# So about the "no brown M&Ms clause" in Van Halen's rider...



## Guest (Aug 3, 2011)

...appears it was a rational thing to ask for after all. Make a whole lot of sense when you read it from this angle.

http://wayback.archive.org/web/jsp/...305234616/http://jimcofer.com/personal/?p=621

Edit: updated with (hopefully) working link.


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

__________


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

nkjanssen said:


> Can't see that link, but I know David Lee Roth's explanation was that if they found brown M&M's they'd assume the promoter/venue hadn't read it and they'd assume they probably had not paid attention to other details as well. They'd start tearing apart the sound system to make sure everything was grounded properly, etc.


I've heard that as well (And I can't see the link either)

So it makes a good strategy, and it makes a good story too.

They win either way.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

The link gets this:

[h=1]Forbidden[/h] You don't have permission to access /personal/ on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


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## jimihendrix (Jun 27, 2009)

The Smoking Gun provides the actual document...

Van Halen's Legendary M&M's Rider | The Smoking Gun

Just click on the document on the left to open it up...

Or start reading it here...11 pages long...

Van Halen's Legendary M&M's Rider | The Smoking Gun


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## flashPUNK (Feb 16, 2006)

You want to talk about crazy requirements...
I know from experience that Maynard from Tool and A Perfect Circle travels with his own "Wine Tech", who is in charge of building properly angled wine racks in his own private "Solidarity Room" back stage at all of his gigs.

I understand making demands for food etc (I guess brown M&M's are a bit much), but this was an extreme that I never thought I'd see.


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## mrmatt1972 (Apr 3, 2008)

flashPUNK said:


> You want to talk about crazy requirements...
> I know from experience that Maynard from Tool and A Perfect Circle travels with his own "Wine Tech", who is in charge of building properly angled wine racks in his own private "Solidarity Room" back stage at all of his gigs.
> 
> I understand making demands for food etc (I guess brown M&M's are a bit much), but this was an extreme that I never thought I'd see.


Doesn't he own a winery? I guess it kind of makes sense.


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## flashPUNK (Feb 16, 2006)

mrmatt1972 said:


> Doesn't he own a winery? I guess it kind of makes sense.


Yeah, I think so.. I guess it's just crazy to me in my experience traveling in a 8 person van, that having another person on tour to be doing nothing but 'wine tech' is a bit extreme.. But I guess he's probably got a few buses.

I played an after party for Motley Crue at the Molsen Amphitheater a few weeks back, I swear those guys had about 8 busses + 3 or 4 18 wheelers between them. Nikki Sixx had one just for his radio show alone.


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2011)

Weird. Not sure why that page went AWOL.

But yea, it quotes DLR who says they did it to make sure promoters followed their rider which with 99.999% about requirements that were for their safety, the safety of the crew and the safety of the crowd. He talks about one venue (a basketball arena) that had a fancy floor and they didn't find brown M&Ms in the bowl when they showed up so they threw a "rock star fit" and cancelled the show. Meanwhile the stage sunk in the floor and did $80k in damage all because they didn't read the weight requirements part of the rider.


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## LowWatt (Jun 27, 2007)

It's amazing how many of these "crazy rock star" stories are grounded in logic and reason. Like the Prince changing his name to a symbol thing. That had nothing to do with wanting to change his name to something that non-traditional and everything to do with getting out of his deal with Warner.


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2011)

Updated OP with a link to an archive of the story that works for me.


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## Starbuck (Jun 15, 2007)

mrmatt1972 said:


> Doesn't he own a winery? I guess it kind of makes sense.


yeah he does, there's a movie about it "Blood Into Wine" He's a bit of a strange dude.


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