Something I didn't know yesterday,,,

http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/vanhalen.asp


While listening to This American Life today, I learned something pretty interesting.

When you read a lot of rock biographies, as I do, you often run into tales that seem true, but at the same time seem too outrageous and stupid to be true.

Supposedly, Van Halen used to demand, when they toured, that brown M and Ms be removed from backstage. Typical rock star craziness, right? It became a joke in Spinal Tap, and something to be imitated by younger bands like Guns and Roses. You would hear about this story, and think it could be true, but probably was an exaggeration, right?

Well, it was true, but not for the reason everybody thought.

It turns out, according to David Lee Roth's autobiography, that the band did it for a very good reason. When Van Halen toured, they had a tremendous amount of equipment, and the contract would lay out exactly how much power they needed, how many lighting people, etc, etc. The brown M and Ms, it turned out, was a test to see how closely the venue paid attention to the contract. Roth said he knew that if they missed the brown M and Ms, they probably missed something else, and Van Halen would have to double check all their technical setups to make sure the show would go off without putting anyone in danger.

So you really do learn something new every day.