Why Eric Carr Hated Kiss’ ‘All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose’

It’s safe to say Eric Carr wasn’t initially thrilled with the way Paul Stanley reworked “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose,” the first Kiss single on which the drummer earned a co-writing credit.

“I just remember his jaw hitting the floor when he heard what had been done,” Stanley recalled in 2005’s Kiss: Behind the Music. “Eric was a very sensitive guy and was completely destroyed at what he believed was the ruination of his song.”

“When I brought it to the band I was expecting ‘Kashmir,'” Carr told Kiss Neon Glow in 1992. But instead of completing the song with a more traditional Led Zeppelin-style vocal, Stanley steered into rap territory by speaking instead of singing the verses. “I’m going, ‘Oh my God, what are you doing to my song!?'” Carr recalled.

“Eric hated it,” Stanley continued. “I’m not quite sure what he heard over it in his mind. It was just so clearly off from what he heard, but the alternative would have been to do something that would have turned into mimicry of something else.”

Still, in 2011’s The Eric Carr Story, the drummer’s sister Loretta revealed that Carr was at least happy to get the songwriting credit: “They’re going to use some of my music!”

‘All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose’ Continued Kiss’ Comeback Streak

Kiss released “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose” on Feb. 6, 1984, as the second single from 1983’s Lick It Up. It was the first album Kiss put out after removing their makeup and letting the world see their real faces. The song didn’t earn as much airplay or chart success as the previously released title track, but it still helped solidify the band’s comeback and pull them out of a nearly fatal early-’80s commercial tailspin.

Watch Kiss’ ‘All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose’ Video

“Lick It Up went on to be certified double platinum,” Stanley recalled in his 2014 memoir Face the Music. “That blew [1982’s] Creatures of the Night away and reaffirmed for me that my suspicions had been correct. It wasn’t that people didn’t want Kiss. They wanted Kiss to drop something that no longer seemed genuine. Losing the makeup forced people to focus on the band, and they embraced the music.”

Losing the makeup also helped fuel a fundamental shift in the band’s dynamics. Whereas Gene Simmons‘ blood-spitting, fire-breathing Demon character earned him the lion’s share of the attention during the band’s ’70s heyday, he looks a bit lost in the band’s early videos, as Stanley effortlessly commands the spotlight with his MTV-friendly looks and charisma.

READ MORE: Top 10 Kiss ‘Without Makeup’ Songs

“It’s important to be clear about what happened,” Simmons asserted in his 2002 memoir Kiss and Make-Up. “Paul didn’t push me out of the spotlight. He would never do that to me. It’s just that his ability to capture the public’s attention increased as the music scene changed. My reaction was to try and muscle my way back into the spotlight by buying some truly outlandish androgynous clothing. It didn’t work, not the way I wanted it to. It just made me look like a football player in a tutu.”

The band invited New York’s Channel 7 to film a behind-the-scenes news segment about the filming of the $50,000 “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose” video. If the resulting report is not all that informative, it’s certainly entertaining as hell. “In this video, the creatives have decided to take a moment from the past, twist it around and push it into the future,” reporter Ed Miller helpfully explains. “The women are the pirates; the men, Kiss, the sex objects.”

Watch the Making of Kiss’ ‘All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose’ Video