![]() ![]() ![]() A lawyer and Campbellite minister who graduated from Centre College in 1887, he staked his political fortunes on fighting alcohol prohibition and was run out of office in 1925. Owsley's grandfather, Augustus, was known to debate his opponents while so drunk that he could barely stand. ![]() He's also related to William Owsley, the 16th governor of Kentucky, for whom Owsley County is named. "Get him out of here!"īorn in 1935, Owsley was "authentic Bluegrass political royalty." His father was a prominent government attorney and his grandfather, Augustus Owsley Stanley, was elected governor of Kentucky in 1919 and served in both the U.S. ![]() When Owsley offered the bard a taste of his "Blue Cheer," Dylan reportedly told him to get lost. Thompson's favorite songwriter and recent Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan was one of the few to turn Owsley down. Thompson, were all at one time fueled by Owsley's exceptionally pure homemade acid. Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Janis Joplin, Ken Kesey, Jefferson Airplane, as well as Timothy Leary and the great doctor Hunter S. A self-taught chemist, radio technician and electronics wiz, Owsley's intuitive technical genius and cunning logistical skills earned him the moniker "the Johnny Appleseed of LSD" after turning on just about every cultural luminary of the 1960s. It might surprise some to learn that a Kentuckian was largely responsible for America's own little short-lived era of enlightenment in the 1960s and early 1970s.Īugustus Owsley "Bear" Stanley, the innovative sound man and sometime manager of the Grateful Dead, was also the largest manufacturer and proliferator of LSD in the history of the United States. He lives in California.A new biography details how Augustus Owsley "Bear" Stanley, grandson of a Kentucky governor, helped fuel a cultural revolution with his psychedelic creations. An award-winning novelist, playwright, and screenwriter, his short fiction has appeared in GQ, Esquire, and Playboy magazines. With Bill Graham, he is the co-author of Bill Graham Presents: My Life Inside Rock and Out which won the ASCAP Foundation’s Deems Taylor Award. As their longtime soundman, he then faithfully recorded many of the Dead's greatest live performances and designed the massive space-age system that came to be known as the Wall of Sound.Īward-winning author and biographer Robert Greenfield’s definitive biography of this Grateful Dead legend masterfully takes us through Owsley's incredible life and times to bring us a full picture of this fascinating man for the first time.Ī former Associate Editor of the London bureau of Rolling Stone magazine, Robert Greenfield is the critically acclaimed author of several classic rock books, among them the New York Times bestselling Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia as well as the definitive biographies of Timothy Leary and Ahmet Ertegun. The shipment of LSD that Owsley sent John Lennon resulted in The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour album and film.Ĭonvinced that the Grateful Dead were destined to become the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band, Owsley provided the money that kept them going during their early days. Owsley turned on Pete Townshend of The Who and Jimi Hendrix. It also powered much of what happened on stage at Monterey Pop. Owsley's high-octane rocket fuel enabled Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters to put on the Acid Tests. Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III is the definitive biography of the reclusive and mysterious Grateful Dead benefactor and renowned LSD chemist without whom the counterculture would never have been born.Īugustus Owsley Stanley III, better known by his nickname, Bear, was one of the most iconic figures in the cultural revolution that changed both America and the world during the 1960s. ![]()
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