Concert tour riders are one of the most intriguing, gossipy things we can discover about rock stars. The requests can often range from quirky to outlandish, such as Van Halen’s infamous request for all of the brown M&Ms to be removed from a bowl provided backstage.
(As David Lee Roth explained, however, this wasn’t done because of a dislike for brown M&Ms, but rather to see whether everything in the rider was being read and followed.)
Musicians understandably might not want some of these requests made public. Although getting worked up about it seems a bit oversensitive. So is that the case with rocker Jack White and his recent kerfuffle with the University of Oklahoma, after the student newspaper published a copy of his tour rider, which included a very specific recipe for guacamole?
White and his people were upset about the contract being published, though The Oklahoma Daily obtained it legally through the Oklahoma Open Records Act, which requires any state institution or entity to oblige a request for records. The paper said its intent was to find out how much the school was paying White to perform.
That led to White’s booking agency, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, to declare that its acts which also include Alicia Keys and Pharell Williams would no longer perform at the University of Oklahoma because of how artists are treated. White’s management called the OU Daily “unprofessional” and “unwelcoming” for publishing the tour rider.
On stage, White himself referenced the incident.
“And if you’re taking a journalism class just because you can type it on your computer doesn’t make it right”- Jack White @OUDaily — Page Jones (@PageousM) February 3, 2015
Here is the OU Daily’s official response to the entire matter.
To recap: Jack White hates the OU Daily, lawyers, journalists and OU’s smoking ban. He loves guacamole, philosophy classes and rocking out
— Kaitlyn Underwood (@kaitunderwood) February 3, 2015
And if you’re curious as to whether or not that chunky guacamole recipe is any good, BuzzFeed’s Jessica Misener gave it a try.
[Eater]
