Features
Iggy’s Rider A Riot
Written by roadie Jos Grain, the 18-page rider outlines requirements for the band in a conversational, stream-of-consciousness style, poking fun at nearly all aspects of touring. Aside from the requisite artist demands, the band makes some pretty unusual requests.
As far as technical requirements, the band requests “a monitor man who speaks good English and is not afraid of death,” and three large industrial fans for the drummer, who happens to be “practicing that scarf thing that they used to do in Bon Jovi and Heart videos.”
The band’s catering requests show a taste for the finer things in life, asking for French wine (“something we’ve heard of, but still can’t pronounce”) and good beer (“here’s a clue – it probably won’t start with a letter B and end with udweiser”). Vegetables however, are scorned upon, as the rider states “cauliflower & broccoli, cut into individual florets” should be “thrown immediately into the garbage.”
The rider suggests letting someone with a good sense of design set up Iggy’s dressing room (“Just let someone loose with a little bit of artistic flair … Er, do you know any homosexuals? And am I allowed to say that? Probably not”).
Other requirements for the singer’s dressing room include “somebody dressed as Bob Hope doing fantastic Bob Hope impersonations and telling all those hilarious Bob Hope jokes,” or, if that isn’t possible, “seven dwarves, dressed up as those dwarves out of that marvelous Walt Disney film.”
Grain told Pollstar the band has received great feedback from the document.
“Response is nearly always very good. We’ve never had the impersonator which is probably a good thing, as I would then have to impersonate a mass murderer,” he said.
But it seems that the band has had trouble getting the point across just how much they dislike vegetable trays.
“What I have noticed is that lots of places do supply the cauliflower and broccoli and then don’t immediately throw it away, which means extra work for me. But I don’t complain. I’m almost a saint like that,” Grain said.
The Smoking Gun Web site recently posted a copy of the rider but Grain said the latest version can be viewed at Josgrain.com. He asked Pollstar to publish the URL in hopes of getting a hit, “unlike some of the bands I’ve worked for.”