jonathanhoey

The Van Halen rider thing is true - they did request ridiculous things like “absolutely no brown M+Ms” - but it wasn’t entirely about being entitled rock star divas. They would haul a vast amount of production to each show. Trucks and trucks full of elaborate staging, lighting and sound equipment. It all weighed a huge amount, and on one notable occasion sank through the newly-installed floor of an auditorium causing thousands of dollars’ worth of damage. It turned out that the promoter for that show had not read the detailed technical specifications in the contract. On subsequent tours they would include ridiculous rider demands somewhere else in the contract. They didn’t really care about M+Ms but the idea was to test if the promoter had read the document properly. If they arrived and there were brown M+Ms in the dressing room, it was a litmus test that someone hadn’t read the contract closely so they’d better check and re-check that the venue understood the technical specs before loading in and rigging up. Conversely, if they got a phone call in advance asking if they REALLY needed a football helmet full of cream cheese, or whatever other stupid stuff they’d stipulated, it showed that the promoter was paying attention, then they could have an informed conversation about how many amps of electricity the PA would need, and so on. Dave Lee Roth, a born raconteur, has of course told this story a thousand times. It’s in his autobiography and doubtless on YouTube.

FLyER crossing NyLLA cost me a lot of time at the end.