If you have followed rock n roll folklore, you might have heard that Van Halen would request that all brown M & M’s be removed from the M & M’s requested on their Tour Rider. (A rider is a set of requests that a performer will set as criteria for performance)
As sited in Wikipedia, The objective of this wasn’t due to any excesses on the part of the band, but was a method to determine how much attention to detail the crew at a local venue paid to the requests specified in the rider. Should the bowl be absent, or if brown M&Ms were present, it would give band members reason to suspect other, legitimate, technical and safety issues were also being performed poorly or were outright overlooked. David Lee Roth stated in his autobiography that this request was done as a result of faulty workmanship at a venue on an earlier tour which nearly cost the life of a member of Van Halen’s road crew, as well as $85,000 damage to the venue and their own equipment.[1]
Any time I hear this story while I’m on the road with artists, I often think.
I wonder what small details I’m missing in my personal and professional life which cause me to slack on the big stuff in life?
Do you ever wonder that for yourself?
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