By Aidin Vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle Pop Music Critic
Via SF Fage
Owsley Stanley, an icon of Bay Area counterculture in the 1960s and a longtime associate of the Grateful Dead, died Sunday in a car accident in his adopted home of Queensland, Australia, according to family spokesperson Sam Cutler. He was 76.
Mr. Stanley had been driving to his home near the city of Cairns during a storm and lost control of the car, Cutler said. He died instantly. His wife, Sheila, suffered a broken collarbone.
Known as “Bear,” Mr. Stanley came to prominence as the first to manufacture LSD in quantity. Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” was believed to have been inspired by a particularly potent batch of Mr. Stanley’s product. The Dead wrote the song “Alice D. Millionaire” in his honor after a headline in a 1967 newspaper article referred to him as an “LSD Millionaire.”
Dead backer
Mr. Stanley was the band’s first financial backer and briefly served as manager before taking on the sound engineer role. He created the first public address system specifically dedicated to music in 1966 and was responsible for the Dead’s signature Wall of Sound.
He was also instrumental in founding high-end instrument manufacturer Alembic Inc. and Berkeley’s concert equipment maker Meyer Sound Laboratories, which retrofitted sound equipment for AT&T Park and, more recently, Zellerbach Hall.
Many of Mr. Stanley’s live recordings of the Dead were released as albums. Along with Bob Thomas, he also designed the band’s famous lighting bolt skull logo, known officially as Steal Your Face.
“Bear, as we knew him, was one of my all-time biggest influences,” Bob Weir, a founding member of the Dead, said in a statement. “Always, when I think of him, I think of the endless stuff he taught me or somehow made me realize; all stuff that I’ve been able to use to the benefit of countless people.”
Born Augustus Owsley Stanley III (he legally shortened his name in 1967) in Kentucky on Jan. 19, 1935, his namesake grandfather was the governor of that state from 1915 to 1919 and represented Kentucky in both the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
Before enrolling at UC Berkeley in 1963, Mr. Stanley served in the U.S. Air Force and studied ballet in Los Angeles. He dropped out of school after one semester once he discovered the recipe for making LSD in the Journal of Organic Chemistry at a UC Berkeley library.
1.25 million LSD doses
While working a technical job at KGO TV, Mr. Stanley started manufacturing large quantities of LSD. Bear Research Group reputedly made more than 1.25 million doses between 1965 and 1967, essentially seeding the entire modern psychedelic movement. His lab was raided in 1966 by Berkeley police, who thought they found methedrine. When the substance turned out to be something else, Mr. Stanley successfully sued the cops for the return of his lab equipment.
He was arrested in 1967 at his secret lab in Orinda but didn’t serve time until a 1970 pot bust in Oakland prompted a judge to revoke his bail. Mr. Stanley served two years at Terminal Island near the Los Angeles Harbor.
“I wound up doing time for something I should have been rewarded for,” he said in a rare 2007 interview with The Chronicle’s Joel Selvin. “What I did was a community service, the way I look at it. I was punished for political reasons. Absolutely meaningless. Was I a criminal? No. I was a good member of society – only my society and the one making the laws are different.”
Mr. Stanley became a naturalized Australian citizen in 1996, living off the grid with wife Sheila in the bush of Queensland. His decision to move to the tropical northern side of the country in the early ’80s was based, in part, on his belief that global warming would lead to a new ice age and the region would be the most likely to survive.
In recent years, Mr. Stanley made small gold and enamel sculptures and wearable art pieces, which he sold through his own website. He also used the site as an outlet to post personal essays and reminisces.
Toxic veggies
Mr. Stanley lived on an all-meat and dairy diet. He believed vegetables were toxic and blamed a heart attack several years ago on the broccoli his mother made him eat as a child. He lost one of his vocal cords to cancer in 2006.
“Bear, for me, was a true kindred spirit,” Phil Lesh, the Dead’s bass player, said in a statement. “When we first met, it was as if I had met a long-lost brother from another lifetime. I am heartbroken and devastated at his passing.”
Mr. Stanley is survived by his wife, Sheila; sons Pete and Starfinder; daughters Nina and Redbird; eight grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Funeral services are pending.
This came via email
Hi Eric
You did a reading for me once a few years ago. I doubt you remember me, but it was pretty significant event.
Just wanted to point out a couple of “errata” in your article (which was one of the better ones, by the way).
He hated being called “Mr. Stanley”. He prefered to be called Bear.
He never had a heart attack, although he did have bypass surgery.
He was not busted for pot, it was for LSD.
Sheliah spells her name with an H at the end.
He was extremely proud of the fact that he was able to be granted Australian citizenship because he was considered a “national asset” to the country as a distinguished artist. He was very passionate about his artwork, as am I and at least 2 of his grandchildren.
Thanks for listening. I just wanted to clear that up – I’ve read so many articles with bits and bobs wrong or skewed. Yours is the best so far, and now it can be perfect.
-nina
I knew some of his story, but not all. I have to admit I didn’t even know he was still alive, much less so accomplished in so many fields.
Rest well, Owsley.
Thank you for posting this. It is very thoughtful and appreciated. Big sigh, Mr. Bear, see you there.