hemophilia? >> yes. >> o'donnell: they're all diseases that can be identified by advanced genetic screenings. >> huntington's disease? >> yes. >> breast cancer? >> we do it regularly. >> o'donnell: but as you'll hear tonight, genetic science has moved further into the future. this woman believes the technology she used will stop the disease from stalking her family. you have said, the breast cancer stops with me. >> yes. it's not just my children, it's my children and their children and my great grandchildren forever and all time. ♪ i am a one-way runaway >> cooper: the foo fighters may be america's best rock 'n' roll band, but that's not the only reason they're on "60 minutes" tonight. they're also in the midst of one of the most interesting music projects we've ever seen. ♪ you know i'm not in the clear ♪ >> cooper: dave grohl, the band's leader, invited us to watch as they traveled to eight american cities, interviewed some of the most influential musicians to record all that's great about american music. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm bill whittaker. >> i'm norah o'donnell. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." there are treatment options. ask your doctor if once-a-day latuda, lurasidone hcl, may help you. in clinical studies, latuda has been shown to be effective for many people struggling with bipolar depression. latuda is not for everyone. call your doctor about unusual mood changes, behaviors, or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. elderly dementia patients on latuda have an increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about fever, stiff muscles and confusion, as these may be signs of a life-threatening reaction or if you have uncontrollable muscle movements, as these may be permanent. high blood sugar has been seen with latuda and medicines like it, and in extreme cases can lead to coma or death. other risks include decreased white blood cells, which can be fatal, dizziness on standing, seizures, increased cholesterol, weight, or prolactin, trouble swallowing, and impaired judgment. avoid grapefruit and grapefruit juice. use caution before driving or operating machinery. there are paths to treat bipolar depression. ask your doctor if once-a-day latuda for bipolar depression is right for you. for savings options, visit latuda.com. >> pelley: you've heard a lot about the dallas hospital that treated thomas eric duncan, the first ebola patient diagnosed in america. but you've never heard what actually happened from the people who fought for his life at the risk of their own. you're about to meet four nurses who treated duncan from the time he came into the emergency room to the moment that he died. the staff had been blindsided by a biomedical emergency that burst into their e.r. like a wildfire. contrary to reports that the hospital bungled the response, the story the nurses tell sounds more like a heroic effort to stop an outbreak. on september 28, duncan was rushed by ambulance to texas health presbyterian hospital. he was isolated in a separate section of the e.r., and nurse sidia rose, starting the night shift, was briefed on the special precautions required for what they now suspected was a case of ebola. >> sidia rose: i went over and met with a nurse who gave me report. she also went over the protective wear that we would be wearing that night. she gave... you know, finished briefing me on what was going to happen, and i literally burst out in tears. >> pelley: why? >> rose: it's very scary. i know about ebola, and the only reason i do, it's because i've been just researching it on my own. since january, i kept hearing the word popping up in the news, and i just wanted to find out about it. >> richard townsend: when our supervisor said that we had a potential ebola case, i don't want to call it calamitous but there was a lot of concern. people became very vocal, understandably. it's the boogie man virus. >> pelley: emergency room nurses richard townsend and krista schaefer made sure that rose was suited up properly. as per the hospital's protocol, she worked with duncan alone, with townsend watching over her. when you went to approach mr. duncan for the first time, what did you do? how did you prepare for that? >> rose: i gathered myself together. i put on my protective wear, and i went in and introduced myself to him and, you know, just let him know that i would be the nurse helping him tonight. >> pelley: what were you telling yourself? >> rose: i was very frightened. i was. but and i just dried my tears, rolled down my sleeves, so to speak, and went on about my night. >> pelley: but why do you go in there? why don't you say, "you know, this one's not for me"? >> rose: as a nurse, i understand the risk that i take every day i come to work, and he's no different than any other patient that i've provided care for. so, i wasn't going to say, "no, i'm not going to care for him." >> pelley: but you were risking your life to take care of this patient. >> rose: oh, i know that. and that's why i... as frightened as i was, i didn't allow fear to paralyze me. i got myself together. i'd done what i needed to get myself prepared mentally, emotionally, and physically, and went in there and did what i was supposed to. >> pelley: though duncan's test results wouldn't be known for two days, she was certain she was witnessing ebola. >> rose: the first time when i went in and he vomited, i was standing in front of him, he was sitting on the commode, and there was just so much, it went over the bag, it was on the walls, on the floors. i had two pairs of gloves on and shoe covers. and i had my face shield on. i didn't have two masks on at the time, i had just one. no, we didn't have any head covers. but i wiped down the walls, wiped down the floor with some bleach wipes. >> townsend: he was having so much diarrhea and vomiting that he... you know, she was constantly having to give him the little bags that we have for... for people to vomit into. all of that was hazardous waste, and it had to be bagged and then double-bagged, and then put into a separate container that could then be disposed of later. because anything that has any of his bodily fluids on it has the potential to... to be lethal to somebody else. >> pelley: eric duncan was 42 years old, from liberia, which is ground zero for this outbreak. half of all the cases in the world are in liberia. he flew to dallas to visit family, became sick a few days later, and then made his first visit to the dallas hospital. it was the night of september 25 when duncan first came into this emergency room. according to the hospital records, he had a temperature of 100.1. over the course of the four hours or so that he was here, his temperature spiked to 103, but then it dropped back down-- again, according to the hospital records. he told the staff that he had come from africa, but did not specify west africa or liberia. about 3:00 in the morning, with his symptoms not very severe, the staff decided to send him home with antibiotics. but three days later, he was back in the e.r., gravely ill and about as contagious as he would ever be. the virus is not transmitted though the air, but physical contact with a single viral particle can cause infection. the hospital notified state health authorities immediately, and they wanted sidia rose to ask several urgent questions of duncan. >> rose: i explained to him, "we are under the impression that you may have been exposed to ebola. and i said, "where are you from?" and he told me liberia. and i asked, "have you been in contact with anyone who's been sick?" >> pelley: he said? >> rose: no. he said no. >> pelley: state and federal health officials wanted to know if duncan had been with anyone who had died in liberia. >> rose: and that's when he said to me his family had suffered a loss, that he had buried his daughter who had died in childbirth. >> pelley: but nurse rose says duncan told her it wasn't ebola that killed his daughter. rose told us that she reported this to the texas department of health, but then duncan denied his own story when he spoke to those officials. what information was it that he denied to the health officials? >> rose: about his travels, about his... him burying his pregnant daughter who had died in childbirth. he denied that. he said that's not true. >> pelley: so he wasn't honest with them. >> rose: yeah. >> pelley: this is nurse richard townsend, who dressed in the protective gear that was recommended by the c.d.c. at the time, just as sidia rose did. was any of your skin exposed? >> rose: at that time, it was just a gown that i was wearing, so yeah-- not my hands, not my legs, my face. i had my face shield on, the mask with the face shield. >> pelley: so your neck was exposed? >> rose: yes. >> pelley: so the c.d.c. protocols that you would've looked up the day he came into the emergency department were, in your estimation, deficient? >> yes. >> pelley: on september 29, duncan was carried from the emergency department to intensive care. nurse nina pham, who was involved in the transfer, would become the first person to catch the virus in the united states. it took 48 hours to get duncan's positive test results. and by then, the hospital, on its own, had equipped the staff with suits that allowed no skin to be exposed. it would be another three weeks before the c.d.c. made this its new standard. then, the hospital moved out all of the patients in medical intensive care and reconfigured the 24-bed unit for just one patient. it was a strange scene for icu nurse john mulligan. >> john mulligan: by the time i came in, they had already received the tyveks, the papers, so we had the full hazmat gear that people are used to seeing. >> pelley: is this the full suit? >> mulligan: this is the full suit, yes. there were always two of us in the room at all times, and we were designated two people to be in there. i've been in health care for nearly 20 years, and i've never emptied as much trash as just from the waste of his constant diarrhea that he was having was remarkable. and we had these longer surgical type gloves on. they were taped to the tyvek suit, full headgear with a circulator with a hepa filter that would plug into the back. and the first time i got out of that suit, it literally looked like someone had pushed me into a swimming pool. i was drenched. >> pelley: they were working 16- to 18-hour days, spending two hours at a time in duncan's room. >> mulligan: and we held his hand and talked to him and comforted him, because his family couldn't be there. >> pelley: you held his hand through the spacesuit? >> mulligan: i did. he was glad someone wasn't afraid to take care of him, and we weren't. >> townsend: i have nothing but respect and admiration for everyone that was involved in his... in his care, you know. everyone has someone in their lives that they love and they care about. i have a five-year-old and a three-year-old, and my wife is pregnant. and the mortality rate for pregnant women with ebola is... it's essentially 100%. >> pelley: but richard, why don't you go to the administration and say, "you know, i'm sorry, but my wife is pregnant." >> townsend: people were allowed to request not to be tasked with his care. >> krista schaefer: we asked for volunteers. everyone volunteered. >> pelley: everyone was a volunteer, everyone that was there wanted to be there? >> schaefer: every person-- housekeeping, respiratory, physicians, nurses. >> pelley: but despite all the volunteers, duncan grew worse. an experimental drug wasn't helping. >> mulligan: early saturday morning, he had become very critically ill and was placed on a respirator. >> pelley: he was intubated... >> mulligan: he was intubated. >> pelley: ...tube down his throat? >> mulligan: tube down his throat. he had a dialysis catheter placed, because his... he was not making any urine, but he needed to. he was heavily sedated and he had tears running down his eyes, rolling down his face, not just normal watering from a sedated person. they... this was in the form of tears. and i grabbed a tissue and i wiped his eyes and i said, "you're going to be okay. you just get the rest that you need. let us do the rest for you." and it wasn't 15 minutes later, i couldn't find a pulse. and i lost him. and it was the worst day of my life. this man that we cared for, that fought just as hard with us, lost his fight. and his family couldn't be there. and we were the last three people to see him alive. and i was the last one to leave the room. and i held him in my arms. he was alone. >> pelley: sidia, you spent perhaps the most time talking with mr. duncan, and i wonder what you think people should know about him. >> rose: he was very kind and very appreciative. even something as simple as me just giving him a cold washcloth to cool his face down, because his fever wasn't breaking-- even that he was grateful for. he told me thanks. >> pelley: within days of duncan's death, nurse nina pham was admitted to the hospital with ebola. when nina became sick, that must've sent a lightning bolt through the staff because, now, it's one of you. >> mulligan: i thought someone was playing a cruel joke until i finally looked at my phone, and saw the missed text messages and the voicemails and turned the news on and went, "oh my goodness." >> pelley: then four days later, nurse amber vinson fell ill. both nurses have since recovered. this is nina pham leaving a hospital on friday. but many on the staff still wonder whether they could be next. are any of you, all of you, still self-monitoring for signs of infection? >> rose: i am. >> pelley: you are? you're still within the 21-day window? >> rose: for mr. duncan, i'm passed my 21-day period. but for nina pham, i'm still being monitored. i've been asymptomatic. my temperature has been rock solid. >> pelley: those who contract the virus are not infectious until they actually become sick. members of the medical staff must take their temperature now twice a day and show the reading to a state health official. but, in at least one other way, the effect of fighting this virus could linger. >> mulligan: i would have nightmares, and still do, of my co-workers being infected and not being able to get to a hospital and treatment and dying. and so its like any traumatic event-- this too shall pass; it's just going to take a little time. >> subs must be wach update sponsored by: >> good evening, 13 euro zone banks have failed their latest stress test. parties favoring closer economic ties to the west have claimed victory in ukraine's election. and 772 americans gave up their citizenship last quarter to avoid tougher international tax rules. i'm jeff glor, cbs news. 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>> mark hughes: no, but that's the fun of science, it's constantly surprising you. wow, look at that! >> o'donnell: dr. mark hughes is one of the scientists leading the way in a rapidly growing field known as reproductive genetics. he pioneered a technique called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or p.g.d... >> hughes: this one's got a minus-two. >> o'donnell: ...an embryo screening procedure that can identify deadly gene mutations and alter a child's genetic destiny. >> hughes: we all throw genetic dice when we have children, but when you know the dice are loaded and that there's a really reasonable chance that your baby will have an incurable, dreadful condition, you're looking for an alternative. >> o'donnell: dr. hughes helped develop p.g.d. two decades ago to screen embryos for one disease, cystic fibrosis. today, because of advances in the mapping of the human genome, he says it can be used to root out virtually any disease caused by a single defective gene. let me do a rapid fire yes or no. can you use p.g.d. for tay- sachs? >> hughes: yes. o'donnell: muscular dystrophy? >> hughes: yes. o'donnell: sickle cell anemia? >> hughes: yes. o'donnell: hemophilia? >> hughes: yes. o'donnell: huntington's disease? >> hughes: it's one of the most common disorders we test for, yes. o'donnell: alzheimer's disease? >> hughes: if it's a mutation in a particular gene that causes early onset, we can test for it, yes. >> o'donnell: so you can test for alzheimer's. >> hughes: this is a small subset of a particular kind of alzheimer's that attacks very early in life. o'donnell: colon cancer? >> hughes: if we know which of the colon cancer genes, yes. o'donnell: breast cancer? >> hughes: we do it regularly. >> o'donnell: dr. hughes' lab is one of a handful in the country that provides this genetic testing, which is why 3,000 couples turn to him each year, among them, matt and melinda, who asked that we not use their last name. if they hadn't done the embryo screening procedure, their four- year-old son mason and his baby sister marian might very well have been born with a genetic mutation that increases the risk of breast, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic cancer. it wasn't until melinda herself was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer seven years ago that she found out she carried that gene mutation known as brca1. did you know what brca1 was? >> melinda: not a clue. >> o'donnell: but as it turned out, it had haunted her family for generations. at age 29, facing chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, melinda was afraid that if she had children one day, they would also be cursed with that potentially deadly mutation. what did doctors tell you about the risk of passing on this brca mutation? >> melinda: 50%, so flip a coin. >> o'donnell: and i bet that weighed on you even heavier. >> melinda: yes. it's a lifetime of having to worry about it, and i just didn't... i didn't want my kids to have to do that. >> o'donnell: the best way to ensure that was to do embryo screening for the brca1 gene mutation, which dr. hughes says is among the fastest-growing parts of his business. >> hughes: this takes the risk... for example, in breast cancer, it takes the risk if you have this mutation from 50/50 of passing it to the next generation down to less than 1%. >> o'donnell: but the screening isn't easy. all couples, even fertile ones, must first go through in-vitro fertilization, the process in which a man's sperm is injected into a woman's eggs under a microscope to create embryos. then, five days later, a tiny tube just one 20th the diameter of a human hair is used to extract from each embryo one single cell to be genetically tested for disease. it's just one cell? >> hughes: yes. >> o'donnell: you can tell that much from one cell? >> hughes: you can tell an awful lot in one cell. >> o'donnell: that cell is packed up at fertility clinics across the country and shipped overnight in ordinary-looking boxes like these to screening labs. we followed the process at dr. hughes' lab, called genesis genetics, just outside detroit, where a team of scientists took over. so what do you do with that one cell when it arrives here? >> hughes: well, we're busy. we have to break the cell open. they have to pull out this enormous encyclopedia of genetic information. >> o'donnell: he's talking about the cell's dna, our genetic code that scientists represent with four letters-- a, c, t and g. for a gene to work properly, the letters have to be strung together in the right order. if they're not, that could spell trouble. it's dr. hughes job to find the mutation, or "typo," in a gene that could cause disease. >> hughes: so you have to find that typo in, effectively, six billion letters. >> o'donnell: a typo in six billion letters? >> hughes: yeah. >> o'donnell: so how do you do that? >> hughes: technology is amazing. >> o'donnell: dr. hughes used the technology to screen matt and melinda's embryos in 2010, ruling out the ones that carried the brca1 mutation, which would have given their children a reasonable chance of getting breast or other cancers. about how many of them tested positive for the brca1 gene? >> hughes: about half and, indeed, if you look at her embryos, here is an affected, an affected, an affected, an affected-- that's four. it's about half. it is just what you'd expect. it's just what you'd expect in nature. >> o'donnell: but with the powerful intervention of science, embryos that carry a harmful mutation are often discarded, which is one reason the decision to go ahead with the screening was a difficult one for matt and melinda. >> melinda: we prayed a lot about it. it's a hard decision to make. >> o'donnell: what did you struggle with? >> melinda: was it right? was it the right thing to do? is that... is it playing god? is it ethical? and the more we learned about it and got comfortable with the idea, it was like, "yes, absolutely." >> o'donnell: you have said, "the breast cancerstops with me"? >> melinda: yes. it's not just my children-- it's their children and my grandchildren and great grandchildren, forever and for all time, in my bloodline, yeah. >> o'donnell: the entire process cost them around $16,000, a small price to pay, melinda says, for her children's health. >> anne morriss: oh, let's try that one again. >> o'donnell: but anne morriss didn't get to change the odds for her child. by the time she learned she carried a dangerous mutation, she had already passed it on to her son, who's now seven. at birth, alec seemed the picture of health, but then came an unexpected call from a doctor. >> morriss: he started by saying, "can you please go check and make sure that your child is still alive, and then come back and we can continue this discussion." >> o'donnell: so a doctor calls you and says, "i need to tell you something but can you go check that your son is still alive." >> morriss: that's how the conversation started. >> o'donnell: what was your reaction? >> morriss: you know, your... your heart just falls out of you. >> o'donnell: a newborn screening test revealed alec had a rare and sometimes fatal metabolic disorder called m-cad deficiency. he had to be fed every few hours just to stay alive. >> morriss: let's see what you got, buddy. >> o'donnell: unlike breast cancer, m-cad deficiency is a recessive disorder, meaning a child must inherit a copy of the faulty gene from both parents. anne morriss had used an anonymous sperm donor to conceive, but in an incredible case of bad luck, he just happened to carry the same mutation she did. >> morriss: every human being walking the planet is a carrier for a rare disease. but what matters is who we choose to partner with reproductively. like, that's where the risk shows up. >> o'donnell: now, she wants to reduce the risk of a bad genetic match for others well before they start the reproductive process. she just started a company called genepeeks with lee silver, a princeton university professor who's also a molecular biologist, though his latest idea doesn't take place in a lab. it's entirely virtual. >> lee silver: we are creating digital babies. >> o'donnell: digital babies? >> silver: yes. >> o'donnell: so you're simulating the process of reproduction, but on a computer. >> silver: exactly. >> o'donnell: silver says all it takes is a saliva sample to obtain dna. he then combines the genetic information from both prospective parents in a computer to make a thousand digital babies. this is a digital baby. >> silver: this is a digital baby. >> o'donnell: it contains virtual dna, which, like real dna, is represented by those same four letters-- a, c, t and g. >> silver: this baby has a mutation. >> o'donnell: he says that by analyzing the dna in all those digital babies, he is able to calculate the risk of two people conceiving a child with any one of 500 severe recessive pediatric disorders. now, genepeeks is available for $2,000 to clients using sperm banks and egg donors to conceive, though its founders say the goal is to expand it to all couples who want to have a baby. you think everyone who's going to have a baby should go and have a digital baby first? >> silver: i see a future in which people will not use sex to reproduce. that's a very dangerous thing to do. >> o'donnell: that may sound far-fetched, but the way lee silver sees it, there will come a time when couples will no longer want to conceive naturally because it's too risky. >> silver: it's safer to have a baby with this pre-knowledge, this genetic information that might help them avoid disease. but with the promise of this technology also comes the fear that some parents would want to use it to select genetic traits in their children that have nothing to do with disease, a debate lee silver himself stoked when he wrote the patent for genepeeks. we read your patent and it says your technology could be used to assess whether a child could have other traits like eye color hair color, social intelligence, even whether a child will have a widow's peak? if your company is so focused on preventing disease, why would you include those traits? >> silver: the purpose of the list of traits is simply to demonstrate that our technology can be used to study anything that's genetically influenced. that doesn't mean we're going to actually do that. >> o'donnell: okay, but you're running a company? that could be big business? >> silver: we are the... the ones who invented this technology, and we're going to use it to study pediatric disease. at the moment, we will... we will make sure the technology is used only for that purpose. >> o'donnell: and at the moment, you'll have to take his word for it because there are no real rules in this country limiting what this kind of technology can be used to screen for, leaving those decisions up to scientists like lee silver and mark hughes. so, we should trust you to set the boundaries? >> hughes: if i'm setting a boundary, saying, "i'm not willing to do that," that's no different from any other field of medicine, so sure. >> o'donnell: but do you wrestle with this, at all? i mean, who is the gatekeeper? >> hughes: that's the question. should it be some group sitting around a mahogany table, or should it be all left up to the patient. if it would get to the point where it was like cosmetic surgery, that would be downright awful. but i'd think those are all straw men arguments, and people asked me these very questions that you're asking me right now, 25 years ago. and it hasn't happened. that's in part because researchers still only fully understand traits and diseases caused by a single flawed gene. there's a lot left to learn about the interaction of multiple genes. but when that happens, mark hughes and lee silver believe their technologies will be able to screen for a host of genetically complex dseases that they say could include schizophrenia, and some types of diabetes and heart disease. >> silver: i think it's going to be used by society in the 21st century, just like we used antibiotics and other advances in the 20th century to drastically reduce the risk of infectious disease. we're going to be able to drastically reduce the risk of genetic disease. >> o'donnell: you're comparing this ability with reproductive genetics to antibiotics and vaccinations? >> silver: i am. and in some ways, this is more powerful. >> o'donnell: earlier this month, because of how quickly the industry is growing, the fda proposed guidelines to review certain genetic testing to ensure the technology used in the diagnosis of serious diseases is accurate and safe. >> welcome to the cbs sports update presented by pacific life. i'm james brown with scores from around the n.f.l. detroit scores 22 unanswered to beat atlanta in london. seattle snaps a two-game skid with a late come yam win over atlanta. cincy regains the top spot in the a.f.c. north. big ben's team record six touches sinks indy. the bills score six turnovers to ground the jets. tom brady throws for five touchdowns in the pats' win. for more sports news and information, go to cbssports.com. it on the long journey to their feeding grounds. one of the most important things you can do is help the next generation. at pacific life, we offer financial solutions to accomplish just that. ask a financial advisor about pacific life. the power to help you succeed. campbell's® fiesta chicken sausage and pepper rigatoni. southwest style bean & barley. tuscany style chicken and pasta. if you think campbell's® 33 new soups sound good... imagine how they taste! m'm m'm good!® [cat thinking] yyou smell... nothing. 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(vo) theraflu. serious power. which is why we prepare them fresh, in store. we're all about finding unique veggies. making your sandwich a one of a kind creation. so come on in and get your veggie on. subway. eat fresh. >> cooper: foo fighters is one of the last great american rock bands that consistently sells millions of albums and fills stadiums around the world. the band was created 20 years ago by its lead singer and guitarist, dave grohl, but it's his latest project that really got our attention. the band has made a multi-part documentary and recorded a new album called "sonic highways." it's a mix of music history, journalism, songwriting, and old-fashioned rock and roll. it's unlike anything any rock band has ever attempted, and a reflection of everything dave grohl loves about making music. ♪ ♪ foo fighters sound is raw, real rock and roll-- no tricks, no gimmicks. ♪ ♪ this was one of two sold-out shows they played to 165,000 fans in london's wembley stadium in 2008, but dave grohl insists money has never been his motivation. >> dave grohl: the reward of playing music should be playing music. >> cooper: but isn't that easy to say for someone who's, you know, incredibly successful? >> grohl: it's really easy to say, but that's the way i felt before any of this happened. i was do... i wasn't doing it so that this would happen; i was doing it because i loved it. >> cooper: and you still love to play? >> grohl: oh, dude, yeah. ( laughs ) a lot. ♪ ♪ >> cooper: that love of playing is what grohl believes should always be at the heart of music. >> grohl: don't worry about what everyone else thinks. don't let someone say, like, "sorry, you didn't win the song contest. go home." >> cooper: but on "american idol," the judges will say, "well, look, are you doing somebody a favor by telling them, 'keep going' at something they're not good at?" >> grohl: who's to say what they're... who's good or not? imagine bob dylan standing there and singing "blowing in the wind" in front of those judges. "sorry, it's a little nasally and a little flat. next." >> cooper: how would you do in "american idol"? >> grohl: oh, i... i would never make it, ever, in a heartbeat. people need to appreciate their voice. i don't want to sing like someone else. i want to sing like me. ♪ ♪ >> cooper: grohl was singing his heart out when we met up with foo fighters in may in new orleans. they'd taken over preservation hall, a legendary jazz performance space in the french quarter. on a saturday night, the windows were opened up for the first time in more than 50 years so the band could play a surprise show for hundreds of stunned passersby. the concert was being shot for an eight-part hbo documentary about the history of modern american music that dave grohl is directing. each episode focuses on the unique musical heritage of one city. to help him learn that histor, grohl interviewed local musicians everywhere the band went, among them troy andrews, better known as "trombone shorty." >> grohl: where you from? >> trombone shorty: from new orleans, from here, treme neighborhood. >> grohl: when i interview these people, i get them to explain not only the history of the city, but the influence that that has on the music that comes from here. there's a reason why chicago blues sounds like chicago blues. and there's a reason why jazz music is here, in new orleans. >> cooper: and the reason is... is the history of how that music was formed. >> grohl: it could be anything. in seattle, it rains all the time, so people stay in their basements and write songs. >> cooper: grohl approached the project as a both a musician and a historian, and says he was often surprised about what he learned. >> grohl: well, everybody knows nashville as the country music capital of the world. but then i start to realize, "wait a minute, all of these... the foundation of a lot of these musicians is in the church." whether it's dolly parton or carrie underwood or... like, they started in the church. i never knew that. >> cooper: it seems like the subtext is, the roots of music matter... >> grohl: oh, yeah. >> cooper: ...and are important for people to know. >> grohl: i feel like i have the opportunity and the resource to give this to everyone. i can do it, so why wouldn't i do it? this is trombone shorty down here. >> cooper: what made the project so ambitious is that grohl wasn't just shooting a documentary; he was also using the interviews to come up with material for a new song he'd write in each of the eight cities foo fighters spent a week in. >> cooper: the way you're writing songs for this album is completely different than anything you've ever done. and, as far as i know, different than anyone's ever really done. >> grohl: these are all things that people have talked about- new orleans is a crossroad, the sprits on the square. cyril neville used to watch his family play music through, like, cracks on the door. he'd press his face against the screen. he'd go home with the imprint of the screen on his head. >> cooper: so these are all phrases you got out of interviewing various artists. >> grohl: yeah, words and phrases. ♪ ♪ >> cooper: grohl had just written the song an hour earlier. it won't be released until next month, but he invited us to watch him record it. it's called "in the clear" and references the lingering effects of hurricane katrina and the history of jazz. none of the foo fighters knew much about jazz before coming to new orleans, but that was the whole reason to make the trip. on their last day in town, grohl and the band joined a large crowd on st. charles avenue to take part in a local sunday tradition, a musical jazz parade known as a "second line." >> grohl: this is one of the best things about music, you know-- this is real, and it's right now and it's happening. the musical history of this country is deep, you know? and there's so much of it that i honestly feel like, if music were more a part of our daily lives, this country would be a better place. ♪ ♪ >> cooper: a few months later, grohl was back in los angeles along with bassist nate mendel, drummer taylor hawkins, and guitarists pat smear and chris shiflett in studio 606, a recording facility they built. they showed us some of their new documentary series, and told us how learning about the history of american music has changed the way they listen to it. >> chris shiflett: it's just such a big soup, american music, you know, it's all connected. it's not like what we do is drastically different from what a country band would do, or even maybe a new orleans jazz band. it's all pretty similar. >> cooper: that's interesting. >> shiflett: it's interconnected. >> cooper: the first episode is about the history of punk rock and the blues in chicago. >> grohl: this is a good example of a moment in an interview that made its way into one of our songs. the interview was with buddy guy, a guitarist and singer who took a train north from louisiana in 1957 and became a blues legend. >> buddy guy: oh, i'll put it like this-- i was looking for a dime and i found a quarter. >> grohl: man, when that came out of his mouth, when he said that, i just thought "i have to tell his story in this song." >> cooper: and that is what grohl has done. the song he wrote in chicago is called "something from nothing." chicago isn't just important to american music, it's played a crucial role in dave grohl's own history. he grew up in virginia, and when he was 13, on a family trip to chicago, a cousin took him to his first concert, a local punk rock band called naked raygun. that night changed grohl's life. >> grohl: my belly was up against the stage and the singer was diving on my head. and it was so loud, my teeth itched, you know. ( laughs ) >> cooper: your teeth itched? >> grohl: there was spit and sweat, and that night, i just thought, "i can do this." >> cooper: grohl taught himself to play guitar and drums, and at 17, dropped out of high school to go on tour with a punk band. by 21, he was broke in los angeles with no way to get home. that's when he got a call about joining a seattle band called nirvana. ♪ ♪ nirvana's first album with grohl as drummer knocked michael jackson off the top of the charts and changed pop music forever. but less than three years later, nirvana's lead singer and songwriter kurt cobain killed himself after struggling with drug addiction. >> grohl: losing kurt was just earth shattering, and i was afraid of music after he died. >> cooper: you couldn't even listen to music? >> grohl: no, man. i swear, if i... if i heard a song that even touched on an emotion in me, i would turn it off. i was just so terrified. because, to me, that's what music always was. it was a direct connection to my heart. >> cooper: it took him several months, but grohl did start playing again, and went into a studio to record some of his own songs. he had no band, so he sang and played all the instruments himself. >> grohl: i called it foo fighters because i didn't want people... i didn't want to put my name on it at first. i didn't want people to say, like, "oh, that's the guy from nirvana." >> cooper: how did you come up with the name foo fighters? do you like the name? >> grohl: had i imagined that it would last more than a month and a half, i might've named it something else. it's the dumbest band name ever. "foo fighters" was a slang term that they used for u.f.o.s in world war ii. >> cooper: now 45, grohl is not the drummer of foo fighters, but he is still considered one of the greatest of his generation. nirvana was recently inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame, and its likely, one day, foo fighters will be as well. grohl lives in los angeles with his wife and three young daughters. none of them seem to care their dad is a rock star, particularly when they just want to go swimming. he doesn't like to be away from home for more than two weeks at a time, but has begun a new tour and is already planning another album. >> grohl: this is all i do man, like... >> cooper: there's not other interests you have? this is it? >> grohl: all i do is shuttle kids around in a minivan, and then come down here and be in the foo fighters. that's it. and i'm not lying. that's true, man. >> cooper: foo fighters will be returning to each of the eight cities where they recorded "sonic highways," but grohl is looking forward to one city in particular. >> grohl: that week we had in new orleans totally changed my life. >> cooper: how so? >> grohl: it made me fall head over heels in love with music all over again. >> cooper: one of his favorite memories from that week in new orleans was when foo fighters gave the surprise show in the french quarter. after playing on their own, they were joined by the legendary preservation hall jazz band. ♪ ♪ trombone shorty showed up late and had to borrow an old horn, but the sound was pure new orleans. ♪ ♪ rock drummer taylor hawkins had help from jazz drummer joe lastie, jr., who comes from a long line of local musicians, and told us he always dreamed of being a rock star. his wish came true that night. grohl called it a musical gumbo, a beautiful blend of sounds and styles, a true celebration of what american music is all about. >> join anderson cooper inside dave grohl's home studio. go to 60minutesovertime.com. so they can help you track a lot of stuff. like today, i walked 3.8 miles. well, i ran 4.2 miles. well, i climbed 11 flights of stairs. well, i drank a smoothie that had 362 calories in it. well, i had a funnel cake that had 1230 calories in it. ♪ you know that's not good, right? it was good. it was delicious.♪ i was out for a bike ride. i didn't think i'd have a heart attack. but i did. i'm mike, and i'm very much alive. now my doctor recommends a bayer aspirin regimen to help prevent another heart attack. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. and cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use >> i'm scott pelley. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." tomorrow be sure to watch cbs "this morning," an i'll see you on the "cbs evening news." over 12,000 financial advisors. so, how are things? good, good. nearly $800 billion dollars in assets under care. let me just put this away. how did edward jones get so big? could you teach our kids that trick? by not acting that way. ok, last quarter... it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ captioning funded by cbs and ford captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org (car engine shuts off, doors opening and closing) (men chattering, footsteps running) (gunshots) (people screaming) (automatic gunfire) (dialing phone) (line ringing) (speaking igbo) in conclusion, the challenges of the 21st century are indeed great. therefore, our determination to solve them together must be even greater. thank you. and now i'm going to barf,

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