Van Halen M&M Legend Explained

Van Halen and brown M&M's will forever be linked in pop culture.

Most people have heard that there’s a connection between the two, without knowing the details.

The story begins with Van Halen adding a clause to their tour contract that required M&M candies backstage with all of the brown ones removed.

"Many years ago it was part of the Van Halen contract as we toured through the arenas in the 80s," explains Roth, "that there would be no brown m&m’s found in the backstage area or the promoter would forfeit the entire show at full pay. This was touted wildly and widely as simple rock star misdemeanor excess and being abusive of others simply because we could... and who am I to get in the way of a good rumor?"

"In fact, the reality is quite different..."

Check out the video for Dave’s explanation.

Promoters will be on the lookout for brown M&M’s in the backstage area when Van Halen launches their world tour in support of "A Different Kind Of Truth" on February 18 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Brown M&Ms from Van Halen on Vimeo.

Thanks for the report to HenneMusic.com.

Comments

[Pagan_Poetry]

What's with all of the Van Halen news today? Because Van Halen sounds barely like Valentines?
Anyways, this article sucks only because racism towards certain M&M's is uncalled for. Not on my UG.

[Maiden95]

It all...makes sense now...wow.

[GrungeHippie26]

Pagan_Poetry wrote:

What's with all of the Van Halen news today? Because Van Halen sounds barely like Valentines?
Anyways, this article sucks only because racism towards certain M&M's is uncalled for. Not on my UG.

Right on brother

[iommi600]

"racism towards certain M&M's"

LMFAO ROFL

[BassProShopswtr]

The ad for the new brown m&m girl is on this page twice and it made me laugh. just saying.

[ginsufrenzy]

[quote)What's with all of the Van Halen news today? Because Van Halen sounds barely like Valentines?
Anyways, this article sucks only because racism towards certain M&M's is uncalled for. Not on my UG[/quote]

Racism towards M&M's..... hahahahahahahaha

[ginsufrenzy]

oops^

[L2112Lif]

"And there I am in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at three o' clock in the morning, looking for one thousand brown M&M's to fill a brandy glass, or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night. So, Jeff Beck pops his head 'round the door and mentions there's a little sweetshop on the edge of town. So, we go, and - it's closed. So there's me, and Keith Moon, and David Crosby breaking into this little sweetshop right? Well, instead of a guard dog, they've got this bloody great big Bengal tiger. Well I managed to take out the tiger with a can of mace, but the shopowner and his son, that's a different story altogether... I had to beat them to death with their own shoes... Nasty business really... But sure enough, I got the M&M's and Ozzy went on stage and did a GREAT show."

[dpotts2]

I had heard this years ago. At the time is was actually common practice by several of the top touring acts to put such clauses into the contract riders. The whole reason being to make sure the contract was actually read. Van Halen was not the first to come up with this but it seems that their idea of the brown M&Ms became legend.

[CoolMcAwesome]

this was actually a good video! enjoyable

[kettmannism]

Love the Wayne's World 2 reference!

"Whoa! Who's the old lady?"

"That's my old lady."

[ledzeplnrulz]

Glad I wasn't the only one who caught the Wayne's World 2 reference!

[Northernmight]

And there I am in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at three o' clock in the morning, looking for one thousand brown M&M's to fill a brandy glass, or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night. So, Jeff Beck pops his head 'round the door and mentions there's a little sweetshop on the edge of town. So, we go, and - it's closed. So there's me, and Keith Moon, and David Crosby breaking into this little sweetshop right? Well, instead of a guard dog, they've got this bloody great big Bengal tiger. Well I managed to take out the tiger with a can of mace, but the shopowner and his son, that's a different story altogether... I had to beat them to death with their own shoes... Nasty business really... But sure enough, I got the M&M's and Ozzy went on stage and did a GREAT show."

EXCELLENT!

[Minivirus2]

That actually makes a certian amount of sense. Really, it's just a clever business ploy to make sure the promoters were taking the necessary precautions to keep everyone safe.

[l.u.c.]

I thought everyone already knew why they did the brown m&m thing? It's not like members of the band themselves haven't already explained it on camera before.

[party_on_wayne]

A lot of people's girlfriends are back there

[Wolfinator-x]

My god... Dave dressed like that looks like my summer job boss... I have weird feels.

[westley23j]

thats a pretty cool story, but DLR still comes off as a giant bag of douche

[Jettski1]

This has been known for years...

[michaeltheyoung]

Is there anyone alive who doesn't already know this??

[Rajah]

This was explained 15 years ago in Dave's book - Crazy From The Heat - to make sure promoters had read the contract properly.

[kaptkegan]

I

Jettski1 wrote:

This has been known for years...

Came in to post this.

[bignig]

Well since I said for years if I was trying to describe Rock N Roll to an alien and wanted to play him a sample, I would play Hot For Teacher. That song is Rock n Roll. Hot For Teacher is my pick!!!

[dial-a-death]

They should have changed the colour every time. Otherwise, people go "Oh yeah, Van Halen don't like Brown M&M's, so make sure there aren't any", and STILL don't read the rider!

[DrCOOL]

I thought this was common knowledge by now. But it really was a great idea. You can tell aside from all the partying, excess, and troubles that came from the VH camp they really were some smart cats and really on top of their game.

[blackwingbat]

I read this on Wikipedia easily over a year ago. This isn't exactly news.

[Hannibal7]

understandable, idont like the new brown m&m either, but this isnt news, its been on wikipedia forever

[sparkeyjames]

That man is never at a loss for words is he?

Great story though. I always wondered what was behind that.

[VanCamp]

Do people not know this?

[Shun1010]

"Long story short, I got the M&Ms and Ozzy went on stage and played a great show."

[centermass]

that must be why they released a new album. so they could get this story out there and put the rumors to rest. ahem because it sure wasn't to bring back classic van halen.

[rmp0012002]

this is not new news. The band put that into the contracts so venues would set everything up as written and if the brown m&m's were there then they knew the contract hadn't been read and it had to be gone over with the promoter and fix what needed to be or they wouldn't play. I'm sure lots of bands did this.

[georgebushguy79]

Lol gotta love DLR! A Different Kind of Truth is simply amazing!

[cheesyp00fs]

DLR was always a good storyteller.

[b_flo]

dpotts2 wrote:

I had heard this years ago. At the time is was actually common practice by several of the top touring acts to put such clauses into the contract riders. The whole reason being to make sure the contract was actually read. Van Halen was not the first to come up with this but it seems that their idea of the brown M&Ms became legend.

This is absolutely true. It's pretty standard. Also the technical riders for preference of gear. Here's some out-of-the-ordinary requests on riders:

1. No one is allowed to have direct eye-contact with the artist (I could name a couple of legends).

2. No one is allowed to wake up the artist when they are sleeping, under any circumstances(clue: a band that's always late for their set).

3. The monitor engineer must stay at least 5ft away from the monitor console during the show, unless told by the artist.

4. A separate path to the stage, must be set up for the artist only.

[Sparky-MMA]

dpotts2 wrote:

I had heard this years ago. At the time is was actually common practice by several of the top touring acts to put such clauses into the contract riders. The whole reason being to make sure the contract was actually read. Van Halen was not the first to come up with this but it seems that their idea of the brown M&Ms became legend.

this is bang on, my band was told by our first proper manager (who wasn't related to any of us) to put something really odd and stupid into our riders or contracts with venues, for that exact reason, just something really out of the ordinary, like for ours it was carrot sticks cut to precisely 3cm long, and 8 cans of diet coke set out in a triangle. just to make sure they'd read what we wanted, (none of us liked carrot sticks, but it was funny while we were in scotland and ireland.

[MetalMullet]

I actually didn't know this so it was fun to watch.

[m4ss3 m/]

Wow, UG is trippin' balls today. Finally got this page to work and it only took like 8 refreshes.

[cptcomet]

Amazing how stories get twisted round so much!

[IWasMaiden93]

Is this new news? I knew the real story about the M&Ms awhile back, thought it was brilliant, as one would expect from Dave

[miahdoll]

Wolfinator-x wrote:

My god... Dave dressed like that looks like my summer job boss... I have weird feels.

He is gay dude!