Owsley and Me

“Owsley was a key 1960s figure, who some would say ‘turned on’ a generation more so than even Tim Leary, but his own life has long been shrouded in mystery. Here’s a firsthand recollection, as ‘intimate’ as is likely to be penned. Here are firsthand backstage accounts of the Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock, Altamont, and much more with various Beatles, Stones, San Francisco musicians, of course, and other famed counterculture figures popping in and out.”—Huffington Post

“OWSLEY AND ME is totally geared toward people who have an interest in the music of the time, but also one of the most influential characters of all of drug culture. Think of it as the real BREAKING BAD, just with more peace and love, and a whole lot less guns and dead bodies.”—Bookgasm

“Famous people—Timothy Leary, Jerry Garcia, Ravi Shankar, Jimi Hendrix, Ken Kesey—wander in and out of the story, which delivers a vivid, behind-the-scenes look at the 1960s counterculture. A nostalgia trip for many, to be sure, but also an involving love story that chronicles the sometimes turbulent relationship between Rhoney and Owsley.”—Booklist

Vanity Fair—April issue—Hot Type

“My LSD Family is an oddly sweet-hearted and heartwarming tome, while also bringing back enough memories to hopefully fuel many memories long forgotten on others’ parts.”—Woodstock Times

“Stanley isn’t preaching about redemption, salvation, or crawling out of the pits of drug abuse. She’s taking us on a tour of her youth and, fortunately for us, the sights and sounds are colorful and vividly described. If you weren’t there yourself, after reading this memoir, odds are, you’ll wish you had been.”—Blogcritics

“In this wild memoir of life with the media-crowned ‘Acid King,’ she (Gissen Stanley) captures the perfectionist genius who also transformed audio technology, created jewelry, advocated a carnivorous diet and studied to be a ballet dancer.”—High Times Magazine

“Stanley’s memoir is an impressionistic kaleidoscope of the tumultuous times that informed the birth of the Haight and the genesis of the Dead, and her reminiscences help us better understand the complex currents that made that era so iconic, powerful, and still misunderstood.”—Grateful Dead Archive

“Owsley and Me: My LSD Family is a heartfelt memoir of the author’s college years and her love affair with Owsley “Bear” Stanley, who was the pre-eminent producer of LSD in the United States in the 1960s.”—Poughkeepsie Journal

“The nineteen sixties and seventies were incredible times for many young Americans, with the advent of rock music, the birth control pill, and the anti-Vietnam War movement, all fueled by psychedelics. Rhoney Stanley gives those times full exposure in this outrageous memoir that will remind survivors of how they navigated their way through that era and let others know what they had missed. Each chapter is a testament to the brilliant minds and colorful people who collaborated in the manufacture and distribution of LSD, outwitting authorities and rebelling against conventional morality. No future history of those years can be written without consulting this memorable book.”—Stanley Krippner, PhD, author of A Chaotic Life: The Memoirs of Stanley Krippner Pioneering Humanistic Psychologist

Rhoney Stanley

Rhoney Stanley lived and worked alongside Owsley Stanley, a pioneer of the psychedelic revolution of the sixties. During their time together, Owsley produced 1.25 million doses of LSD. Rhoney and Owsley raised a son, Starfinder, together. Rhoney is a Columbia University graduate.

Tom Davis

Tom Davis was an Emmy Award-winning American writer and comedian. He is best known for being one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live and for his former partnership with Al Franken, as half of the comedy duo “Franken & Davis.” His memoir, “Thirty-Nine Years of Short-Term Memory Loss: The Early Days of SNL from Someone Who Was There,” was published in 2010.

Owsley Stanley

Owsley Stanley, known as “Owsley” or “Bear” to his friends and family, played a pivotal role in the psychedelic revolution of the sixties. He was the first person to mass-manufacture LSD, reputedly producing over 1.25 million doses between 1965 and 1967. In 1965, he became the primary supplier of LSD to Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and was later featured in Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. He also supplied LSD to the Beatles during the filming of Magical Mystery Tour.

During the Acid Tests in 1966, Owsley met the members of the Grateful Dead, becoming their first soundman and financier. With his close friend Bob Thomas, he designed the Lightning Bolt Skull logo, often called the “Steal Your Face” by fans, which predated the album of the same name by eight years. Owsley began a long-term practice of recording the Grateful Dead’s rehearsals and performances. He also made numerous live recordings of other prominent 1960s and 1970s artists in San Francisco, including Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, early Jefferson Starship, Janis Joplin, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Taj Mahal, Santana, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, and Blue Cheer (a band named after his LSD). While many of Owsley’s recordings have been released, numerous others remain unissued.

Born in 1935 into a prominent political family from Kentucky, Owsley’s father was a government attorney, and his grandfather, A. Owsley Stanley, had served as Governor of Kentucky and in the U.S. Senate. Owsley studied engineering at the University of Virginia before dropping out in 1956. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and served for eighteen months. Inspired by a 1958 ballet performance, he began studying ballet in Los Angeles and worked for a time as a professional dancer. In 1963, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, where he became involved in the psychoactive drug scene. After dropping out, he took a technical job at KGO-TV and began producing LSD in a small lab in a bathroom near campus. His lab was raided in February 1965; he beat the charges and successfully sued for the return of his equipment. At the time, LSD was not illegal.

In 1970, nineteen members of the Grateful Dead and their crew were arrested in New Orleans. Owsley Stanley, listed as a technician for the band, was booked for illegal possession of narcotics, dangerous non-narcotics, LSD, and barbiturates. Ultimately, Owsley served time in federal prison from 1970 to 1972, after a federal judge revoked his release from a prior case. During his incarceration, Stanley learned metalwork and jewelry-making.

Owsley died on March 12, 2011, in Australia following an automobile accident near his home in Queensland. He is survived by his wife, Sheila, four children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.