My memories of this latest VR adventure (including the usual strange twists that only VR could provide) is as follows...
On Feb. 3rd, as was most often the case with me, I flew to L.A. to hook up with the band. I can't stand making that dreadful 7 hour drive down I-5 to Southern California, so whenever the band had business down south, I would take a cheap $50.00 SouthWest flight, rent a car, and meet the guys there. I know sometimes that would rub the other guys the wrong way, but that was never my intention. I just figured that since I had a decent job and income, I would do things my way. I figured that as long as I was where I was supposed to be, when I was supposed to be there, it should not be a problem to anyone as to how how I got there.

After arriving at the Viscount Hotel in Long Beach and checking into my room, I hooked up with our manager Bob Zemsky in the bar. As I recall, Gore Verbinski came in a few minutes later and I met him for the first time. The 3 of us hung out and chatted about the video we would shoot the next day, all of this in full view of the beautiful Queen Mary ocean liner moored close by! Not a bad life to be sitting in Southern Calif., signed to Atlantic, and talking to my video director and manager as we sipped beer by the Queen Mary! The rest of the band arrived later on and we were all pretty exited about what we were about to do the next day. Here is a damn funny-bizarre story that has to do with Carl: He and I shared the hotel room that night, and the next morning Carl told me as I was getting ready; "I hope you don't mind, but I have a headache and I took a couple of Advils that you had in your bottle sitting on the bathroom counter...."

What Carl did not realize is that I had the following pills in the bottle: multivitamins, vitamin c, advil, and sleeping pills! I asked Carl what pills he took, and he told me two of the blue ones....OH MY GOD! Here we are on the day of shooting our first ever video, and Carl just took 2 sleeping pills by accident!!! I don't know how he ever pulled it off, but somehow he did, and he was able to get through the very difficult and long day of shooting without any trouble. That was wild and crazy Carl, always keeping us on the edge......

Later that morning, we arrived at the South Bay Studios sound stage in Carson, Calif. for the video shoot. The crew was busy setting up the stage and equipment where we would spend the next 18 hours filming our "EPIC". Gore had some pretty neat ideas for a great low budget video, ideas that although may have been cheap money wise, they did not really look that way in the video. The stage where we would play, was constructed of hundreds of wood pallets strewn about, with bright lights shinning up through them, and fog machines belching out smoke everywhere. The drum riser as well was made of pallets, and we had our amps and speaker cabinets thrown around in chaotic fashion that resembled a sort of Apocalyptic scene. This stage was where most of the filming took place, the other one was the 2nd set that had the big alarm clocks, infinity backdrop, and Geoff and Mark running around while Mark played his solo! Special effects of clocks floating around during Geoff's solo were added in post production, as were the image of Carl super imposed on the clock face when he sang the last pre-chorus, and the spinning gears at the video's start.

We had never done this before, but we learned that it was true about video making: Over and over, and over, and over, and over again! Non stop filming of the song from different angles, and of each one of us. Up, down, sideways, back, forward, you name it! By the end of the day, I think I hated the damn song! We must have shot the song over and over from all angles about 100 times throughout that long 18 hour day.

I think Gore and his entire crew did a great job on "Don't wait for Me". I don't know how many times it was played on MTV's Headbangers Ball, but the fans we met on tour later that year said they saw it and loved it! Every now and then, I pull the video out and watch it, and I still think it looks great. Considering how many horrible cheesy metal video's were made back in those days, DWFM stands out pretty nicely as a good, well thought out, acted, and directed video.

Dave Starr 10-11-2000

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