Brown M&Ms

Audacious. Aggravating. Arrogant.

That’s what some venue promoters thought about Van Halen in 1982. They hadn’t yet reached the peak of commercial success, but they were having the time of their lives living like rock stars, and they had the success to back it up. They were already selling out enormous venues, and this was still two years before Jump came out.

Like a lot of rock stars, Van Halen exuded confidence and irreverence that many probably took for mere mischief-making.

They also cared a great deal about the quality of music they were producing. They wanted the experience to be just right for their fans.

Nothing really encapsulates this better than brown M&Ms.

The thing the event promoters were upset about was a clause in the agreement with the band that stipulated that there would be a bowl of M&Ms left out back stage for the band, and that there would be no brown M&Ms in the bowl.

Now, this is a perfectly standard rider I remember seeing when I signed my mortgage, and… no, sorry—there is nothing normal about that line in that agreement. What’s going on here?

While many promoters saw entitled, whiny kids who wanted to exercise their authority over the petty mortals down on the ground, others immediately understood the truth. The truth was that Van Halen had an incredibly complicated live set, and they had experienced some instances where they had specifically asked for particular conditions to be met.

Venue promoters had ignored VH’s requests, and the show suffered in both sound quality and safety because of this. For a band filled with perfectionists, this wasn’t going to work at all.

No, instead of a bunch of haughty kids, you had a very clever group of professionals who had figured out a great way to determine if a venue’s promoter had thoroughly read their contract. If they found brown M&Ms, they knew that there was a real chance that serious safety hazards might also be missed, not to mention elements crucial to Van Halen’s trademark sound.

What seemed trivial turned out to be clever quality control.

This is one of my favorite types of things to learn about. I can’t remember the first time I heard about the brown M&Ms, but I’m pretty sure the reaction I felt was pleasant surprise.

Pleasant surprise makes life more interesting and fun. Your understanding of a situation doesn’t need to be completely turned upside down, but it can often get a little positive nudge. One of the most fertile areas for pleasant surprises is in the realm of broken stereotypes.

The reason the brown M&M story is so fun to hear is because most people are going to assume one thing, while something far more clever is going on. Finding out something is more complex and nuanced that I previously assumed fills me with a sense of wonder, and it inspires me to want to share that sense of wonder with you.

The next time we come across something that seems incredibly stupid, let’s be sure to remember the brown M&Ms. Have you ever encountered something like a brown M&M clause in real life, something that seemed audacious at the time, but turned out to be clever? What has earned your respect once you realized that there was more under the surface?