FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Vice Blog

R.I.P. OWSLEY

Owsley "Bear" Stanely, the guy credited with making around five million tabs of the purest, bestest acid anywhere during the 60s, died yesterday in a car accident in Australia.

In addition to being the best drug dealer/producer of the hippie era, he was also the sound engineer for The Dead, and everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Frank Zappa made references to him or his drugs in their songs (rumor has it that Purple Haze was written about his acid).

Bear had lived in Australia since the early 80s after becoming convinced that the Northern Hemisphere was headed for another ice age. Almost two decades later, in an interview with the SF Chronicle he admitted he wasn't so sure anymore: "I might be right about the ice age thing. I might be wrong."

Here's an interview with Owsley by Bruce Eisner, and below is a radio interview and a short film called The Psychedelic Experience with an introduction by Timothy Leary.