Rumor Has It

Having just completed the tracks for his fourth album in 1996, Walker was playing basketball with a friend, when he began to experience numbness, facial spasms, and double vision. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed that he had multiple sclerosis (MS). Walker subsequently began changing his diet and treating the disease with a daily injection of Copaxone, sending his MS into an arrested state.
Also in early 1996, Nu Millennia Media released Self Portrait, which included five of Walker's songs in an interactive CD-ROM format and 30 minutes of video footage. He then released his fourth album, 1997's Rumor Has It, which he co-produced with Stroud. Its title track, the first single, became his sixth and final No. 1 single that year. Other singles from the album included the number 18 "One, Two, I Love You" and the Top 5 hits "Watch This" and "Then What?" at number 4 and number 2, respectively. The latter also reached number 65 on the Hot 100, making for his first entry on that chart since "What's It to You." As with his three previous studio albums, Rumor Has It was certified platinum. Larry Stephens of Country Standard Time gave this album a mostly-negative review, calling the songs "cookie-cutter" outside "I Need a Margarita". Thom Owens of Allmusic also thought that it was formulaic, but said that Walker was "able to make even mediocre material sound good", rating it three stars out of five.