10 Absolutely Insane Rider Requests By Spoilt Musicians
3. No Brown M&Ms - Van Halen
Remember that scene in Wayne's World 2 when Ozzy Osbourne's old roadie Del Preston told the tale about getting brown M&Ms before he went on stage? Well, turns out that hilarious monologue was inspired by none other than Eddie Van Halen and his outrageous rider requests.
Van Halen was the master of the rider and he would frequently send venues 53 paged dossiers littered with outrageously impossible requests. The most notorious request however was his request of a bowl of M&Ms but all brown ones had to be removed. For years, people thought it was a joke until David Lee Roth revealed the truth behind it in an interview in 2012.
He stated that although there were many other things on the rider (fruit, herbal teas, chips and dips) the brown M&Ms was a test for the venue staff. A bowl without brown M&Ms showed that the promoters took the band seriously and he felt like that would also reflect the manner in which they took the security and the rigging of the stage production seriously as well. If there were brown M&Ms backstage, the band would have their own staff double check everything before they felt safe to go onstage.