A tour rider is a list of things in a contract that an artist demands for a performance. This includes all requests or demands for the artist’s comfort and the technical details needed for the show.
As you can imagine, riders can range from the cute to the crazy and everywhere in between. The one demand most people have heard of was Van Halen in the 1980's demanded bowls of M&M's with all the brown M&M's removed. David Lee Roth later explained that they figured if the promoter paid attention to that then they would have completed the more important things on the list.
Here’s a look at some of the more unusual requests made by artists. You can view the full listHERE.
- Coldplay wins for the sweetest request of all. In addition to the snacks and drinks, the British band asks for postcards from every host city so they can send home to their children while on tour.
- Beyonce requires alkaline water that must be served at 69 degrees and with a $900 titanium straw
- Michael Bublé is a diehard hockey fan. Therefore, he asks for a puck from a local team.
- Cher needs an entire room for her wig collection.
- Katie Perry demands that her dressing room be filled with “White and purple hydrangeas, pink & white roses and peonies.” She will not perform if carnations are anywhere backstage.
- Kevin Hart is very protective of his material. That’s why he prohibits audiences from pulling out their phones. To make sure that happens, he asks for enough “roamers” to fill a commercial airplane. Roamers are people paid to wander through the audience in search of a phone. All they have to do is walk around the venue during the performance and look for anyone taking out their phone. The diminutive comedian reportedly stipulates that his roamers must “know what to do if someone is caught with a cell phone out and on.” And it requires them to be vigilant. “Anyone that is caught repeatedly standing or watching the show will need to be replaced,” the rider states.
- Justin Timberlake is a germaphobe of the highest order. He reportedly asked officials at Manchester Arena to disinfect every doorknob in his dressing room and all the doors leading to the stage every two hours. While it’s nothing new for him, it allegedly ruffled feathers in August 2018 because the arena had been the site of a bombing at anAriana Grande concert just a few months prior. In light of the current pandemic, not so much…
- Finally,Prince actually made officials at London’s O2 Arena build him a luxury five-bedroom house … inside the arena in 2007. At the time, O2 Arena officials explained the reasoning behind his request as, “He has had some pretty wild nights out in London and loves all that the capital has to offer, so it makes sense for him to have a more permanent base here.”