Geoff knew Mark mainly from the days in the early 80's when Mark was fronting his band "OVERDRIVE" and doing shows around the bay area at the same time as Geoff with his earlier VR line-up. I don't think Geoff was aware as much as I was how much Mark had progressed as a musician since those days when he was basically a rythm guitar player. I knew how much better he was because Mark and I were both from Alameda, and we had stayed in close touch over the years. I had seen Mark in his post OVERDRIVE bands, mainly "NOW" and "STARCASTLE" and I had witnessed his growth as a musician and song writer.

At this time in VR, Gary was in the band still (barely), and we got together when Geoff came home from Hawaii to jam with Mark and see how it felt. We ran through a few tunes like "March or Die", "Domestic Bliss", and others from SOTN, and Mark was able to nail of Vinnie's parts with ease. It felt very comfortable, and we could tell that he had prepared himself well for the audition! Again, we did not try out any other guitar players. We knew Mark was the one, and this time we were right.

Around this same time, I had been scouting out this amazing local singer that I had heard about. Carl Albert had been fronting bands around the bay area for a few years,most popular of those being:"RUFFIANS" and "VILLIAN". I really wanted to get ahold of him to talk about joining VR, but I did not know him at all-nor did I know how to reach him. One day I saw an add in the local music paper showing a listing for upcoming VILLIAN shows. I decided to go see them at the "MAB" in S.F., and to see if I could get Carl to talk with me for a few minutes about the VR vocalist situation.
When I got to the club, I looked around for Carl. Before I found him, I went over to a table that was selling VILLIAN merchandise.There debut record had just come out, and it was for sale along with pictures, buttons, and other items. I started to think that this was going to be a tough sale! Everyone there seemed to have a good vibe about the band- I think it was their record release show! I started to think that maybe this was not a good time to aproach Carl at all and that I should wait for a better, more casual, situation.
Since I was there, I figured what the hell- I will check out the show and then split and try to call him later.

When VILLIAN came on, I stood and stared at Carl for the whole set! I was amazed at this guy and his unreal talent! That night, I knew that he was the man for VR! VILLIAN was an ok band with an awesome singer, I knew that Carl needed to move on to bigger and better things- and that meant VICIOUS RUMORS!

After the show I stopped Carl and introduced myself, and told him that I was very impresed! He said thanx and shook my hand. I gave him a quick run down on the VR situation, but Carl was not interested. He would not even give me his phone number! I started to think that maybe he gets hit on all the time about joining other bands.
I left the show feeling pretty down, and thinking that this would probably never come to be. The truth is that I never did give up! I called around and finally got his number and phoned him a week or so later. He remebered me from the MAB show, but told me again that he was not interested in VR or any other band. I asked him if he could at least let me send him a copy of SOTN along with some promo material. He said ok and gave me his address. I added that if he likes the record and he is interested to please call me, and if he doesn't like it to throw the stuff away and I would not bug him anymore!!

About 2 weeks go by and still no word from Carl. Then one day the phone rings and it's Mr. Albert himself! He tells me that he loves the record, but doesn't want to audition........HE WANTS TO JOIN VICIOUS RUMORS!!!!!!!!! Wow this was great news! I called Geoff to let him know, and we set up an audition (yeh-right!) for Carl. He came down to the studio and the first song we played with Mark and Carl (I think it was "March or Die" ) it was like magic. Geoff, Larry, and I looked at each other and we new from that special moment on-a new VR was born!

And to think...just a few months earlier, Geoff had said to me: " Dave,you can check out this Carl guy out if you want...but I can't ever invision Vicious Rumors without Gary being our singer....." (end quote.) Yeh Geoff...and the royalty checks you owe me today in 2000 are in the mail right!?!?!?