Did You Know the Infamous Brown M&Ms Story Happened in Colorado?
Rock and roll and debauchery often go hand in hand. Over the years, countless tales have been passed around such as the infamous Led Zeppelin mud shark incident, Keith Richards snorting his father's ashes, and Alice Cooper sacrificing a chicken on stage, just to name a few.
While these stories are more than likely exaggerated or completely made up, one story involving Van Halen freaking out over brown M&Ms in their dressing room is not only completely true, but it actually happened in Colorado.
No Brown M&Ms for Van Halen in Colorado
Van Halen was on top of the world back in 1980 as they prepared to perform a concert at Massari Gym at what was then known as the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo, (later renamed Colorado State University-Pueblo.)
As all nationally touring acts do, the band had a rider that specified, among other things, what types of food and drinks they needed in their dressing room. One item they did not want, however, was brown M&Ms.
The reason that Van Halen included this clause on their rider was to make sure that the crew putting on the show paid close attention to the rider. Unfortunately for all parties involved, the production crew didn't take this request seriously and it would prove to be a big mistake.
When the band found brown M&Ms in their dressing room, they proceeded to throw them all over the floor and smash them into the carpet. To make matters worse, the band allegedly got pretty inebriated while on stage and started a big food fight after the show at what was meant to be a nice dinner set up for them at the university.
Ultimately, March 30th, 1980 would prove to be a learning experience for the university as well as the thing of legends in the world of rock and roll.