David Lee Roth: Event Planning Genius

March 16, 2010

Little known fact:  David Lee Roth may have missed his calling as an event planner.  Van Halen had an infamous “brown M&Ms” clause which required the venue to provide M&Ms backstage with absolutely no brown M&Ms.

Just a diva move?  Not quite.

David Lee Roth did this so he could quickly assess if the venue had read their contract. If there were no brown M&Ms, it was very likely that all other requirements had been taken care of, allowing them to put on a safe, successful show.  If they hadn’t, he would order a check of the entire production.  That famous brown M&M-induced fit that allegedly cost $85,000 in damages? Actually was $85k in damage to the arena floor because the venue hadn’t followed their weight requirements in their contract.  ”Who am I to get in the way of a good rumor?” said David.

Make sure you are reading through all of your vendor contracts from start to finish, there’s usually a legitimate reason for even the smallest requests!

Image via The Smoking Gun, additional information via Christopher Cummings and Wikipedia.