Back in their heyday, Van Halen had a rather weird request in the rider on their contract.
Buried amongst a bunch of other technical requirements, like “Article 148: There will be fifteen amperage voltage sockets at twenty-foot spaces, evenly, providing nineteen amperes…”
…was THIS unusual request:
“There will be no brown M&M’s in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation.”
The mere presence of even one single brown M&M was sufficient legal cause for Van Halen to cancel the show.
And rumor had it, it was also an excuse for the boys to go on a destructive rampage.
Was this just spoiled rock star prima donna behavior?
Not at all.
The “no brown M&Ms” provision served a very practical purpose.
It let them know if the technical specifications in their contract had been completely read and complied with.
Lead singer David Lee Roth said…
“So, when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl… well, line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a technical error. They didn’t read the contract. Guaranteed you’d run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening.”
You see, it was a litmus test.
Just like the litmus test I hid here…
The great unwashed masses…
The “sheeple”…
The poor everyman living a life of quiet desperation…
The “walking dead” settling for a life of mediocrity instead of pursuing a dream and living life with gusto…
That type of person scans the page and just doesn’t “get it.”
My “litmus test” is invisible to them.
The “mediocre majority” choose to abandon the page and go back to their sad lives…
…and continue to suffer through a j-o-b they hate that’s sucking the life out of them.
They choose to settle for the meager scraps tossed off the table of life…
…while others with vision who DO see the litmus test are enjoying an abundant and never-ending FEAST…
…with every possible delectable delicacy you can imagine.
That type of person enjoys a life filled with more joy, prosperity and excitement than they ever could have previously imagined.
What kind of life will YOU choose?
Click here and let’s find out…
All the best,
Doberman Dan
