Grateful Dead soundman Owsley 'Bear' Stanley dies in car crash

Legendary Grateful Dead soundmanand infamous LSD maker Owsley "Bear" Stanley has died in a car crash in Australia.

A police statement said a man in his 70s died Saturday (March 12) when a car he was driving left a highway and hit trees near the town of Mareeba in northern Queensland state.

Police would not confirm the driver's identity, but a statement was issued to The Associated Press on Monday confirming his death in the car wreck. He was 76.

Stanley was known as an LSD guru in the 60s, supplying Ken Kesey's Acid Test and other happenings of the early hippy movement. Through Kesey, Stanley became the Grateful Dead's soundman, developing the Wall of Sound, literally a huge wall of speakers with 26,400 watts of sonic power. It would set a standard for arena- and stadium-sized sound systems, and establish a precedent for the Grateful Dead's attention to audio reproduction and technology in general. 

"Owsley was truly important in setting the example of someone who would go to almost any length, beyond what anyone would think reasonable, to pursue the goal of perfection ... sonic perfection, the finest planet earth ever saw," Grateful Dead publicist Dennis McNally told the L.A Times on said Monday. "They never would have done that without Bear. Furthermore, the greater San Francisco scene never would have been what it was without the opportunity for thousands of people to experience psychedelics, which would not have happened without Bear."

Stanley left the States in the 70s and spent his remaining days in Australia. Despite his ties with the Grateful Dead, he was a vocal carnivore who claimed meat sustained his life. In later years, he worked as a sculptor and jeweler, and sold pieces to such figures as Keith Richards.

Aside from working as their soundman, Stanley was also an early financial backer of the Grateful Dead. He put them up in a pink stucco house in Los Angeles -- right where he had moved his LSD lab. The members of the band subsisted primarily on acid, meat and meat by-products during their stay. They later wrote a song about Stanley called "Alice D. Millionaire."

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