The record was to be produced by Michael Rosen with the help of Geoff and Mark as co-producers. I had decided early on that I would stay the hell out of this one as far as the production and mixing goes thanks to my bad vibes with Geoff on the Digital Dictator mix down.
Making records can be fun to some, but I find it to be a really nerve racking and tiresome experience. I was going to concentrate only on my bass tracks, and then get the hell out of the studio!

Michael Rosen pushed me pretty hard at times on this record. I think I got along with him fine, but he was a real perfectionist and would spot flaws in some of my bass tracks making me go over and over until it was up to his standards. Several times I thought I was going to lose my temper with him, but I kept my cool. I thought I would have a song nailed down, only to hear him say over the headphones "You need to do this one again Dave." Once the record was done, I think Michael had made me a better musician and bassist.
Being the bass player was great because Larry and I got to do our tracks first, and as I recall - I think he and I were done with the bass and drums in about a week. I played one of my new Ibanez basses on most of the tracks, and I used an old Kramer 8 string on "Ship of Fools" and "Can You Hear It." I really love the 8 string bass and I wish I would have used it on more tunes with VR.

As usual, we were very tight and fast in the studio. Some of these songs we had been playing live for over a year, so all of the bugs had long been worked out. The record was almost called "Immortal Battalion," this was Geoff's idea and I thought it was a great name, but the consensus now was to call it simply "Vicious Rumors" since we would be heard by many people for the first time even though it would be our third album.

Geoff and Mark continued to write the bulk of the albums material along with Carl. Some of my favorite VR tunes came out on this record, "Ship of Fools" and "Can you hear It." These songs were great then and they still sound great ten years later. I suggested to Mark and Geoff that I play the harmony solo intro with them on "Ship," and I think it really added to the song. A controversy erupted over this song between Mark and I that I think you may find interesting...

I had shown Mark a guitar riff of mine several months earlier. He said it sounded good, but we never did anything with it. Mark ends up later writing "Ship" with a chorus part that sounds a lot like the riff I had shown him months before!! I confronted Mark about this, and he said I was crazy! He refused to change the part or give me a co-write credit on the song. I kept up a verbal war of words with him over this for a few months, and it was not resolved until after the album was recorded.
Geoff said he was tired of hearing us fighting about it, and he gave me a portion of his song writing credit on "Ship" to put the issue to rest. Very generous on Geoff's part I must say, but equally selfish on Mark's as well. Mark denies the plagiarism to this day, but the fact is that I got a co-write credit on "Ship Of Fools" and I have the publishing documents to back it up!

That minor episode aside, Mark and Geoff continued the VR tradition of great songs and equally great guitar work on this album. Kirk Hammett told me later that Geoff's solo on "Don't Wait" was amazing! Not to be out done, Mark kicked ass with great solo's and complex rhythm parts. His guitar solo's on "Ship" and "Down to the Temple" are two of my favorites. The "Down to the Temple" solo section always reminded me of the vibe on KK Downings "Sinner" solo from Judas priest.
Carl was his usual flawless self and set new standards for Rock/Metal vocalists that remain to this day. He improved on his already legendary Digital Dictator vocal work!
Larry has to be one of the fastest guys I have ever seen in the studio. Nerves of steel! He would usually nail the songs in one or two takes!

There were a few things on this album that I didn't like. One of them was the bass solo I did on "Thrill of the Hunt." I had a totally different idea when we did demos of this song. On the demo I played a 5 string Steinberger bass tuned to high B instead of low B. For the solo, I played it in the highest register possible using distortion and delay. I thought it was really cool, but I think Mark and Geoff thought I was trying to be a guitar player!
I still think the solo on the demo version sounds better then what I did on the album! Also, The bass was a little low in the mix overall on some parts of this record. I think Geoff's idea of hearing the bass is to have the bass control on his Marshall turned up to 10 ! All in all a great album that I am still proud of today.

The album was originally to be released in late 1989, but Atlantic ended up pushing it back until Feb. 1990. In the meantime, we did some more touring on the West coast to showcase the new songs, and we filmed the video for "Don't Wait For Me" in Hollywood Jan. of 1990.

Dave Starr 8-9-2000

>> Read on: The Atlantic Years part 4...