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No Brown M&M’s — Life Hack from Van Halen
“Rockstar” and “diva” seem to go hand in hand. We’ve all heard stories of celebrities or musicians making absurd requests from their assistants. Things that seem more like power moves than actual meaningful needs.
Rumors like…
- Madonna requesting new toilet seats at every venue she performed at.
- Selena Gomez requesting all stage hands named “Justin” go by a different name while she dealt with her breakup from Justin Bieber.
- Joe Jonas’s rider requiring 12 puppies backstage.
Article 126 of Van Halen’s performance contract seemed to be the highest level of this sort of tedium ever achieved.
“There will be no brown M&M’s in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation.”
News of this went mainstream and the public reacted. Some found it funny, others found it ridiculous, but it seems like everyone found it interesting.
It’s actually more interesting than it seems. The “no brown M&Ms” request wasn’t a diva power move, it was a strategic business move made by David Lee Roth.
You see, Van Halen was one of the first bands to really take touring and their production to the…
