Before he was a member of Kiss, Bruce Kulick was a nomad, logging miles with Meat Loaf, Blackjack, and the Good Rats, even appearing in the studio with Billy Squier. But the most interesting of all his exploits may be his work with blue-eyed soul crooner Michael Bolton.
Of course, Kulick had worked with Bolton before in the aforementioned Blackjack before the latter jettisoned himself for pop stardom, and while most of Bolton’s exploits are more catered towards mellow nights spent at Grandma’s, one album remains an outlier – 1985’s Everybody’s Crazy.
“I kept in touch with Michael after Blackjack,” Kulick says. “But Michael was not a rock artist anymore; he was this big, Grammy-winning pop guy now. This was music only your mother could love. [Laughs] But apparently, Michael was encouraged by his producer, Neil Kernon, to try and get in on glam metal and make a rock album, and they hired me to play some guitars down at Electric Lady Studios.”
As any good disciple of Hendrix should, Kulick came to the studio armed with a period-correct Super Strat, ready to dive bomb his way to infamy. All told, Kulick appeared on eight of Everybody’s Crazy’s nine tracks (Kevin Dukes played on Desperate Heart), but the molten lava licks scattered across the title track turned the heat up most.
“Oh, man, we overdubbed the guitars like crazy,” Kulick says. “We double, triple and quadruple-overdubbed everything. Neil was fixated on getting that big Mutt Lange sound, and I can’t tell you how many times he yelled out, ‘Bruce, tune that guitar!’ So I’d be tuning it all over again and then praying it sounded right. And then the rhythm guitars – forget it. I wouldn’t be surprised if that track had four to six rhythm overdubs alone. It was – no pun intended – crazy!”
Of course, if you’re not a fan of Michael Bolton or missed the album entirely, no bother; there was at least one other way you might have heard Everybody’s Crazy – the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield joint, Back to School.
Michael was elated to have Everybody’s Crazy in the movie, but when it started playing, they picked it up during my guitar solo
“That was hilarious,” Kulick says. “We went to the movie premiere, and I remember sitting next to Michael, who was very excited. We’re watching the movie and laughing, and then suddenly there’s the song in the movie. Michael was elated to have Everybody’s Crazy in the movie, but when it started playing, they picked it up during my guitar solo.
“I could see the look on Michael’s face – he was so disappointed. But I loved it! I’m sitting there smiling, loving every minute of my solo being featured in a Rodney Dangerfield movie. I don’t think about it often, but it makes me smile whenever I do.”
If nothing else, Everybody’s Crazy served as foreshadowing for Kulick, as just a few short months later, he got the call to join Kiss (who found themselves in full-on hair metal mode). Soon, the New York native was summoned to the studio to sub for an ailing Mark St. John on Animalize and then was officially indoctrinated on the road. But had Bolton’s foray into hair metal succeeded, might Kulick have stuck with him instead?
“Probably not,” he says. “I was loyal to Michael after Blackjack ended, and Billy Squier was even pretty upset that I chose Michael over him in the early '80s. But joining Kiss was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and when Paul Stanley asked me, there was no doubt I’d give it a shot. But Everybody’s Crazy was a fun song, and I had a great time doing it. But it didn’t do what it should have commercially. It caused Michael to re-examine his career and reinvent himself. But it’s a great anthem.”
