Os M&Ms dos Van Halen

Estava aqui eu em pesquisas para a redacção de um "hospitality rider", uma lista que por vezes acompanha outra documentação importante na contratualização de um espectáculo, onde ocasionalmente se encontram aquelas famosas exigências absurdas, quando, por falar nisso, deparo-me com esta história espantosa:

Van Halen requested in the technical rider that a bowl of M&Ms be provided in their dressing room with the brown ones removed (failure to do so would not only mean that the band would not perform, but the venue would still have to pay the full fee). 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.