101 Hilarious Rock Tour Rider Requests

Life on the road as a touring musician can be tough.

Away from the comforts of home for months at a time, it consists of an awful lot of unremarkable hotel rooms, plastic cutlery and less-than-thrilling food. Such is the price a band or musician must pay if they intend to bring their music to as many places as possible.

But just because traveling on tour can be somewhat monotonous doesn’t mean it has to be bland or entirely uncomfortable.

Enter the humble tour rider, an addendum in most artists’ contracts stipulating their requirements for performing at venues. This can include just about everything that goes on backstage before and after a show: meals, booze, transportation to and from the stage, dressing room amenities, technical equipment, etc.

For the most part, riders list a whole bunch of boring stuff, things like water, coffee, towels, air conditioning and so forth. But there is, of course, plenty of room for personality and preference, and in instances where specificity is important, these documents need to be read very closely.

In the ’80s, for example, Van Halen developed something of a reputation for requesting M&M’s on their riders, but without the brown ones. No exceptions. It turned out that the request had nothing to do with the candy itself, but instead was a test to make sure the promoter was reading the rider carefully.

Below we’re taking a look at 101 Rock Tour Rider Requests from some of music’s biggest names, noting the most unique requests from each.