Owsley Stanley, icon of 1960s counterculture, dies at 76

March 17, 2011

, mass-producer of, the  underlying much  of the culture of the , died Sunday in a car accident in Australia at the age of 76, his family announced on Tuesday. According to The New York Times, "Mr. Stanley lent the ’60s a great deal of its color — like White Lightning, Monterey Purple and Blue Cheer, the varieties of his LSD that were among the most popular."

Stanley, a talented, self-taught chemist who was known for the purity of his LSD, supplied the drug to such music groups as the, the , and , and provided the acid for and his , whose antics were recorded by  in the. The once called his acid "the best LSD in the world … the genuine Owsley."

He was also an early sound engineer and designed the high-fidelity sound system for the live rock concerts of  the Grateful Dead, known as the  “wall of sound”. It was essentially  a massive public address system made up of 600 speakers that enabled  musicians to mix their sound from the stage and reduce distortion. His recordings of  Grateful Dead live performances, some having been commercially released,  are valued as a documentary of their early music.

, formerly the tour manager of the Rolling Stones, said of Stanley: "He was a very sophisticated man, an amalgam of scientist and engineer, chemist and artist."

Stanley was born in Kentucky and studied engineering briefly at the  before dropping out and joining the. In 1958, he moved to California and worked at a wide variety of jobs, before enrolling at the in 1963, at a time when drug use was pervasive. He got his first taste of LSD in April 1964 which transformed him. "I remember the first time I took acid and walked outside, and the cars were kissing the parking meters," he said in an interview with the in 2007.

Deciding to provide his own LSD to ensure its quality, Stanley created his own lab to produce it. According to The Washington Post, "Working at first from a makeshift bathroom laboratory in Berkeley, Mr. Stanley produced at least 1 million doses of LSD between 1965 and 1967." His LSD was widely distributed. The lab was raided and he spent two years in prison.

Stanley moved to Australia in the 1980s when he become convinced the would be destroyed in the coming of a new. He lived in the Australian  near, Queensland.