Rock bands are notorious for making prima donna requests in their contracts and then causing scenes if their wishes aren’t met.
For a long time, supergroup ‘Van Halens’ request for bowls of M&M’s to be placed in their dressings rooms with all the brown ones removed OR THEY WOULDN’T PLAY’ was thought to just be another one of those ridiculous requests.
Turns out it wasn’t though.
In his memoir, Crazy from the Heat, Van Halens lead singer David Lee Roth reveals the real reason for the request.
It was to ensure that the promotor had fully read and paid attention to the contract …
And more importantly, to check that attention was being paid to even the smallest details.
A single brown M&M was a red flag that other really important stuff may have been overlooked.
A single brown M&M once triggered a full-scale ‘investigation’ where the band discovered that the promotor had not complied with weight regulations and the stage was at risk of collapsing underneath them!
If people aren’t paying attention to the little stuff, then it’s highly likely that they are also going to miss something big AND potentially expensive.
So, if you don’t want to end up on your ass, you might want to figure out what brown ‘M&M test’ you could have in your company?