lot on this one. Carr was the drummer for KISS at the time, had been since about 1980, and he was prominently featured in the "Forever" video. It wasn't too long after this album and the Hot in the Shade tour (where I got to see him twice) that we lost Eric Carr to cancer in 1991, the same day that Freddie Mercury died in November '91. Pretty sad day. Eric Carr is still one of my favorite members of the band.

"Silver Spoon" is a poppy hard rock tune in Paul Stanley's wheelhouse. It's just what he's comfortable making. Good tune, I like the guitar, but there's not much else to say about it.

"Cadillac Dreams" is, in my opinion, Gene's standout song on this record. It's got a good groove, a shuffle feel, an old-time rock and roll feel. Gene seems to channel Elvis a little bit on this one. It's fun, and I think it's his best work on "Hot in the Shade" for sure.

"King of Hearts" is another classic Paul song, another ballad that tells a story. Co-written by Vinnie Poncia, a longtime collaborator with the band. It's got some really interesting guitar in it.

"The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away" is sung by Gene, and it's the most '70s KISS that's on this record. Not my favorite song. It's a fairly typical Simmons track with lots of "yeah" and grunting, but it's a fun tune and it has a '70s feel that we don't get a lot of in this era of KISS.

"You Love Me to Hate You" has some kind of fun dynamic interplay between the guitar and vocals, and some interesting minor harmonies. There's a part that's almost Van Halen-like with the Michael Anthony, David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen-style harmony. And then parts with a minor harmony that are almost Alice in Chains-like. It doesn't come together that well for me. It seems like a song that's only there because of the era. The move from cassette and LP to CD meant you could fit a lot more music onto a disc, 70-some minutes, and a lot of bands did that. Guns N' Roses with the "Use Your Illusion" records are the prime offenders. There's some filler on this record, and this is one of those tracks.

"Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell" is filler too, but it's a little better. Mix of hard rock and blues, sung by Gene. Lyrics are dumb. That's Gene. Pretty heavy riff, though, and a groove. Great guitar. Not a bad song.

"Little Caesar" has a great groove and a nice, memorable riff. Most importantly, it's sung by the late, great Eric Carr. Eric is an undersung hero in the history of KISS. Glad he got this moment in the spotlight before he passed away.

"Boomerang" closes the album on a high-energy note. Heavy, upbeat, I like it. If you know Motörhead and their song "Overkill," the drums and bass that start and just never let up, that's kind of what this sounds like to me. I like this song a lot. It's a great transition into what they'd do next with the "Revenge" record.

The personal connection

"Hot in the Shade." A lot of people don't like it. It's panned by a lot of fans. But it was my entry into KISS. Other than seeing KISS on the kids' show "3-2-1 Contact" in the late '70s or early '80s (I was like four or five, and I was a little scared of them), I didn't really know anything about the band until I got this record. I bought the vinyl at Pickles Records and Tapes in Millard, Nebraska, one of the last vinyls I probably bought in the '80s.

Then came "Smashes, Thrashes & Hits," which had come out a couple years earlier, but I got it through the Columbia House or BMG Music Club. Picked up a lot of good music that way. Then "Alive II." That was my entry into '70s KISS and "Destroyer" and "Alive!" and "Rock and Roll Over," and on and on. I just became a big fan. By the time I got to see KISS live on May 10th of 1990, I knew just about every song they played. Slaughter and Faster Pussycat opened that show. Very late '80s, early '90s, pre-grunge lineup.

That show got me hooked, and I came to see them over a dozen more times after that throughout the rest of their career. They are probably the band I'd consider my favorite, although I've got a lot of other favorites now. Bowie, Alice Cooper, Sabbath, Deep Purple, Genesis. I could go on about all my favorite bands, and it probably depends on the week and the day. But KISS is always a mainstay there.

The pairing: Wild Turkey 101

And that's why I've chosen to pair this record with Wild Turkey 101. Is Wild Turkey the best bourbon? No. Is it really good? Yeah. Do a lot of people hate it because they had a bad experience with it in high school or college? Absolutely. Have I gone on to drink richer, more complex, more nuanced whiskey? Yes.

KISS was my entry point into a lot of different rock and roll. I just mentioned a lot of my favorite bands. I may not have gotten into the Beatles and the Stones, or Alice Cooper and Bowie, or the progressive rock of Genesis and Jethro Tull without first getting into KISS. No matter what kind of music I start getting into, I know I can always go back and throw on "Destroyer" or "Hotter Than Hell" or "Alive!" or "Hot in the Shade." Get some comfort. Feel good. Enjoy myself. I've always got KISS in my back pocket.

Wild Turkey is the same. It wasn't my first bourbon, but it was one of the first bourbons I truly enjoyed. It had some complexity, but it was still very accessible. It had that high proof (which is now mid-proof for me, as I tend to like a little higher than 101). But at the time, it had enough proof that it really stood up. And I found flavors in the whiskey that I hadn't noticed in other whiskeys I'd had. It got me into bourbon in an interesting way.

I'll add here, just so I don't set myself up for the future, that I had a similar experience with Evan Williams Black Label. Don't call me out if I tell a similar story when it's time to talk about that one.

Pairing "Hot in the Shade" with Wild Turkey 101, I think it's fitting. Wild Turkey has a bold, spicy profile with hints of sweetness, a little bit of acid, a little bit of anger, but also very easy and very gentle. The album's blend of hard rock edge and melodic hooks fits well with that. The bourbon's robust character complements the energetic and varied tracks. You've got your strong, biting Gene Simmons tunes and your melodic, storytelling Paul Stanley songs. You've got your gentle power ballad. It's just a good mix, and Wild Turkey fits with that. A perfect whiskey to enjoy with pretty much any KISS, but it works especially well with "Hot in the Shade."

Farewell to the hottest band in the world

You may love KISS, or you may hate them. I understand. There have been moments in my life where I couldn't look at Gene Simmons without being annoyed. I'm actually that way with Ace Frehley right now. And I've had my issues with the current KISS lineup at times too, although I saw KISS "unplugged and unmasked" a few years ago in Sioux Falls, South Dakota of all places, and I changed my tune on that. Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer are pros and they do their jobs really well. I haven't gotten involved in the Paul Stanley issues related to his voice and voice tracks and all that business. I love Paul. He's one of my top five front people in rock and roll. He's in his 70s now, but at his prime, which was the mid-1970s to around the "Hot in the Shade" era in the early '90s, for my money there was nobody better.

So I invite you to get out your bottle of Wild Turkey 101 this weekend. If you don't have one, it's 23 bucks. It's worth it. Raise your glass to one of the great spectacles and great bands in rock and roll history. Cheers, and farewell to the hottest band in the world. KISS.

Listening Homework:

• Listen to Hot in the Shade by KISS (Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube Music)