The other day, we aired an interview with longtime Denver rock promoter Barry Fey. Mike Flanagan, of CPR’s music station Open Air, asked him about riders-- those contracts that spell out what bands need and want on tour. Inevitably, the story of Van Halen's request "that there be no brown M&M's" came up. Fey said the rider was "just all fun stuff." As it turns out, the real story is actually more serious, as explained by David Lee Roth in a video that NPR posted on their site a few days later.
![A woman with white shoulder-length hair and a purple shirt holds up a comic book to her chest.](https://www.cpr.org/cdn-cgi/image/width=3840,quality=75,format=auto/https://wp-cpr.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/07/IMG_0588-e1722010580943.jpg)