. The Owsley Stanley Foundation is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of Bears Sonic Journals, Owsleys archive of more than 1,300 live concert soundboard recordings from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including recordings by Miles Davis, Johnny Cash, The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Fleetwood Mac, Janis Joplin, and more than 80 other artists across nearly every musical idiom. Owsley Stanley Foundation to Release Rare Performance of Ali Akbar Khan [3], Stanley's level of access to the group's inner echelon (including complimentary food from the band's caterers) was somewhat controversial among the band's employees, with one staffer opining that "he had the sales tactics of a Mumbai street peddler"; on one occasion, Garcia and Weir were forced to intervene when Stanley provoked Chelsea Clinton's Secret Service detail as he attempted to conduct business with the then-First Daughter. . A thought occurred to me: if the orange were red and the bar across were a lightning bolt cutting across at an angle, then we would have a very nice, unique and highly identifiable mark to put on the equipment. I dont want my life exposed publicly. Bears Sonic Journals - Owsley Stanley Foundation Former Rolling Stone editor Greenfield's pretty solid, if skimpily researched, book provides an . Lexington was blown out from under Owsleys father during the Battle of the Coral Sea in World War II, he began drinking heavily and became a lifelong alcoholic. The situation was exacerbated by his disdain for the coarse language and deleterious drugs (most notably alcohol and cocaine) favored by the band's physically imposing roadies, many of whom perceived themselves as "macho cowboys" in contrast to Stanley's diminutive stature and scholarly appearance. Another West Coastbased rock band, Jefferson Airplane, had been arrested two weeks earlier in the same situation. Come take a magical trip with us and find out! There were no onstage monitors, so musicians couldnt hear one another. [18] Along with his close friend Bob Thomas, Stanley designed the band's iconic 'Steal Your Face' lightning bolt-skull logo. Source: medium.com. I love them both! He is moving so slowly that someone from the front desk comes to the room to ask if he ever intends to leave. He, Scully, and Melissa Cargill (a skilled chemist and Cargill family scion who became Stanley's girlfriend following an introduction by Susan Cowper, a former girlfriend) set up a lab in the basement. Tripping frequently if not constantly. For most people, Owsley says, the proper dose is about 150 to 200 micrograms. The Denver Post (CO.) Press & Sun . [29] Following the hiatus, Stanley returned as Lesh's personal roadie for "a couple of tours" in the late 1970s, although personality conflicts with other crew members once again precipitated his departure. His ashes were placed on the soundboard at the celebration of the Grateful Dead's 50th anniversary at the Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead shows in Chicago, on July 35, 2015. He lived in a picturesque Berkeley cottage filled with high-end stereo equipment where he kept an owl to which he fed live mice. He thought it would look cool if the logo was red and blue with a white lightning bolt through it, so he had someone spray-paint a basic version of it on the Deads equipment. The Bear - Owsley Stanley. [13][14] He was featured (most prominently his freak-out at the Muir Beach Acid Test in November 1965) in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Tom Wolfe's book detailing the history of Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. They wanted to maintain the same old same old which under their limited abilities, they had memorized to the point where they could sleepwalk through shows. The Bear, says Jerry [Garcia], is Satan in our midst, friend, chemist, psychedelic legend, and electronic genius; not a leader, but a moon with a gravitational pull. Owsley Stanley. Stanley, known as Bear, earned the moniker "King of Acid . Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, Owsley Stanley, icon of 1960s counterculture, dies at 76, Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of the Grateful Dead, Bear's Sonic Journals: Fillmore East, February 1970, Bear's Sonic Journals: Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Bear's Sonic Journals: Found in the Ozone, "For the unrepentant patriarch of LSD, long, strange trip winds back to Bay Area", "Owsley Stanley, Artisan of Acid, Is Dead at 76", "Owsley 'Bear' Stanley Dies in Car Accident", Owsley Stanley, counterculture producer of LSD, dies at 76 KansasCity.com, "Owsley 'Bear' Stanley dies in North Queensland car crash", "The dark, one-dog night of Chuck Negron", "Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead, Icon of 60's Spirit, Dies at 53", https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/downloads/p5547t98n.pdf, "Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III B&N Readouts", "Internet Archive Forums: Re: Owsley question", "2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methyl-amphetamine (STP): A New Hallucinogenic Drug", "45 Years Ago: The Grateful Dead's Infamous 'Truckin' Drug Bust", "Remembering the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound: an absurd feat of technological engineering", "Remembering Owsley "Bear" Stanley | Grateful Dead", "Psychedelic icon Owsley Stanley dies in Australia", "Owsley Stanley's Acid Trips Helped Define the Sound of the 1960s, but His Recordings Are Just as Important", "Owsley Stanley's 'Sonic Journals': Inside the Tape Vault of a Psychedelic Legend", "Doc & Merle Watson: Play 'Never the Same Way Once' on New Box Set", "First Doc & Merle Watson Box Set Released", "Owsley Stanley Foundation Announces Doc & Merle Watson Live Box Set", "Previously Unreleased Allman Brothers Band Recordings from February 1970 Fillmore East Run Coming", "Bear's Sonic Journals: Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage", "Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen Bear's Sonic Journals: Found in the Ozone", "Owsley Stanley Foundation to Release Rare Performance by Ali Akbar Khan from 1970", "Smoke in a Bottle: That Which Colors the Mind", "Bear's Sonic Journals: That Which Colors the Mind Ali Akbar Khan / Indranil Bhattacharya / Zakir Hussain", "Global Beat: Zakir Hussain Revisits a Historic Family Dog Summit", "When the Giants of Indian Classical Music Collided with Psychedelic San Francisco", "Owsley Stanley Foundation to Release Landmark Tim Buckley Live Recording", "Tim Buckley Lets His Freak Flag Fly on Live LP 'Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel', "Review: Tim Buckley "Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel Live", "Tim Buckley Displays Adventurous Spirit Via 'Bear's Sonic Journals: Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel June 1968' (Album Review)", "New Johnny Cash Live Album, 'At the Carousel Ballroom' Captures Country Star in the Counterculture", "A Johnny Cash Live Album from 1968 Is Finally Set to Be Released", "Previously Unreleased Johnny Cash Live Album Recorded by Owsley Stanley Due in September", "Johnny Cash 1968 Carousel Ballroom Live Bootleg Recorded by Owsley Headed for Release", "Johnny Cash's Previously Unreleased Live Album from 1968 to Be Unearthed", "When the Man in Black Met the Guys in Tie-Dye", "Owsley Stanley Foundation to Release Early Chieftains Live Recordings", "Bear's Sonic Journals: The Foxhunt, The Chieftains Live in San Francisco 1973 & 1976 to Be Released", "Ireland's The Chieftains Land on U.S. His paternal grandfather, Augustus Owsley Stanley, a member of the United States Senate after serving as Governor of Kentucky and in the U.S. House of Representatives, campaigned against Prohibition in the 1920s.[5]. within a few days of it coming out. March 14, 2011. I never took notes when I was in college,he says. Bear Stanley: Reflections on Life, LSD and DMT - YouTube The Owsley Stanley Foundation presents its third chapter: Bears Sonic Journals: Before We Were Them, Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady, Veterans Memorial Building, June 28, 1969, available now on CD. Augustus Owsley Stanley III (January 19, 1935 - March 12, 2011) was an American audio engineer and clandestine chemist. In every way, the briefcase reflects his mind. Owsley rented a pink stucco house in Watts, next door to a brothel, where they all lived together. Once he stopped exploring, the whole scene stopped exploring.. At the time, live sound at rock concerts was extremely primitive. Around this time Owsley also began studying The Kybalion, a book of purported ancient wisdom that elucidates the seven basic principles of alchemy, which he describes as mental transformation, explaining,It was never about transforming substances. He participated in a low carb forum where he shared his experience with and knowledge about eating a diet comprised entirely of animal foods. See Tom Taylor's account of his life and times published late last year in Far Out magazine. . Based on past evidence, the sea will rise 300 meters, and life in some places will be entirely destroyed. The Idol: How HBOs Next Euphoria Became Twisted Torture Porn. How many people can say that? Owsley also credits his all-meat diet for keeping him alive. Amongst his outrageous success from the sale of his acid, Stanley also worked for a time as the Grateful Dead's sound engineer. Bear: The Owsley Stanley Story, Part Two - PS Audio Owsley hired the vice mayor of Berkeley as his attorney, who forced them in court to furnish us with a sample, which we submitted to an independent laboratory that proved them wrong, leading to the dismissal of all charges.. Grateful Dead Artist Page: Photos, Videos and More, For the past twenty years, Owsley has lived off the grid in a remote section of Australian rain forest. The 1970 Grateful Dead song "Truckin'" is based on the incident ("Busted, down on Bourbon Street / Set up, like a bowling pin / Knocked down, it gets to wearing thin / They just won't let you be"). All of the rest of their calories came from fat. From all three shows, as played on Owsley Stanley, a.k.a. It is historically important. Owsley Stanley's 'Sonic Journals': Inside the Tape Vault of a 1st ever box set of live concert recordings from Doc & Merle Watson, 1st release of Bears Sonic Journals from the Owsley Stanley Foundation, Several rare songs Doc Watson never recorded live, The only known contemporaneous photographs of Doc & Merle Watson, Photos of Old Hoss, the Gallagher guitar Doc played from 1968 until the end of this tour in 1974, In depth interview with bassist T. Michael Coleman, An original essay by David Holt, 4-time Grammy winner and longtime Doc collaborator, Original cover art by Mike DuBois based on a drawing by Owsleys son, Starfinder. Stanley was the first known private individual to manufacture mass quantities of LSD. Owsley Stanley Obituary (2011) - Burlington, VT - Legacy.com Despite maintaining a 3.4 grade point average with minimal effort, he dropped out because of his disinclination for slide rules and mechanical drawing. ALWAYS enter lists of addressses (greater than 2) in the Bcc: line. We had Meet the Beatles! Owsley Stanley - YouTube Just to show you. Thanks to Owsley, the Dead were soon playing through four immense Altec Voice of the Theatre A7 speakers powered by four McIntosh 240 stereo tube amplifiers as delicate as they were huge. He was the Grateful Deads original sound man and their initial financial benefactor. The Bear. We had enough acid to blow the world apart. Im not really interested in talking about myself, he says. Because he wanted to keep a sonic journal of his work, Owsley began plugging a suitcase-size Ampex 602 tape recorder into the sound board each night as the Dead played in 1966. Grateful Dead Sources: December 21, 1967: Owsley Bust For decades, a . The Bear) A colourful character, carnivore for over 47 years. I loved it.. I have owsley silver buckle for sell also terrapin signed by whole band with jerry and brent and more fuktruk@hotmail.com. Owsley Stanley. Joel Selvin also wrote an extensive note on Owsley back in 2007 on the occasion of his . On January 31, 1970, at 3:00 am, 19 members of the Grateful Dead and crew were arrested for possession of a variety of drugs at a French Quarter hotel after returning from a concert at The Warehouse in New Orleans. "The Bear," best known for the sound system he created for The Grateful Dead and manufacturing a very high quality LSD, was a Zero Carb Carnivore for 50 years. Owsley Stanley, (Augustus Owsley Stanley III), "audio engineer and clandestine chemist", iconic figure of the counter-culture, "Acid King", "Bear"(as he was affectionately known), is our focus today. "Trips Festival" (from _Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Together, they dwell in a complex of sheds, caravans, large canvas tents, modified shipping containers and corrugated-iron structures designed and built by Owsley. The Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound" was a massive sound system designed by LSD chemist, Owsley Stanley. Dad gave what I believe to be one of the most intimate and connected shows I have ever heard. John Carter Cash. Roughage is the worst thing you can put through your body, he says. These are the most extensive files there are of our music from this time. Living in Marin County, he supported himself doing sound for Jefferson Starship and Phil Lesh and selling his jewelry backstage, in arena parking lots and in hotel bars after shows whenever the Grateful Dead toured. Masterpieces Unearthed from Owsleys Famed Archive, Family Dog at the Great HighwayMay 29, 19702 CD set, The Family Dog at the Great HighwayMarch 28, 19702 CD set, 3 CD release with extended material On December 11th, 1965, the Dead played at the Muir Beach Acid Test in a lodge by the sea in Marin County. And if you believe, as I did, that the universe is a creation in the mind of a being that is creating time and space, then everything is mental. Incredibly, no one called the cops. Unreleased Live Johnny Cash Album From 1968 Due in September Check out our owsley stanley shirt selection for the very best in unique or custom, handmade pieces from our shops. Under the professional name Bear, he was the soundman for the rock band the Grateful Dead, whom he met when Ken Kesey invited them . Some of his other recorded works include Bears Choice; Big Brother and the Holding Company Live at the Carousel Ballroom, June 23, 1968; The Allman Brothers Band Fillmore East, February 1970; and the acoustic Jerry Garcia bluegrass-band albums Old & in the Way, That High Lonesome Sound and Breakdown. If you wanted to be an idiot and do something any way but his, that was your decision. All donations and proceeds from the development of the recordings flow back into the effort to preserve more of Bears Sonic Journals and perpetuate Owsleys legacy, including patronage of the arts in all of its forms. Augustus Owsley Stanley III (later nicknamed Bear) was born on Jan. 19, 1935. Owsley Stanley, famed Grateful Dead soundman and the first person to privately manufacture LSD, lived in the Poet's Corner cottage during the Summer of Love. Phil Lesh and I would talk about this, Owsley says. Owsley was sent to Terminal Island Federal Prison, a medium-security lockup in San Pedro where Charles Manson had also done time. It was always in a safe place, and nobody had a clue, because I never told anyone I did that., Despite his precautions, thirteen agents broke into a house in the East Bay that Owsley had rented for the express purpose of making tabs. Those were all allegories. When Owsley asked Lesh what he could do for the band, the bass player said they had no manager and offered him the job. I just wanted to know the dose and purity of what I took into my own body. The new lab was set up in the basement of a house across the street from the Denver Zoo in early 1967. N o one did more to alter the consciousness of the generation that came of age in the 1960s than Augustus Owsley Stanley (who passed away March 13 . He was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area hippie movement during the 1960s and played a pivotal role in the decade's counterculture. He was the key supplier of LSD during the 60s Hippie movem. Pretty Sure this is a Bronze? Stealie Owsley Buckle '83 series Tue 15 Mar 2011 14.49 EDT. Though Owsley seemed to be living the life of a counterculture superstar, Cargill remembers their time together back then as not so much an adventure as constantly looking over your shoulder. The feeling was more than just paranoia. He's also related to William Owsley, the 16th governor of Kentucky, for . Owsley lives by selling his art through his Web site (thebear.org) and royalties from Dead recordings. During his service, he secured an amateur radio license and a general radiotelephone operator license. Reach out if you have questions, or to see how you can support the Owsley Stanley Foundation. Owsley Stanley (born Augustus Owsley Stanley III, January 19, 1935 - March 12, 2011) also known as Bear, was a figure of the San Francisco Bay counter-culture. Suddenly, his eyes redden and he is nearly reduced to tears. 11 years 9 months ago. Because you were. Owsley had gotten the recipe for STP from a former Dow chemist named Alexander Shulgin(who would later reintroduce Ecstasy to the rave generation). Tim Scully - Wikipedia In February 1966, Owsley and the Dead moved to Los Angeles for another series of Acid Tests. To see Owsley in action now is to understand that forty years after the Summer of Love, the man has not really changed very much at all. We were officially granted 501 (c) (3) nonprofit status by the IRS in December 2012. I generally was not much of a consumer., Concerning much of what has been attributed to him during this period, Owsley says, The only thing I havent been associated with is walking on the moon, for Christs sake. Owsley did not parachute in to the Human Be-In in January 1967, as was widely reported, but he did provide 300,000 hits of acid called White Lightning for the event. They were all gone. I never set out to turn on the world, as has been claimed by many, Owsley says. Stanley was the Dead's audio engineer, longtime friend, and perhaps the most notable LSD chemist in the 1960s. The pot vessel was made by LSD pioneer Owsley Stanley for the Grateful Dead frontman. Immediately following his release, Stanley resumed working for the Grateful Dead as a roadie and sound engineer in the summer of 1972. [30], In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stanley briefly served as the live mixing engineer for Robert Hunter and Jefferson Starship. From Owsley's '60s to Today: A Long, Strange Intergenerational Trip By Nate Todd Jan 19, 2023 6:14 am PST. His early activities spanned the Beat-era years of Ken Kesey 's Merry Pranksters scenes, but he played a role during the explosion of 1960's Psychedelia culture. Soil in Latest 'Bear's Sonic Journals' Release", "1960s LSD Figure Owsley Stanley Dies In Crash Entertainment News Story WISC Madison", "Jimi Hendrix inspiration and LSD producer Owsley Stanley dies", "Owsley Stanley Obituary - Owsley Stanley Funeral - Legacy.com", "Complete transcript of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker in a BBC-Online Chat, March 4, 2000", "Kid Charlemagne: A Close Reading Of Steely Dan's Ode to Haight Street's LSD King", "Producer Sujoy Sarkar Drops Enigmatic Debut Album 'Sitting At Strawberry Fields Cause I Met Owsley on the Way', Celebstoner.com report of Owsley Stanley's Death, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Owsley_Stanley&oldid=1142575554, Owsley's association with Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead is described in Tom Wolfe's, A newspaper headline identifying Stanley as an "LSD Millionaire" ran in the, Stanley is mentioned by his first name in the song ", Stanley is mentioned in the title of Sujoy Sarkar's debut album, This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 05:21. After a tumultuous 1967 for Johnny Cash, the year 1968 was bookended by what would become his two iconic, highest-grossing albums, At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin. The thing about Owsley, Townshend said, is that when he gave you something, he would take it too. And the band had a bunch of macho cowboys as a crew who were snorting blow and drinking a whole lot of beer, and Bear was offended by their language and by their beer., After being thrown across the room by one of the roadies during an argument, Owsley asked the band to give him the power to hire and fire the crew so they would know they were working for him. I worked my way up to the top job, he recalls, which was as a line backer for the steam tables, and I traded my two cartons of cigarettes a week for a steak a day from the butcher, and I got all the meat and eggs I needed, and I cooked my own food and had a great time. Transferred to Lompoc, where his job was to wax the dining-room floor, Owsley soon moved on to the maintenance shop, where he used the tools to begin doing exquisitely detailed carvings in wood and stone. He was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area hippie movement during the 1960s and played a pivotal role in the decade's counterculture. His grandfather, also named Augustus Owsley Stanley, was a trust-busting Democratic congressman from Kentucky who spent twelve years in the House of Representatives. In September 1965, Stanley became the primary LSD supplier to Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. John Perry Barlow, who has been there, describes the enclave as something out of Lord Jim, but the main living area is rather Victorian, handsomely carpeted, lots of books around, nice furniture and no walls. Owsley generates all his own power through a solar and wind system he built himself and collects rainwater he stores in two large tanks. Before We Were Them - Owsley Stanley Foundation [27], Although Stanley stopped touring with the band following their refusal of his demands, he continued to be employed by the Grateful Dead. Owsley Stanley (born Augustus Owsley Stanley III, January 19, 1935 - March 12, 2011) also known as Bear, was a key figure in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1960s, and played a pivotal role in the counterculture of the 1960's.As a crafts-person, Under the professional name of "Bear", he worked with the psychedelic rock band the Grateful . OSF Doc & Merle Watson: Never the Same Way Once - Live at the Boarding House - May 1974 Double Vinyl Set. I thought I was going to die, and I said, Fuck it. And that was good., Running out a side door during his freakout, Owsley leaped into his car, gunned the engine and promptly ran into a ditch. Ill never forget that when youd open the refrigerator, there were big slabs of beef in there, Rosie McGee, Phil Leshs girlfriend at the time, later told Garcia biographer Jackson. Two nights later, the junkies returned only to discover that Owsley had fortified the place, hired some people and armed ourselves to the teeth. A running gun battle ensued, with one of the junkies taking a bullet through his arm. I was riding a magic stallion. Owsley Stanley - '60s counterculture icon - dies He then talked to his friend Bob Thomas about putting the lightning bolt through the words Grateful Dead in lettering, which from a distance would look like a skull. The insane life of Owsley Stanley, the famous LSD producer of the 60s Kesey and the Pranksters called these gatherings the Acid Tests, a series of mind-blowing events at which people tripping on LSD were exposed to flashing strobe lights, tape loops and sometimes if the band was not too stoned even a set by the Grateful Dead. In Berkeley, Owsley began smoking pot and selling Heavenly Blue morning-glory seeds (250 for a dollar), which served to get people not high but weird when taken in great quantity. Owsley Stanley - Etsy Bear Story The Japanese don't write in alphabetic writing; they write in pictographs. Signed & Numbered Augustus Owsley Stanley III Mark Serlo Psychedelic LSD Blotter Art Psychedelic Acid Free Paper Ad vertisement by PremiumBlotter. And because he had the foresight to plug a tape recorder directly into the sound board during Dead shows, the music the band made at the peak of its power has been gloriously preserved in recordings still being issued in the series titled Dicks Picks, for which Owsley continues to receive royalties. How did the court musician of the Maharaja, a man called the "Bach of India," and "perhaps the greatest musician in the world" find himself playing to a psychedelic crowd at the Family Dog, a countercultural beacon on the edge of Western civilization, with Owsley mixing the sound? As their sound engineer, Stanley frequently recorded live tapes behind his mixing board and developed their Wall of Sound sound system, one of the largest mobile public address systems ever constructed. He married and divorced twice, fathered two children and got himself arrested on a variety of charges. Richmond mayor goes on hunt for Owsley Stanley's LSD lab - East Bay Times When the Dead declined to do so, Owsley found himself in what McNally calls limbo. Shifting his focus to what he knew best, the science of sound, Owsley began working on a revolutionary new system that would deliver crystal-clear audio in the big hockey arenas and indoor stadiums the Dead were now selling out. The sound of Jerry Garcias guitar grabbed hold of Owsley, and he freaked out on acid for the first time. In Berkeley, as well as across the bay in Palo Alto, young people seeking a new way to live had begun using LSD to break down conventional social barriers. Owsley's high octane rocket fuel enabled Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters to put on the Acid Tests. I did not buy expensive things. Owsley also sent a photographer back to England with a telephoto lens packed with tabs of purple acid on the condition that he share them with the Beatles. The issue is available in the online archive. A year later, Mario Savio made his historic Free Speech Movement address from atop a police car to student protesters gathered outside Sproul Hall. Once a year by invitation only, he throws a party attended by friends, family and musicians from all over Australia who play all night long. Believing there is no past and no future because everything exists only in present time, it never occurs to him to drive five minutes out of his way to the Monterey Fairgrounds where, forty years ago, his high-powered rocket fuel helped launch the Summer of Love. Would the Summer of Love have ever happened without Stanley, the reclusive acid impresario who turned on the world? Vandoliers Play Tennessee Concert in Dresses to Protest State's New Drag Bill All in all, I was making about a dollar fifty an hour. His agricultural career came to an abrupt end when some local junkies intent on ripping off his crop put a pistol under his chin and pointed a .22-caliber rifle at his chest. Night after night during the summer months, Owsley can be found stalking Bufo marinus, the species of poisonous toads (whose venom, Owsley insists, wont get you high) first introduced into Australia in 1935 in the mistaken belief that they would help control the cane beetle. He must have had the most extraordinary liver., During this period, the Dead wrote Alice D. Millionaire, a play on words from a headline about Owsley in The San Francisco Chronicle that read, LSD Millionaire Arrested. In concert, the band regularly dedicated The Other One to him from the stage. . Throughout the summer of 1965, in a big house down in La Honda, about forty miles south of San Francisco, Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters hosted wild parties with guests that included Hunter S. Thompson, Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg and various Hells Angels. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. - Millionare Augustus Owsley Stanley III, revered among hippies as the "King of Acid," finally has run into big, big trouble with the federal narcotics boys. In 1973, he served as lead designer of the band's Wall of Sound, collaborating with Dan Healy and Mark Raizene, as well as Rick Turner and John Curl of Alembic to design the groundbreaking sound reinforcement system.