Owsley Stanley

Stanley was the scion of a political family from Kentucky. His father was a government attorney. 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.

When he was fifteen, Owsley spent fifteen months as a voluntary psychiatric patient in St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C.{{Cite news|last=Greenfield|first=Robert|date=March 14, 2011|title=Owsley Stanley: The King of LSD|newspaper=Rolling Stone|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/owsley-stanley-the-king-of-lsd-82181/|access-date=March 10, 2021}} Without having graduated from high school, he was admitted to the University of Virginia, where he studied engineering for a year. Despite maintaining a 3.4 grade point average with minimal effort, he dropped out because of his disinclination for slide rules and mechanical drawing.[http://www.kansascity.com/2011/03/14/2725832_owsley-stanley-counterculture.html?storylink=omni_popular Owsley Stanley, counterculture producer of LSD, dies at 76 – KansasCity.com]{{cite web|url=https://fcnp.com/2016/11/22/our-man-in-arlington-195|date=November 22, 2016|title=Our Man in Arlington|author=Clark, Charlie}} Despite his dearth of formal education, he secured a position as a test engineer with Rocketdyne in Los Angeles; in this capacity, he worked on the SM-64 Navaho supersonic cruise missile. In June 1956, he enlisted in the United States Air Force as an electronics specialist, serving for 18 months (including stints at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Edwards Air Force Base's Rocket Engine Test Facility) before being discharged in 1958. During his service, he secured an amateur radio license and a general radiotelephone operator license.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Later, inspired by a 1958 performance of the Bolshoi Ballet, he studied ballet in Los Angeles, supporting himself for a time as a professional dancer.[http://forum.lowcarber.org/showpost.php?p=6016184&postcount=738 Owsley Stanley blog posting]. 17 March 2006. In 1963, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became involved in the psychoactive drug scene. He dropped out after a semester, took a technical job at KGO-TV, and began producing LSD in a small lab located in the bathroom of a house near campus; his makeshift laboratory was raided by police on February 21, 1965. He beat the charges and successfully sued for the return of his equipment.{{cite book |last1=Perry |first1=Charles |url=http://www.cjayarts.com/pages/library/CharlesPerry-haight_ashbury.pdf |title=The Haight-Ashbury: A History |publisher=Random House |year=1984 |isbn=0-394-41098-X |access-date=2011-03-24}} The police were looking for methamphetamine but found only LSD, which was not illegal at the time as its classification as a Schedule I controlled substance in the U.S. did not occur until 1968.{{Cite book |author=United States Congress House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce Subcommittee on Public Health and Welfare |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qbY6xQEACAAJ |title=Increased Controls Over Hallucinogens and Other Dangerous Drugs |date=1968 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=August 3, 2021|archive-date=July 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200713014802/https://books.google.com/books?id=qbY6xQEACAAJ|url-status=live}}

Stanley returned to Los Angeles to pursue the production of LSD. He used his Berkeley lab to buy 500 grams of lysergic acid monohydrate, the basis for LSD. His first shipment arrived on March 30, 1965, and he produced 300,000 hits (270 micrograms each) of LSD by May 1965; then he returned to the Bay Area.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

In September 1965, Stanley became the primary LSD supplier to Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. By this time, Sandoz LSD sold under the trade-name Delysid was hard to come by, as Sandoz halted LSD production in August 1965 after growing governmental protests at its proliferation among the general populace, which meant that "Owsley Acid" had become the new standard.{{cite web | url=https://psychedelicreview.com/organization/sandoz-pharmaceuticals/ | title=Sandoz Pharmaceuticals | date=March 9, 2021 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ehn/release/problem-child.html | title=LSD - My Problem Child }} 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. Stanley attended the Watts Acid Test on February 12, 1966, with his new apprentice Tim Scully, and provided the LSD.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Stanley also provided LSD to the Beatles during filming of Magical Mystery Tour (1967),{{cite web|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/owsley-bear-stanley-dies-in-north-queensland-car-crash/story-e6frg6nf-1226021149610|title=Owsley 'Bear' Stanley dies in North Queensland car crash|last=Fraser|first=Andrew|date=2011-03-14|work=The Australian|publisher=News Limited|access-date=2011-03-14}} and former Three Dog Night singer Chuck Negron has noted that Owsley and Leary gave Negron's band free LSD.{{cite news|url=http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_21323720/dark-one-dog-night-chuck-negron|newspaper=San Jose Mercury News|date=August 15, 2012|title=The dark, one-dog night of Chuck Negron|author=Freeman, Paul}}

Stanley met the members of the Grateful Dead during 1965. He both financed them and worked with them as their first sound engineer.{{cite news |first= Jon|last= Pareles|author-link= Jon Pareles |title=Jerry Garcia of Grateful Dead, Icon of 60's Spirit, Dies at 53 |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE2D7173EF933A2575BC0A963958260 |work= The New York Times |date= 1995-08-10 |access-date=11 March 2009 }} Along with his close friend Bob Thomas, Stanley designed the band's iconic 'Steal Your Face' lightning bolt-skull logo.{{cite web|url=http://www.thebear.org/GDLogo.html|title=GD Logo|work=thebear.org|access-date=31 December 2015}} The lightning bolt design came to him after seeing a similar design on a roadside advertisement: "One day in the rain, I looked out the side and saw a sign along the freeway which was a circle with a white bar across it. The top of the circle was orange, and the bottom blue. I couldn't read the name of the firm, and so was just looking at the shape. 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."

During his time as the sound engineer for the Grateful Dead, Stanley started what became the long-term practice of recording the Dead while they rehearsed and performed. His initial motivation for creating what he dubbed his "sonic journals" was to improve his ability to mix the sound, but the fortuitous result was an extensive trove of recordings from the heyday of the San Francisco concert/dance scene in the mid-1960s.{{cite thesis|author=Melvin Backstrom |title=The Grateful Dead and their world: popular music and the avant-garde in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1965-1975 |url=https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/qj72p981b |location=McGill University |degree=PhD |year=2018}} Another reason for the first recordings was that Stanley had hearing damage in one ear from a swimming-pool diving accident when he was 19, and wanted a way to check himself.{{cite web |url=https://www.barnesandnoble.com/readouts/bear-the-life-and-times-of-augustus-owsley-stanley-iii/ |title = Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III – B&N Readouts|date = July 12, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/post/417094/owsley-question|title = Internet Archive Forums: Re: Owsley question}} His cassette recordings of shows also proved useful for the band to review post-show and critique their performances.

In addition to his large archive of Dead performances, Stanley made numerous live recordings of other leading 1960s and 1970s artists appearing in San Francisco, including Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, early Jefferson Starship, Old & In the Way, Janis Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Taj Mahal, Santana, Miles Davis, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, and Blue Cheer.

Live albums recorded by Owsley Stanley include Bear's Choice by the Grateful Dead, Old & In the Way by the bluegrass group of the same name, Live at the Avalon Ballroom 1969 by the Flying Burrito Brothers, and Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 by Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin. Also, a number of Grateful Dead archival releases, including several of the Dick's Picks and Dave's Picks series and other titles, were recorded by him. Additionally, the Bear's Sonic Journals series of live albums (see below) feature various musical artists recorded by Stanley.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Stanley and Scully built electronic equipment for the Grateful Dead until late spring 1966. At this point, Stanley rented a house in Point Richmond, Richmond, California. He, Scully, and Melissa Cargill (a skilled chemist who became Stanley's girlfriend following an introduction by Susan Cowper, a former girlfriend) set up a lab in the basement. The Point Richmond lab turned out more than 300,000 tablets (270 micrograms each) of LSD, dubbed "White Lightning". When LSD became illegal in California on October 6, 1966, Scully decided to set up a new lab in Denver, Colorado. The new lab was set up in the basement of a house across the street from the Denver Zoo in early 1967.Tim Scully Scully's Denver Lab(s)

In Denver, the trio was augmented by fellow Berkeley student Rhoney Gissen, who joined the manufacturing effort and began a relationship with Stanley (concurrent with Stanley's relationship with Cargill and Cargill's separate relationship with Jefferson Airplane bassist Jack Casady) that endured through the early 1970s; although they never married, Gissen would eventually take Stanley's surname. Stanley's scientific tutelage influenced Gissen's decision to return to her formal studies and pursue the profession of dentistry; their son, Starfinder, would go on to earn zoology and veterinary medicine degrees from Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania.{{Cite web|url=https://housecallofthewild.com/about/|title=About Dr. Starfinder Stanley|date=January 15, 2017}}

A psychedelic known as STP was distributed in the summer of 1967 in 20 mg tablets and quickly acquired a bad reputation (later research in normal volunteers showed that 20 mg was over six times the dose required to produce hallucinogenic effects, and its slow onset of action may have caused street users to take even more than a single tablet).{{cite journal | url=https://bitnest.netfirms.com/external.php?id=%257DbxUfZ%255CCYV%255D%2521%2524%252CQ%251BV%255EY%251CWAw%257C%257E%2513S%2560 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180430011921/https://bitnest.netfirms.com/external.php?id=%257DbxUfZ%255CCYV%255D%2521%2524%252CQ%251BV%255EY%251CWAw%257C%257E%2513S%2560 | url-status=dead | archive-date=30 April 2018 | title=2,5-Dimethoxy-4-methyl-amphetamine (STP): A New Hallucinogenic Drug | publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science | journal=Science | volume=158 | date=6 October 1967 | access-date=10 September 2016 |author1=Snyder, Solomon |author2=Faillace, Louis |author3=Hollister, Leo |issue = 3801| pages=669–670 |doi = 10.1126/science.158.3801.669|pmid = 4860952|bibcode = 1967Sci...158..669S|s2cid = 24065654}} Stanley and Scully made trial batches of STP in 10 mg tablets and then of STP mixed with LSD in a few hundred yellow tablets, but soon ceased production of STP. Stanley and Scully produced about 196 grams of LSD in 1967, but 96 grams of that was confiscated by the police.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

In late 1967, Stanley's lab at La Espiral, Orinda, California, was raided by police and he was found in possession of 350,000 doses of LSD and 1,500 doses of STP. His defense was that the illegal substances were for personal use, but he was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison. The same year, Stanley officially shortened his name to "Owsley Stanley". After his release from prison, Stanley resumed working for the Grateful Dead as their live sound engineer. On January 31, 1970, at 3:00 a.m., 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.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

According to Rolling Stone magazine,{{cite magazine|magazine=Rolling Stone|number=53|date=March 6, 1970|title=New Orleans Cops & the Dead Bust}} everyone in the band except Ron "Pigpen" McKernan and Tom Constanten—neither of whom used psychedelic drugs—was included in the arrest, along with several members of their retinue, including Stanley and some locals. Stanley was charged with illegal possession of narcotics, dangerous non-narcotics, LSD, and barbiturates. Another West Coast–based rock band, Jefferson Airplane, had been arrested two weeks earlier in the same situation. According to an article in the Baton Rouge State Times, Stanley identified himself to the police as "The King of Acid" and technician of the band. 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").{{Cite web |url=http://ultimateclassicrock.com/grateful-dead-truckin-drug-bust/ |title=45 Years Ago: The Grateful Dead's Infamous 'Truckin' Drug Bust |last=Lifton |first=Dave |date=2015-01-31 |website=Ultimate Classic Rock |language=en-US |access-date=2017-04-16}}

Stanley was confined to federal prison from 1970 to 1972, after a federal judge intervened and revoked his release from the 1967 conviction. Stanley took advantage of the opportunity in jail to learn the trade of metalwork and jewelry-making.

Immediately following his release in the summer of 1972, Stanley resumed working for the Grateful Dead as a roadie and sound engineer. Since his portfolio had been delegated to as many as four sound engineers during his time in prison, he struggled to regain his past influence with the band and support staff. In a later interview with Dennis McNally, he opined that he received "just a taste" of his previous position: "I found on my release from jail that the crew, most of whom had been hired in my absence, did not want anything changed. No improvements for the sound, no new gear, nothing different on stage. 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. Bob Matthews, who had been mixing since my departure, did not want to completely relinquish the mixing desk, which was a total pain in the ass for me, since he was basically a studio engineer and no match for my live mixing ability." 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 demeanor.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

The tensions culminated in a logistical mishap at an October 1972 concert at Vanderbilt University, at which students recruited by Stanley to deputize for an absent Matthews absconded with half of the band's PA system, resulting in a fellow employee throwing Stanley into a water cooler. The altercation led Stanley to request the formal codification of his perceived managerial power over the equipment staff, including unprecedented hire/fire privileges.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E41zCwAAQBAJ&q=owsley+beer+cocaine&pg=PA141 |title=Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III |first=Robert |last=Greenfield |date=November 15, 2016 |publisher=Macmillan |via=Google Books|isbn=9781466893115}}

Although Stanley stopped touring with the Grateful Dead following their refusal of his demands, he continued to be employed by the band. 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 ground-breaking sound reinforcement system.{{cite web |last=Osborne |first=Luka |title=Remembering the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound: an absurd feat of technological engineering |url=https://happymag.tv/grateful-dead-wall-of-sound/ |website=happymag.tv |publisher=Happy Media PTY Limited |date=22 April 2021 |access-date=3 August 2022}} During that period, Stanley also assisted Phil Lesh in salvaging the technically deficient recordings assembled for Steal Your Face (1976), a poorly-received live album culled from the final October 1974 pre-hiatus shows at Winterland Ballroom.{{Cite web |url=http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/07/bear-at-board.html |title=Grateful Dead Guide: Bear at the Board |author=Light Into Ashes|date=July 1, 2010}} 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.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4aWLDQAAQBAJ&q=couple%20of%20tours |title=Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III |first=Robert |last=Greenfield |date=November 15, 2016 |publisher=Macmillan |via=Google Books |isbn=9781466893115}}

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Stanley briefly served as the live mixing engineer for Robert Hunter and Jefferson Starship. From 1974 to 1981, he also grew and sold cannabis from his garden in Fairfax, California, but the profits from this endeavor proved to be far less remunerative than his earlier work in clandestine chemistry. Stanley moved to Australia in 1982, and frequently returned to the United States to sell his jewelry (which commanded high prices) on Grateful Dead tours. He retained backstage access during this period, and his clientele included such notable figures as Keith Richards.Selvin, J. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/12/MNGK0QV7HS1.DTL "For the unrepentant patriarch of LSD, long, strange trip winds back to Bay Area"]. San Francisco Chronicle, July 12, 2007.

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.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E41zCwAAQBAJ&q=sheilah+stanley+grateful+dead|title=Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III|first=Robert|last=Greenfield|date=November 15, 2016|publisher=Macmillan|via=Google Books|isbn=9781466893115}}

Notwithstanding his tour activities, Stanley made his first public appearance in decades at the Australian ethnobotanical conference Entheogenesis Australis in 2009, giving three talks during his time in Melbourne."[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geRXSVuPRhU Entheogenesis Australis]". In 2009, around 500 participants were addressed by…the legendary – but reclusive – Owsley 'Bear' Stanley, in his first public appearance in decades.{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.entheogenesis.org/history |access-date=2023-10-23 |website=Entheogenesis Australis |language=en-AU}}

{{Wikinews|Owsley Stanley, icon of 1960s counterculture, dies at 76}}

Stanley believed a "thermal cataclysm" related to climate change would soon render the Northern Hemisphere largely uninhabitable, and moved to Australia in 1982. He became a naturalized Australian citizen in 1996. Stanley lived with his wife Sheilah (a former clerk in the Grateful Dead's ticket office) in the bush of Tropical North Queensland, where he worked to create sculpture and wearable art.{{Cite web |url=http://www.dead.net/features/dead-world-roundup/remembering-owsley-bear-stanley |title=Remembering Owsley "Bear" Stanley | Grateful Dead |access-date=2017-05-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180918203844/http://www.dead.net/features/dead-world-roundup/remembering-owsley-bear-stanley |archive-date=2018-09-18 |url-status=dead }}

From at least the mid-1960s until his death, Stanley practiced and advocated an all-meat diet, believing that humans are naturally carnivorous. He argued that rare red meat was a complete food and that a diet of such is optimal for human health and longevity. He held many radical opinions on biology and nutrition. He argued that the body could not store protein or fat as adipose tissue, but would instead be simply excreted if consumed in excess, and that only consumption of carbohydrates and sugars could make someone obese. He also theorized that diabetes was not technically a disease but actually the term for the damage wrought by insulin, and that adopting a zero carb diet would treat this so-called disease.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Stanley died after a car accident in Australia on Saturday, March 12, 2011, not Sunday, March 13, as reported in most publications[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-owsleystanley-idUSTRE72C3AF20110313 "Psychedelic icon Owsley Stanley dies in Australia"]. Thomson Reuters. March 13, 2011.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/8381945/Owsley-Stanley.html "Owsley Stanley"]. The Daily Telegraph. 19 March 2011. (a widely propagated error stemming from the Monday release to the press of the initial family statement, which was written on Sunday, stating he "died yesterday"). The statement released on behalf of Stanley's family said the car crash occurred near his home, on a rural stretch of highway near Mareeba, Queensland.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

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 3–5, 2015.{{cite web|url=http://www.jambase.com/Articles/125706/Owsley-Bear-Stanley-Ashes-At-Grateful-Dead-50-Soundboard|title=Music News - Concert Reviews - JamBase|work=JamBase|access-date=31 December 2015|date=8 July 2015}}

Shortly before his death, Stanley was in the process of curating and releasing the first of a planned series of concert recordings, to be called "Bear's Sonic Journals". The first of these releases was set to be Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 by Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin.{{cite web |author=Columbia/Legacy Recordings |date=March 13, 2012 |url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/columbialegacy-recordings-releasing-the-first-of-bears-sonic-journals-big-brother--the-holding-company-featuring-janis-joplin-live-at-the-carousel-ballroom-1968-recorded--produced-by-owsley-stanley-bear-136738828.html |title=Columbia/Legacy Recordings Releasing the First of "Bear's Sonic Journals": Big Brother & the Holding Company Featuring Janis Joplin Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968, Recorded & Produced by Owsley Stanley ("Bear") |work=PR Newswire |access-date=July 30, 2024}} After he died, the album was finished and released by Columbia / Legacy Records, under the supervision of his family and some close friends.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Subsequently, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization known as the Owsley Stanley Foundation was founded, dedicated to restoring and preserving the archive of Stanley's recordings, which he called his "sonic journals".{{cite web |url=https://owsleystanleyfoundation.org/about-owsley/#aboutosf |title=About the Owsley Stanley Foundation |website=Owsley Stanley Foundation |access-date=May 31, 2020}}{{cite web |first=Mark |last=Bannerman |date=March 23, 2019 |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-24/stanley-owsleys-work-with-1960s-bands-must-be-preserved/10871062 |title=Owsley Stanley's Acid Trips Helped Define the Sound of the 1960s, but His Recordings Are Just as Important |website=ABC News |access-date=May 31, 2020}}{{cite magazine |first=Jesse |last=Jarnow |date=December 5, 2019 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/owsley-stanley-archive-new-riders-of-the-purple-sage-920234/ |title=Owsley Stanley's 'Sonic Journals': Inside the Tape Vault of a Psychedelic Legend |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=May 31, 2020}}{{cite web |date=July 1, 2010 |url=http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2010/07/bear-at-board.html |title=Bear at the Board |website=Grateful Dead Guide |access-date=May 31, 2020}}{{cite web |first=Dean |last=Budnick |date=November 18, 2021 |url=https://relix.com/articles/detail/ill-take-my-chances-on-an-acid-soaked-jimi-hendrix-seeing-sound-with-johnny-cash-and-the-owsley-stanley-foundation/ |title="I'll Take My Chances on an Acid-Soaked Jimi Hendrix": Seeing Sound with Johnny Cash and the Owsley Stanley Foundation |work=Relix |access-date=November 19, 2021}} Through the work of the Owsley Stanley Foundation, some of these concert recordings have been released as a series of live albums.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

• Bear's Sonic Journals Presents: Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968 – Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin – March 12, 2012{{efn|name=a|group=main}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: Never the Same Way Once – Doc Watson and Merle Watson – June 23, 2017{{cite web |first=Desiré |last=Moses |date=July 26, 2017 |url=https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/doc-merle-watson-play-never-the-same-way-once-on-new-box-set/ |title=Doc & Merle Watson: Play 'Never the Same Way Once' on New Box Set |website=The Bluegrass Situation |access-date=May 31, 2020}}{{cite web |date=May 23, 2017 |url=http://www.cybergrass.com/node/5771 |title=First Doc & Merle Watson Box Set Released |website=Cybergrass |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170712052246/http://www.cybergrass.com/node/5771#sthash.jAb7Bc4E.dpbs |archive-date=July 12, 2017 |access-date=May 23, 2021}}{{cite web |first=Andy |last=Kahn |date=May 23, 2017 |url=https://www.jambase.com/article/owsley-stanley-foundation-announces-doc-merle-watson-live-box-set |title=Owsley Stanley Foundation Announces Doc & Merle Watson Live Box Set |website=JamBase |access-date=May 31, 2020}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: Fillmore East, February 1970 – The Allman Brothers Band – August 10, 2018{{cite web |first=Scott |last=Bernstein |date=July 19, 2018 |url=https://www.jambase.com/article/previously-unreleased-allman-brothers-band-recordings-february-1970-fillmore-east-run-coming |title=Previously Unreleased Allman Brothers Band Recordings from February 1970 Fillmore East Run Coming |website=JamBase |access-date=May 31, 2020}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: Before We Were Them – Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady (i.e. Hot Tuna) – January 18, 2019{{cite web |url=https://owsleystanleyfoundation.org/bears-sonic-journals/before-we-were-them/ |title=Before We Were Them |website=Owsley Stanley Foundation |access-date=May 31, 2020}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage – New Riders of the Purple Sage – January 17, 2020{{cite web |first=Doug |last=Collette |date=February 17, 2020 |url=https://glidemagazine.com/239875/new-riders-of-the-purple-sage-bears-sonic-journals-dawn-of-the-new-riders-of-the-purple-sage-album-review/ |title=Bear's Sonic Journals: Dawn of the New Riders of the Purple Sage |website=Glide Magazine |access-date=May 31, 2020}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: Found in the Ozone – Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen – July 24, 2020{{cite web |first=Jeff |last=Tamarkin |date=November 12, 2020 |url=https://relix.com/reviews/detail/commander-cody-his-lost-planet-airmen-bears-sonic-journals-found-in-the-ozone/ |title=Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen – Bear's Sonic Journals: Found in the Ozone |website=Relix |access-date=April 20, 2021}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: That Which Colors the Mind – Ali Akbar Khan – December 18, 2020{{cite web |url=https://owsleystanleyfoundation.org/bears-sonic-journals/ali-akbar-khan-that-which-colors-the-mind/ |title=That Which Colors the Mind |website=Owsley Stanley Foundation |access-date=November 27, 2020}}{{cite web |first=Madhu |last=Patel |date=October 29, 2020 |url=https://www.indiapost.com/owsley-stanley-foundation-to-release-rare-performance-by-ali-akbar-khan-from-1970/ |title=Owsley Stanley Foundation to Release Rare Performance by Ali Akbar Khan from 1970 |website=India Post |access-date=December 11, 2020}}{{cite web |first=Anisa |last=Kureshi |date=December 8, 2020 |url=https://indiacurrents.com/smoke-in-a-bottle-that-which-colors-the-mind/ |title=Smoke in a Bottle: That Which Colors the Mind |website=India Currents |access-date=December 11, 2020}}{{cite web |first=Doug |last=Collette |date=December 14, 2020 |url=https://glidemagazine.com/251689/bears-sonic-journals-that-which-colors-the-mind-ali-akbar-khan-indranil-bhattacharya-zakir-hussain-album-review/ |title=Bear's Sonic Journals: That Which Colors the Mind – Ali Akbar Khan / Indranil Bhattacharya / Zakir Hussain |website=Glide Magazine |access-date=December 24, 2020}}{{cite web |first=Jeff |last=Tamarkin |date=January 25, 2021 |url=https://relix.com/articles/detail/global-beat-zakir-hussain-revisits-a-historic-family-dog-summit/ |title=Global Beat: Zakir Hussain Revisits a Historic Family Dog Summit |website=Relix |access-date=January 27, 2021}}{{cite web |first=Bilal |last=Qureshi |date=January 23, 2021 |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/01/23/959394422/when-the-giants-of-indian-classical-music-collided-with-psychedelic-san-francisc |title=When the Giants of Indian Classical Music Collided with Psychedelic San Francisco |work=NPR |access-date=February 21, 2022}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel – Tim Buckley – June 4, 2021{{cite web |url=https://owsleystanleyfoundation.org/bears-sonic-journals/merry-go-round-at-the-carousel-tim-buckley-at-the-carousel-ballroom/ |title=Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel |website=Owsley Stanley Foundation |access-date=April 20, 2021}}{{cite web |first=Dennis |last=McNally |date=May 11, 2021 |url=http://www.gratefulweb.com/articles/owsley-stanley-foundation-release-landmark-tim-buckley-live-recording |title=Owsley Stanley Foundation to Release Landmark Tim Buckley Live Recording |website=Grateful Web |access-date=May 23, 2021}}{{cite magazine |first=David |last=Browne |date=June 11, 2021 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/tim-buckley-lets-his-freak-flag-fly-on-live-lp-merry-go-round-at-the-carousel-1180285/ |title=Tim Buckley Lets His Freak Flag Fly on Live LP 'Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel' |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=June 11, 2021}}{{cite web |first=John |last=Apice |date=June 8, 2021 |url=https://americanahighways.org/2021/06/08/review-tim-buckley-merry-go-round-at-the-carousel-live/ |title=Review: Tim Buckley "Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel – Live" |work=Americana Highways |access-date=February 19, 2022}}{{cite web |first=Doug |last=Collette |date=June 9, 2021 |url=https://glidemagazine.com/257879/tim-buckley-displays-adventurous-spirit-via-bears-sonic-journals-merry-go-round-at-the-carousel-june-1968-album-review/ |title=Tim Buckley Displays Adventurous Spirit Via 'Bear's Sonic Journals: Merry-Go-Round at the Carousel June 1968' (Album Review) |work=Glide Magazine |access-date=February 19, 2022}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: At the Carousel Ballroom, April 24, 1968 – Johnny Cash – October 29, 2021{{cite magazine |first=Jon |last=Blistein |date=June 24, 2021 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/johnny-cash-at-the-carousel-ballroom-new-live-album-owsley-stanley-1188746/ |title=New Johnny Cash Live Album, 'At the Carousel Ballroom' Captures Country Star in the Counterculture |magazine=Rolling Stone |access-date=June 25, 2021}}{{cite web |first=Sam |last=Moore |date=June 24, 2021 |url=https://www.nme.com/news/music/a-johnny-cash-live-album-from-1968-is-finally-set-to-be-released-2977468 |title=A Johnny Cash Live Album from 1968 Is Finally Set to Be Released |work=NME |access-date=June 25, 2021}}{{cite web |first=Nate |last=Todd |date=June 24, 2021 |url=https://www.jambase.com/article/previously-unreleased-johnny-cash-live-album-owsley-stanley-september |title=Previously Unreleased Johnny Cash Live Album Recorded by Owsley Stanley Due in September |work=JamBase |access-date=June 25, 2021}}{{cite web |first=Michael |last=Broerman |date=June 24, 2021 |url=https://liveforlivemusic.com/news/johnny-cash-at-carousel-ballroom-1968-bears-sonic-journals/ |title=Johnny Cash 1968 Carousel Ballroom Live Bootleg Recorded by Owsley Headed for Release |work=Live for Live Music |access-date=June 25, 2021}}{{cite web |first=Logan |last=Blake |date=June 24, 2021 |url=https://www.spin.com/2021/06/johnny-cash-san-francisco-1968-album/ |title=Johnny Cash's Previously Unreleased Live Album from 1968 to Be Unearthed |work=Spin |access-date=June 25, 2021}}{{cite magazine |first=Nick |last=Paumgarten |date=November 1, 2021 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/08/when-the-man-in-black-met-the-guys-in-tie-dye |title=When the Man in Black Met the Guys in Tie-Dye |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=November 2, 2021}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: The Foxhunt – The Chieftains – September 2, 2022{{cite web |first=Dennis |last=McNally |date=July 26, 2022 |url=https://www.gratefulweb.com/articles/owsley-stanley-foundation-release-early-chieftains-live-recordings |title=Owsley Stanley Foundation to Release Early Chieftains Live Recordings |work=Grateful Web |access-date=July 26, 2022}}{{cite web |date=July 22, 2022 |url=https://www.thesoundcafe.com/post/bear-s-sonic-journals-the-foxhunt-the-chieftains-live-in-san-francisco-1973-1976-to-be-released |title=Bear's Sonic Journals: The Foxhunt, The Chieftains Live in San Francisco 1973 & 1976 to Be Released |work=The Sound Cafe |access-date=July 22, 2022}}{{cite web |first=Michael |last=Broerman |date=September 1, 2022 |url=https://liveforlivemusic.com/features/the-chieftains-bears-sonic-journals-foxhunt/ |title=Ireland's The Chieftains Land on U.S. Soil in Latest 'Bear's Sonic Journals' Release |work=Live for Live Music |access-date=September 1, 2022}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: Sing Out! – various artists – February 23, 2024{{cite web |first=Andy |last=Kahn |date=January 4, 2024 |url=https://www.jambase.com/article/bear-sonic-journal-sing-out-final-grateful-dead |title=Owsley 'Bear' Stanley's Final Live Recording Featuring Members of Grateful Dead Set for Release |work=JamBase |access-date=January 8, 2024}}
• Bear's Sonic Journals: You're Doin' Fine – John Hammond – November 22, 2024{{cite web |first=Don |last=Wilcock |date=November 1, 2024 |url=https://www.americanbluesscene.com/2024/11/john-hammond-releases-career-capping-album-youre-doin-fine/ |title=John Hammond Releases Career-Capping Album 'You're Doin' Fine' |work=American Blues Scene |access-date=November 7, 2024}}

:Notes:

{{notelist|group=main|refs=

{{efn|name=a|This album was released by Columbia / Legacy Records, before the formation of the Owsley Stanley Foundation.}}

}}

{{in popular culture|section|date=July 2020}}

• Owsley's association with Ken Kesey and the Grateful Dead is described in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test (1968).
• Stanley's incarceration is lamented in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971) as one of the many signs of the death of the 1960s.

{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tESC9BnR85cC&q=owsley%20folding%20napkins%20on%20terminal%20island&pg=PA538 |

title=The great shark hunt: strange tales from a strange time |

access-date=2011-04-21 |

work=Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas|

isbn=9780743250450 |

last1=Thompson |

first1=Hunter S. |

date=6 November 2003 |

publisher=Simon and Schuster }}

• A newspaper headline identifying Stanley as an "LSD Millionaire" ran in the Los Angeles Times the day before the state of California, on October 6, 1966, criminalized the drug. The headline inspired the Grateful Dead song "Alice D. Millionaire".Troy, Sandy, Captain Trips: A Biography of Jerry Garcia (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1994). Acid Tests pp. 70–1, 76, 85; LSD Millionaire p. 99.
• Stanley is mentioned by his first name in the song "Who Needs the Peace Corps?" by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, which first appeared on the band's album We're Only in It for the Money (1968) ("I'll go to Frisco, buy a wig and sleep on Owsley's floor.").{{cite web |url=http://www.channel3000.com/entertainment/27184060/detail.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317035609/http://www.channel3000.com/entertainment/27184060/detail.html |url-status=dead |title=1960s LSD Figure Owsley Stanley Dies In Crash – Entertainment News Story – WISC Madison |archive-date=March 17, 2011}}{{cite web |url=https://www.chetanmohakar.com/2019/01/become-a-millionaire.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190130220907/https://www.chetanmohakar.com/2019/01/become-a-millionaire.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2019-01-30 |title=millionaire |work=chetanmohakar.com}}{{cite web |url=http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/2011/03/14/rip-owsley/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717195930/http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/2011/03/14/rip-owsley/ |url-status=dead |title=R.I.P. Owsley – Viceland Today |archive-date=July 17, 2011}}{{cite web |url=https://www.nme.com/news/nme/55458 |title=Jimi Hendrix inspiration and LSD producer Owsley Stanley dies |author=NME.COM |work=NME.COM |access-date=31 December 2015}}{{cite web |url=http://www.legacy.com/ns/obituary.aspx?n=Owsley-Stanley&pid=149352144&ua=ezGJ98eu2k%2FbLvKwnKEIhg%3D%3D |title=Owsley Stanley Obituary - Owsley Stanley Funeral - Legacy.com |work=Legacy.com |date=March 15, 2011 |access-date=31 December 2015}}
• Stanley is referred to in Jefferson Airplane's song "Mexico" on the Early Flight (1974) album.
• Stanley is the subject of Spectrum's song "Owsley", which appears on their 1997 Forever Alien album and its precursor EP Songs For Owsley (1996). The latter was titled in tribute to Stanley.
• Stanley is the subject of The Masters Apprentices' song "Our Friend Owsley Stanley 3", which appears on their 1971 album Master's Apprentices.
• The Steely Dan song "Kid Charlemagne", from the album The Royal Scam (1976), is based on Stanley's activities as a drug manufacturer.{{cite web |url=http://www.steelydan.com/bbc.html |title=Complete transcript of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker in a BBC-Online Chat, March 4, 2000 |access-date=2010-05-26 |date=2000-03-04 |publisher=BBC |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413164154/http://www.steelydan.com/bbc.html |archive-date=April 13, 2009 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://www.salon.com/2000/03/14/steely/ |title=Sophisticated skank |last=Kamiya |first=Gary |date=2000-03-14 |work=Salon |access-date=6 January 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://www.jazz.com/music/2009/9/16/steely-dan-kid-charlemagne |title=Steely Dan: Kid Charlemagne |access-date=2010-05-26 |author=Marcus Singletary |publisher=Jazz.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610052515/http://www.jazz.com/music/2009/9/16/steely-dan-kid-charlemagne |archive-date=2012-06-10}}Pershan, C., [http://sfist.com/2015/07/20/san_francisco_show_and_tell_steely.php "Kid Charlemagne: A Close Reading Of Steely Dan's Ode to Haight Street's LSD King"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317195859/http://sfist.com/2015/07/20/san_francisco_show_and_tell_steely.php |date=2016-03-17}}, SFist, July 20, 2015.
• Stanley is mentioned in the title of Sujoy Sarkar's debut album Sitting at Strawberry Fields Cause I Met Owsley on the Way (2020).{{Cite news|last=Britto|first=David|date=November 28, 2020|title=Producer Sujoy Sarkar Drops Enigmatic Debut Album 'Sitting At Strawberry Fields Cause I Met Owsley on the Way'|work=Rolling Stone India|url=https://rollingstoneindia.com/producer-sujoy-sarkar-drops-enigmatic-debut-album-sitting-at-strawberry-fields-cause-i-met-owsley-on-the-way/|access-date=12 April 2021}}

• Counterculture of the 1960s
• Casey William Hardison
• History of lysergic acid diethylamide
• William Leonard Pickard
• Psychonautics
• Nicholas Sand
• Tim Scully
• The Brotherhood of Eternal Love
• The Sunshine Makers

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{cite book |title=Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e39s92O14EsC |last=Lee |first=Martin A |author2=Bruce Shlain |year=1986 |publisher=Grove Press |isbn=0-8021-3062-3 }}
• {{cite book |title=The Hippie Dictionary: A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1960s and 1970s |last=McCleary |first=John Bassett |year=2004 |publisher=Ten Speed Press |location=Berkeley, CA |isbn=1-58008-547-4 }}
• {{cite book |title=The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test |last=Wolfe |first=Tom |author-link=Tom Wolfe |year=1968 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |url=https://archive.org/details/electrickoolaida0000wolf |url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |title=Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In |last=Forte |first=Robert |year=1999 |publisher=Park Street Press |isbn=0892817860 |pages=270–278 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NXqrOQAACAAJ}}
• {{cite book |title=Bear: The Life and Times of Augustus Owsley Stanley III |last=Greenfield |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Greenfield |year=2016 |publisher=Thomas Dunne Books |isbn=978-1-250-08121-6}}

• [http://www.thebear.org/ Owsley's website]
• [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/12/MNGK0QV7HS1.DTL "For the unrepentant patriarch of LSD, long, strange trip winds back to Bay Area"] San Francisco Chronicle July 12, 2007
• [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-owsleystanley-idUSTRE72C3AF20110313 Obituary from Reuters.com]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110417194903/http://www.celebstoner.com/201103136134/news/celebstoner-news/owsley-dead-in-australia.html Celebstoner.com report of Owsley Stanley's Death]
• {{Discogs artist}}

{{portalbar|Biography|San Francisco Bay Area}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stanley, Owsley}}

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