The band was named after the 1939 International Harvester psychedelic multicolored bus used by novelist Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters to tour America in 1964 when they attended the New York World's Fair for the debut of Kesey's second novel, "Sometimes A Great Notion". "Furthur" was the inscription on the destination placard of the bus and was also the name given to the multicolored bus. "In many ways, the 'Furthur' destination of the bus—piloted by Neal Cassady, inspiration for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's "On the Road"—represented the mind-set of the transition from Beat Generation culture to the more heavily drug-infused hippie culture and the LSD-based psychedelic culture, with Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, the Merry Pranksters, and the Grateful Dead—all alumni of the Acid Tests—as ambassadors and guides on that cognitive and conceptual journey". The Grateful Dead performed as the house band for many of the Acid Tests, which ran from 1965 to 1966.