ALAMEDA, CA.- We all know Rock music is here to stay, celebrity-owned cars are very cool and culturally historic American cars rarely become available to automobile collectors or history museums...

And it's very rare that a music celebrity-owned, iconic and culturally important automobile simply shows up after 45 years — especially one that represents a moment in time that references the 1966 Summer of Love, the early Grateful Dead, Owsley, the Counter-Culture movement, Rock-n-Roll and 60s Art Cars...

Michaan's Auctions in Alameda California, is presenting such a historic automotive vehicle at auction. The Owsley / Grateful Dead Band Truck from 1965, will be offed at an auction featuring historic 20th Century Design on November 6th, 2014 at their Alameda location. Also at auction is a rare collection of vintage Rock posters from the 1960s and featuring the Grateful Dead.

The newly discovered Grateful Dead's first band truck was originally purchased by Owsley Stanley in 1965 and used until 1970 for moving the Grateful Dead's sound equipment. Discovered several years ago resting in a storage shed in Berkeley by design historian Steve Cabella, it was found in it's present state and represents a true frozen moment in time, a time capsule if you will...Still in its original condition from its time with the Dead, parts of the original crazy color style has been lightly misted over in primer at some point in its history, possibly to make it less Pop looking, and thus preserving the original red Owsley paint and the psychedelic motif. Known as the Father of LSD, Owsley was the Dead's first band manager and their original sound-man. It was Owsley who first developed, along with the drug LSD, the infamous Wall-of-Sound audio equipment for the Dead.

This 1949 red Studebaker truck became the first of the Grateful Dead's early "Caravan of Six" band vehicles, which included the Dead's original Sweet Magnolia Tour Bus. Along with published information in the November issue of Rolling Stone magazine from November 25, 1982, Owsley himself has stated that his red one-ton truck was known in the Bay Area and in Dead circles as the "Dred" or the "Dredded Dormammu" – it was named by Owsley after a Marvel Comic book character. He has said in personal emails that he named and owned the Dred and it was used by him as manager to help move their audio gear to local gigs as well as to L.A. in 1966 for the Dead's first L.A. recording dates. Fondly recalled by others who were part of the Summer of Love scene, it comes with the ownership traced from Owsley in '65 until today.

The historic reference, relevance and romance of this automobile are not found in most vintage collector vehicles of any price. The only comparable iconic 60s counter-culture vehicles are Janis Joplin's 1967 Porsche, John Lennon's painted Rolls Royce and of course, Ken Kesey's Merry Prankster's bus known as "Further."

After being imprisoned in 1970 for manufacturing LSD, Owsley gave the truck to an artist friend in Berkeley, who applied the Hippie, rock poster styled paint job partially over the red paint, and entered it into the first Cosmic Car Show in Berkeley, California in 1970. It has retained the original early multi-colored art car paint, which identifies it as part of the 1960s rolling revolution. Stored for decades, it remained in possession of Owsley's friend from 1970 until 2012, when it was discovered hidden in a storage shed in it's currently preserved state. Such originality is very rare and too valuable for anything other than serious preservation and exhibition in a suitable venue honoring it's connections to the counter-culture movement in the America nearly half a century ago.

Fully documented by all the previous owners, including Owsley Stanley, aka: "Bear," this iconic truck and its multiple original connections to mid century cultural history represent an extremely rare opportunity for ownership of a culturally important vehicle from the1960s.

For more information on this vehicle, please visit www.gratefuldeadtruck.com