Today I learned that Van Halen have that rider in their contract about “a bowl of M&Ms with all the brown ones removed” in order to know at a glance if the promoter read the entire contract.  And the reason they do THAT is because they once had a stage collapse because a promoter hadn’t read the proper way to set up all the specific technical stuff.

So if the band goes in the dressing room or catering and sees brown M&Ms, they know they have to double-check the stage setup for safety.

I heard about this on Freakonomics Radio.  Turns out the bit about no brown M&Ms is HUGE, in BIG font, bold, underlined and quotated like they’re on the Group W Bench.

The band was all, “We have fifty-pound lights hanging over our heads and fire being shot out of cannons.  We had to know whether they read our safety regs so we didn’t flamebroil any roadies.”

interesting how this has become a meme in the music industry about divas. i’ve always heard jokes that amount to “this stuck up celebrity hates the green gummy bears!! they’re refusing to perform just for that???” and its reading stuff like this that i realise how that joke might have come about. people get grumpy that the band refuses to play but cant admit its because THEY’RE incompetent, so they make it all about the M&Ms. another example of artists using a creative method to ensure they have a perfectly reasonable request fulfilled that is then bastardised by lazy people who wanna make money off them. 

…this is like the music industry version of hearing the truth behind the McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit

I don’t trust Maroon 5

why

Well first of all there’s 7 band members, not 5. That’s not why I don’t trust them, I just think it’s weird.

Now getting to the point, do you know how many top 100 hits Maroon 5 has had? A lot. They’re even on billboards top 100 artists of all time (ALL TIME). And it’s understandable, because pretty much every song they put out is fucking awesome. Sugar, Don’t Wanna Know, Moves Like Jagger, Payphone, This Love, She Will Be Loved, Cold, Animals, Maps, Misery, Harder to Breathe, Never Gonna Leave This Bed… to name a FEW.

These shitheads have been popping out jams since I was a little kid. Well over a decade worth of killer music. Every other song I hear on the radio is Maroon 5. It’s always Maroon 5. And I fucking love it. I love all their songs. Everyone does, they’re awesome.

But here’s the thing. They’re never the top selling artists. On the top 100 list, they’re only in the 40s. They very rarely have a number 1 hit. They’re considered good, I suppose….. but not great. Not the best.

How many people have you heard say Maroon 5 is their favorite band? For me it’s zero. For many of you, it’s zero. If you’re thinking to yourself “what? No I love them, they’re my fave!” Are you sure? Are you really sure? They’re your absolute complete FAVORITE band ever??? I doubt it. You’re just saying that because the band is on your mind now. If I asked you your fave band any other time you’d come up with another answer. Everyone always does.

But they SHOULD be everyone favorites. Look at all of those songs. They’ve got so many top hits. Everyone loves their music. Everyone sings along and knows the songs. They should be my favorite band, I think I like more of their songs than of my actual favorite artist. But they are not my favorite. They are no ones favorite.

I think they made a deal with someone. Satan? God? A dude down an alleyway? Who knows. But I believe they made a deal to ensure everyone would love their music. And we do. It’s great music.

But the twist is that they’ll never truly be recognized as one of the best. Sure, their songs will play on the radio and everyone will sing along. They’ll have sold out concerts. Plenty of fans. But not enough. They’ll be just good. Never great. Never the best. Even if they should be our favorite, they never will be. They’ll never sell enough albums or have their songs reach as high on the billboards as they should. Everyone loves their music, per the agreement. But no one loves them.

I hope Adam Levine knows I’m on to him. I know what he did.

betcha this tumblr will get deactivated for spilling the truth

*goes to bed listening to the ramones* *wakes up wearing a leather jacket*

*goes to bed listening to Led Zeppelin* *wakes up with the sexiest hair ever*

*goes to the bed listening to Red hot chili peppers* *wakes up wearing only a sock*

*Goes to bed listening to Megadeth* *Wakes up dead*

*goes to bed listening to Queen*

*wakes up wearing a silvery glittery unitard*

*goes to bed listening to Pink Floyd*

*wakes up woke*

*goes to bed listening to The Beatles*

*wakes up with a bowl cut*

*goes to bed listening to Metallica*

*sleeps with one eye open*

*goes to bed listening to Green Day*

*wakes up in October 1st*

*goes to bed listening to The Rolling Stones* *wakes up strung out in an hourly motel*

*goes to sleep listening to The Doors*

*Wakes up in leather pants*

*goes to sleep listening to David Bowie*

*wakes up next to Mick Jagger*

*goes to bed listening to The Who*

*wakes up because you’re getting kicked out of the hotel room you trashed*

*goes to sleep listening to oasis*

*wakes up with a drug addiction*

*goes to sleep listening to The Smiths*

*wakes up crying covered in shrubbery*

*goes to sleep listening to AC/DC*

*wakes up in a school uniform*

*goes to sleep listening to Muse*

*wakes up with the inability to pronounce the letter “R”*

*goes to sleep listening to Dead Kennedys*

*wakes up with an intense urge to choke a nazi*

*goes to sleep listening to panic! at the disco*

*wakes up in capetown alone*

*goes to sleep listening to twenty øne piløts*

*wakes up fine and dandy*

*goes to sleep listening to my chemical romance*

*wakes up crying*

Reblog if a band has somehow changed your life for the better

People don’t usually understand this