Rock Scully

Rock Robert Scully (August 1, 1941 – December 16, 2014) was one of the managers of the rock band the Grateful Dead from 1965 to 1985.

Living in the Haight before and during the Summer of Love, Scully first saw the Grateful Dead play at one of Ken Kesey's Acid Tests, and signed on as the band's manager almost immediately. He started to book the band at local venues, like the Fillmore Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom, where other bands such as Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service got their start. Within a few years, the Dead became more successful, and Scully helped negotiate their first record contract, with Warner Bros. He also got them booked into larger concerts like the Monterey Pop Festival and .

Although he developed an opiate addiction alongside several others in the Grateful Dead's social network in the late 1970s, Scully was employed by the group in various capacities (including stints as "advance man," road manager and publicist) until 1984, when he was fired by the group, in part for enabling Jerry Garcia's cocaine and heroin addictions. For several years, he had also served as manager of the Jerry Garcia Band and Garcia's housemate; alleged embezzlement from the Garcia Band played a role in the group's decision. Following rehabilitation, he returned briefly in 1985.

Scully was the author of a 1995 memoir, Living with the Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus with Garcia and the Grateful Dead (written with David Dalton).

Rock Scully was born on August 1, 1941 in Seattle, Washington. His stepfather was journalist and academic Milton Mayer. Due to Mayer's multifarious career, Scully was raised in Carmel, California (where he cultivated a close friendship with Sam Farr) and various locales in Europe; ultimately, he finished his secondary education at a Swiss boarding school. After studying under Kurt Adler at the University of Vienna, Scully graduated with a degree in history and literature from Earlham College in 1963. Although he provisionally accepted an administrative post with Farr's father (a member of the California State Senate), Scully refused to remit the required loyalty oath and was unable to assume his duties. Thereafter, he completed graduate work in history at San Francisco State University, where he first coordinated student dances.

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