The Smoking Gun has been posting bands’ tour riders for 10 years, including such demands as AC/DC’s three oxygen tanks and three masks, Jennifer Lopez’s pure white rooms, Lou Reed’s ban on sugar and the goofiness of the Foo Fighter’s rider.
One rider has heretofore eluded them — Van Halen’s infamous demand that brown M&Ms be picked out of the bowl for them. Well The Smoking Gun has at last unearthed this holy grail of tour riders. Besides the M&Ms, they want no less than ten rooms devoted to their use.
Here are a few excerpts.
Place settings: Not plastic. All forks must have four prongs.
Deli Tray [Including] herring in sour cream
One (1) Large Tube K-Y Jelly
2 of these meals must be vegetarian or Chinese
I’ll eat meat, but only if it’s Chinese? It is nice to see that the band takes care of its crew well, but yep, on page 40 there is the M&M stipulation. The bread’s too small; it won’t fit.
Image and rider courtesy of The Smoking Gun
Reading the Foo Fighters’ rider and giggling right now… “our bass player Nate is the real people person, not the guy from Nirvana.”