Songfacts®:

• One of the more memorable songs from the no-makeup era of Kiss (1983-1996), "Reason To Live" has a lead vocal by Paul Stanley, whose soul music influence is evident on the track. It's a breakup song where he finds the strength and confidence to move forward. He'll find a reason to live, but it won't be her love.
• Paul Stanley wrote this song with Desmond Child, one of the most prolific and successful writers in pop history. Child was fronting a band called Desmond Child & Rouge in 1979 when he and Stanley teamed up to write the Kiss hit "I Was Made For Lovin' You." It was an eye-opener for Child, who learned from Stanley how to make soulful rock songs that connect with everyone in the stadium. He brought this approach to Bon Jovi on songs like "Livin' On A Prayer" and "Born to Be My Baby."
• Desmond Child thinks "Reason To Live" is one of the best songs he wrote for Kiss, citing the universal message that relates to listeners. "I think that song is very profound," he said in a Songfacts interview. "Everybody's got a reason to live. Those kinds of feelings bring out a whole other dimension of what Kiss is about."
• "Reason To Live" was the second single from the Crazy Nights album, following "Crazy Crazy Nights," which Paul Stanley wrote with Adam Mitchell. The band lineup at the time was Stanley on rhythm guitar, Gene Simmons on bass, Bruce Kulick on lead guitar and Eric Carr on drums. Over the next few years, Carr's health declined and he died from cancer in 1991 at 41.
• The music video was directed by Marty Callner and includes lots of Gene Simmons brooding on stage. The girl in the video is Eloise DeJoria, who shows up in the movies Weekend at Bernie's and Don't Mess with the Zohan. It did well on MTV, which had been around for only six years by this point.
• The album was produced by Ron Nevison, who became a first-call producer after working on Heart's 1985 self-titled album. He had a talent for coaxing modern sounds out of veteran acts like Ozzy Osbourne and Chicago. Crazy Nights was the only album he produced for Kiss.