(no audio) (VHS tape clicking) (attendees' murmuring) - [David] What's up, guys?

What do you think about the shows tonight?

- It's gonna rock and roll.

(upbeat music) (camera shutter clicking) (upbeat music continues) ♪ I can't stay much longer, Melinda ♪ ♪ The sun is getting high ♪ ♪ I can't help you with your troubles ♪ ♪ If you won't help with mine ♪ - My first concert was 1980.

I knew the music of the Grateful Dead, but I had never experienced the culture, the family basically of Deadheads.

(camera shutter clicks) When I went to that first show, I walked out of there thinking, "These people are great."

The more shows I would go to, the more I thought, "I really wanna document this.

I wanna have some sort of visual record."

♪ You keep me up just one more night ♪ - When I get this all set, I'm just gonna have you looking right at the camera.

You probably heard the same spiel 35 years ago.

(Paula and Pamela chuckling) Not too many people working this way anymore.

No movement.

Looking right at the lens.

One down.

I think it's important for people to see this culture, understand this culture, and it's a unique part of America.

There's thousands and thousands of photographs of the band, but nothing that concentrates definitely on Deadheads' faces and more of a intimate portrait of them.

(gentle music) (gentle music fades) Probably 1985, when I started making the first portraits.

A lot of them were done at Alpine Valley.

I'd take my van out, set up a portable studio, and start photographing people.

And I think over the course of probably four years, I maybe photographed about 150 people.

And I got information from them so I could send them all a print afterwards.

The idea about the book didn't come about until quite a few years later.

My wife Carmen, who's good with social media, was able to go to all these different Grateful Dead sites and post pictures and say, "Hey, do you know any of these people?"

And little by little, over the last 10 years, we've been finding people and rephotographing them.

This is Dion here and Dion there.

We're gonna see him next week down in Florida.

I think we're up to about 35 or 36 that we'll have photographs of after next week.

So, I mean, I feel like that's a pretty good body of photographs, but we still needed stories to go with the photographs.

Finally, last fall, I asked Carmen to send a message to David Gans.

He's like an official Deadhead.

He's been connected with the band and he wanted to be in on the project, which, to me, was like, "Okay, this is gonna be a book now."

- And the minute I heard what the content was and saw the images, I basically begged them to allow me to produce the text for it because it was just right up my alley.

I've been documenting this Grateful Dead thing for 50 years.

I've interviewed the band members zillions of times, and I said, "You gotta let me do this.

I wanna hear these people's stories and stick them on the page between the photos."

Everybody that I've talked to for this project, they have wisdom and sweetness in them, and, you know, they've led inspired lives through being parts of the Grateful Dead community.

(bright mellow music) (camera shutter clicking) - David came up with that title, "Aging Gratefully," which I think is really good, because it ties together the Grateful Dead, gratefully, and the fact that these people have aged.

The whole book will have all of the images that I did, so the whole 150.

And then, there will be the 35 or 36, whatever we come up with, of the before-and-after shots with the stories along with those photographs.

It's been fun reconnecting with people that I saw all those years ago.

(bright mellow music) - [Scottie] Who are we meeting today?

- [Bill] Today, we'll be meeting Paula and Pamela.

- Oh, 35 years.

You look the same.

- So do you!

(all laughing) So great to see you.

- Thank you for tracking us down.

- This is really fun.

- This is amazing.

- Yeah, thanks, so amazing.

- And I'm so glad the two of you decided to do this.

- Of course, we're like, "Uh, yeah."

(all laughing) - "Why not?

Why not?"

- I have not seen them since I photographed them.

But they live in Des Moines, not too far away.

They'll spend the day here.

We're gonna put them up for the night and have dinner with them and everything.

- [Paula] Let's just do this.

- [Bill] Do you remember the photo shoot from back then at all?

- I do.

In fact, I have it in a- - It's framed.

- A worn-out frame.

My daughter took it to college with her.

- Really?

- Yes.

So, of course, she shared it with all friends- - How cool is that?

- 'Cause she misses her mama.

And now it's come back home 'cause she's post-college, and so I still have it in my office bedroom upstairs.

- [Bill] Well, we can have a before and after to go with those now too.

- That's gonna be awesome.

- Oh, that would be beautiful.

Thank you, that was one of my most beautiful portraits ever, 'cause she's with me and it was on such a day.

I'm Pamela Ballard and I'm from Des Moines, Iowa, and this is my evil twin.

- Paula McArthur, also from Des Moines, Iowa.

- [Scottie] And you're actually identical twins?

- Identical.

- Absolutely.

- Can't you tell?

- Does it come across- - A little bit.

- A little bit?

- [Bill] A couple more, and then you can relax.

- [Scottie] What brings you to Wisconsin to meet Bill and Carmen today?

- [Paula] I think we're recreating history.

What, 35 years later?

- 35 years.

We were found again, which is amazing to think that somebody would look for us, and to to be found, and to talk about what it means to be growing older, and yet still have some magic inside of us.

(Pamela and Bill laughing) - Something's different.

- Something's different.

They're not quite as electric.

(gentle mellow music) - That was Alpine Valley.

- 1987.

- '87.

- Yeah.

- It was my first show.

Back in the college days, she was the Deadhead and I was the punk.

And, of course, what I love about the photo is I'm behind her.

So through the whole experience, she was just guiding me.

- We were so on fire.

That's something that young people have.

But luckily some of us grow up to be older people who still have that fire.

- [Bill] I want you both looking here at the lens.

Don't look at me.

- The reason I like being here today is to try to put that in words, and that's what I hope this book is gonna do.

It is life-changing, you know?

It taught me how to grow up, how to be a good person, you know, how to believe in things, yeah.

- It just kind of makes me think, "What's next?"

(laughs) You know?

That earlier photo, we had no idea we would be here today.

So now we have this new photo, "Where are we gonna be?"

- You'll get some invitation in another decade.

- Yeah.

Where is this one gonna take us?

- When you got into Grateful Dead music, you were signing onto an ongoing relationship with this music and with those people.

(bright mellow music) All these people are kind, inspired, accomplished people who've done something interesting with their lives, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that the Grateful Dead inspired all of us to maximize our delight on this planet.

And I think we all now agree that it is something of a family album and a document of the culture.

- I think of them as a community, as a family, all tied together through the band.

I want people to see something through the eyes of the person did a portrait of.

♪ Rolling in the rushes down by the riverside ♪ ♪ She's got everything delightful ♪ ♪ She's got everything I need ♪ (no audio)