"Reason to Live" is a song by the American rock band Kiss. It is featured on the band's 1987 studio album Crazy Nights.
Background
Written by singer/guitarist Paul Stanley and professional songwriter Desmond Child, "Reason to Live" is a power ballad, heavy on keyboards and production. The B-side is the Gene Simmons-helmed album track "Thief in the Night".
Music video
The song's official music video was directed by Marty Callner and produced by Callner, Doug Major and Bill Brigode.[2] It received airplay on MTV.
The video shows the band playing the song live on a large, well-lit stage, interspersed with shots of a young blonde woman (portrayed by PlayboyPlaymate and model Eloise Broady), who is visibly distressed over relationship troubles with Stanley. She vents her frustrations by throwing a wine bottle at a picture of the two of them and then burning it at the end of the video. When Stanley visits her house, she comes out of hiding and douses his Porsche 928 with gasoline before setting it on fire. It is implied that Stanley ended the relationship with the woman due to her unstable behavior.
The band performance portion of the video was filmed in the Orange Pavilion in San Bernardino, California, while the scenes of the woman as well as her house were shot in Hollywood, California. The Porsche in the video was a gift from Simmons to Stanley, in appreciation of the latter's dedication to the band. Simmons' bass bears an image of him in his classic "Demon" makeup.
^"Ghost: Can They Save the Musical Instrument Industry?". Loudwire. June 15, 2018. Retrieved 2021-05-30. At worst, keyboards were viewed as an essential component of pop-metal power ballads: think of the KISS song "Reason to Live," or Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again."