Laurence Shurtliff (April 19, 1945 – May 17, 2006) (also spelled Lawrence Shurtliff and a.k.a., Ram Rod) was an American music executive and

roadie The road crew (or roadies) are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians. This ca ...

. He was President of Grateful Dead Productions, Inc., from 1976, the year that the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, country, jazz, bluegrass, blues, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, world music, ...

incorporated, until the death of guitarist

Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician best known for being the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead, which he co-founded and which came to prominence ...

in 1995. He also was the Grateful Dead's "head roadie" and equipment manager during and prior to those years, and began his first role with the band as tour truck driver in 1967. In 1972, Shurtliff co-produced Jerry Garcia's Warner Bros. Records solo album, titled simply '' Garcia'', along with Bob Matthews, Betty Cantor and

Bill Kreutzmann William Kreutzmann Jr. ( ; born May 7, 1946) is an American drummer and founding member of the rock band Grateful Dead. He played with the band for its entire thirty-year career, usually alongside fellow drummer Mickey Hart, and has continued to ...

.''Garcia'' at The Grateful Dead Family Discography
/ref> Shurtliff received his nickname "Ram Rod" from

Neal Cassady Neal Leon Cassady (February 8, 1926 – February 4, 1968) was a major figure of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic and counterculture movements of the 1960s. He was prominently featured as himself in the "scroll" (first d ...

of the

Merry Pranksters The Merry Pranksters were comrades and followers of American author Ken Kesey in 1964. Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters lived communally at Kesey's homes in California and Oregon, and are noted for the sociological significance of a lengthy roa ...

, while traveling through Mexico with author

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in ...

. "I am Ramon Rodriguez Rodriguez, the famous Mexican guide," he had boasted, and after he successfully "ramrodded" seven adults into a Volkswagen Bug, Cassady bestowed the nickname upon him. An auction of Shurtliff's collection of Grateful Dead memorabilia by Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers in San Francisco on May 8, 2007, netted more than $1.1 million. The collection included several guitars that had been owned by Garcia, including a cream-colored Travis Bean electric guitar that sold for $312,000.

References

1945 births 2006 deaths People from Petaluma, California Grateful Dead {{US-music-bio-stub