ITT we make our own "celebrity riders"

[MysticCat]

Sometimes the backstage demands are the results of over-inflated egos and self-aggrandizement, but not always. Van Halen's contractual requirement that there be a bowl of M&Ms backstage with all of the brown M&Ms removed is one example.

These concert contracts are incredibly long and detailed. They don't just have requirements for the green room, they also have specifications on how the stage, lighting, sound equipment, etc., are to be set up. There are lots of safety considerations involved. So the "no brown M&Ms rule" worked as a test -- sort of a canary in the mine shaft. If the band came backstage before a show and found brown M&Ms, then they knew the contract hadn't been read carefully. And that meant that all of the bigger stuff on stage needed to be double-checked before anyone went on stage.