From the first Acid Tests in 1965, Rock Scully was "on the bus" with the Grateful Dead. As manager, confidant, and co-conspirator, he was a linchpin of the Dead family and privy to their every deed. Now, for the first time, he gives us the full rambunctious story of rock's longest-running road show.

Starting amid the mayhem of Haight-Ashbury, he tells of rehearsals in Owsley's acid factory, Jerry Garcia's musical mastery, the band's evolution from folk revivalists to lysergic journeymen, the creation of their signature songs, decades of tours through the U.S. and Europe - the whole amazing story is here, up through Scully's departure from the band in 1985 and Garcia's tragic death.

It's a magnificent trip, in the inspiring company of Neal Cassady, Ken Kesey, Owsley Stanley III, Janis Joplin, and the band's many fellow travelers. Scully gives intimate portraits of Pigpen, a founding spirit who lost his way; of Bob Weir's unlikely partnership with Garcia and his iron will; of Phil Lesh's endless experimentalism; of the powerful drumming team of Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart; plus sketches of Tom Constanten, Keith and Donna Godchaux, and other members of the Dead family.

The center of the memoir, of course, is Jerry Garcia, the musical genius who was the band's true soul. Living with the Dead captures his endless inventiveness, vision, and contrary humor - at the same time that it chronicles his harrowing descent into drug addiction. It's a revealing and powerful picture that could be drawn only by one who was with him, day and night, through decades.