glue is here. >> so unfortunately we're not going to be able to hear much more of the president. but to hear the president of the united states, go to cnn.com/live and hear what he has to say. thanks for watching. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. "outfront" next, the obama administration opens its arms to thousands of people who came to this country illegally. and now it's being offered to them, your protected from deportation. it's a good promise but could it do more harm than good. and a last-minute change in an important state over controversial voter id laws. and facebook could be losing a lot of fans tomorrow. and this could come at a really steep price tomorrow. let's take you "outfront."

good evening. i'm ashleigh banfield in for erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, let's start this way, double-edged sword, for all those people coming out of the shadows, today people who came to this country illegally were lining up by the thousands. you can see the crowds for yourself. this is l.a. but it's a scene that was repeated in consulates and centers across this country. these people came forward because they want passports and they want other records that are needed to apply for the president's policy that allows them to apply for a two-year deferral of deportation. the pew hispanic center estimates that 1.7 million immigrants may qualify for this. the requirements include this -- they're under the age of 31 as of june 15th and they have to have $465, too, because that's what the application costs. if they're accepted, they now have a chance to work legally here in the united states. sounds great, doesn't it? but these young men and women

are taking a big leap of faith, too, because the order is not a law. it's an executive action or a policy. have you heard of that? the president put this in place and it can be reversed at any time. and the department of homeland security spokesman tells "outfront" this, quote, as with any policy, it is subject to change by a future administration. did you hear there's an election coming in about 90 days or sor? and we don't know what mitt romney would do with this provision should he be the one that wins the election. >> some people have asked if i will let stand the president's executive order. the answer is that i will put in place my own long-term solution that will replace and super cede the president's temporary measure. >> we don't know what that long-term solution is in terms of the specifics but we know romney's stance when it comes to obama's larger vision for immigration and specifically the dream act.

that would allow immigrants to seek citizenship if they attended college or if they served in the u.s. military. >> and i've indicated i would veto the dream act if provisions included in that act say that people who are here illegally, if they go to school here long enough, get a degree here, that they can become permanent residents, i think that's a mistake. >> certainly a potential risk for these young men and women handing in line today. they hand all their personal information to the government. information like your name, your address, your phone number, where you entered this country. information that could be used against them at some point down the road. according to the department of homeland security, the information may be shared with national security and law enforcement agencies including the immigration of customs and enforcement and it could go to customs and border protections and that information can be used for purposes other than removal.

so with all that, are these risks worth the benefits that are being promised by this new measure? "outfront" tonight, jose antonio vargas is a journalist and undocumented worker. he publicly revealed his status in a "new york times" magazine article. and while he doesn't look like he's too old, he is four months too old to apply for this deferred action. and david leopold is an immigration attorney and also former president of the american immigration lawyers association. and he's been advising people on the risks of applying for deferred action, which is this policy today. david, let me begin with you. risky, yes. but what other option is there and is this risk really such a terrible risk to take? >> well, you know, ashleigh, for the average person who's undocumented, the benefits here far outweigh the risks.

this is a process. as you pointed out, it's a temporary process. but it's going to allow promising youth, people who have gone to school, are going to school, people who are served in the army, people who have abided by the law, done everything right and most of these young people didn't come here on their own volition. they're here through no fault of their own and they're living in a terrible immigration limbo. what president obama has done is really created enforcement priorities and he's said, look, i'm going after the hardened criminals. i'm going to go after the terrorists. and i am going to give a reprieve to promising students and veterans who have done the right thing, abided by the law. and now congress, it's going to be up to congress to fix the law. congress has sat on its hands for years and needs to fix the law. >> i've been thinking this through all day today. and when i think of reprieve, i

think that you don't have to look over your shoulder anymore. this is two years. are these people registering for uncertain fate in two years? >> well, nothing in life is certain. and of course this is, as you pointed out at the top of the show, this is a process and a process that's temporary. and the president has said that really it's a stopgap measure. what it does and what hopefully will happen is that congress will roll up its sleeves, get to work and fix not only the dream act, pass the dream act so that these young people can have some permanency -- and these are fantastic people. i was lucky enough to spend the weekend with the leadership of united we dream in kentucky. these are some really outstanding kids. these are people that are going to really do our country proud. and now they have a chance to give back -- >> and let's not forget they were kids. they were just that, they were kids when they came here. jose, i know you're not a kid

now but you were then. and i keep wondering if ewe had the knock on the door and every time you answer, not yet. but now you have this -- you would have had this option, were you four months younger. would you be taking it if you could? >> yes. >> really? >> oh, absolutely, absolutely. look, i'm actually in chicago. and i was here today -- there was about 13,000 young people that lined up today here in chicago to apply and to get information about this reprieve. and you're talking to people -- it was really interesting listening and watching people carrying their high school diplomats with them, carrying their school transcripts with them, carrying any documentation that says -- everybody right now is trying to get the facts. the government just issued this online yesterday. everybody's still trying to figure out what are the applications, what does it mean? the cost. how am i going to pay for that? for a lot of people, $400 is a lot of money. there's been a fund that just got set up to defer those costs.

but we have a policy here that's going to be giving us more taxpayers, right? more people are going to be entering the workforce that's going to be providing tax revenue to our society. i think that's largely a very good thing. >> let me just -- >> i think that's a great point. most people don't realize, the congressional budget office itself has found that giving dream act eligible youth the chance to work is going to lower our deficit by $2.2 billion over the next ten years. if we pass immigration reform, we're looking at $1.7 trillion in gross domestic product over the next ten years. there's really no economic argument against immigration reform. it makes sense for america. it makes sense for american workers. it's going to raise all of our wages. >> well, it will be fascinating not only to see how it plays out with those who apply but also

two years from now whether this is a living policy and it changes. thank you to you both. appreciate that very much. still ahead, just in, two decisions on voter laws that could really change this election. yeah, it's going to come down to ohio like so many people say. or is it? and also mitt romney revealing new details after his plan to fix the economy. do his numbers add up? and also, a brother accuses a car insurance company of defending the man who killed his sister. but is he just going too far with that accusation? ♪ why not take a day to explore your own backyard?

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our second story "outfront," breaking news. after heavy criticism, ohio's secretary of state has just ordered that all 88 counties in that state have to abide by the same early voting rules. and to understand why this is such a big deal, there's a controversy and the map will help to explain it. before tonight's announcement, these four counties had been denied extended hours for early voting. they included the big stois of cleveland, akron, toledo and columbus. and they were all four city that is voted heavily for barack obama back in 2008. remember i said they didn't get the extended hours. but there were two counties that had been approved for the extended early voting four years ago. both of them went heavily for john mccain. you getting the idea here?

was this a coincidence or was it something more sinister as the democratics were charging on this one? john avlon, cnn contributor, and roland martin, all about to weigh in on this one. roland, let me start with you, i know this is really near and dear to your heart. this really just all happened in the last couple of hours. we're putting a lot of it together. i have a quick quote i want to read from the ohio secretary of state when he made this decree. today i am leveling the playing field on voting days and hours during the absentee voting period in each of the 88 counties. all ohio voters will have the same omt of time, 23 days or 230 hours, to vote in person prior to election day. wow. i wasn't expecting this to happen so quickly.

were you expecting this to happen? >> he had no choice because of the pressure being put on him. what happened was on the local boards, you typically had two drkt democrats and two republicans. when they tied it then went to the secretary of state to break the tie. he wouldn't do it. there was going to be a massive rally in hamilton county tomorrow to pressure him. he had to do it. but here's the deal, this is only one of the issues. you still have that law that only allows military folks to vote early -- three days before the election, which is also shameless, which should be overturned as well that the obama campaign has taken to federal court. >> i'm going to ask you about that in a moment. and when i come back to this topic, i'm going to brand it as souls to the polls, sunday services. i'll ask you about that in a moment. but i want to deal with this map. rahim, talk me off the ledge. why on earth wouldn't this be uniform in a state?

why wouldn't every state be federally mandated to have uniform laws? seems crazy. >> partly because of different counties have different fiscal positions. the important thing to understand the secretary of state of ohio is he is one of the leading republicans critical of photo voter id laws. he's been arguing with a lot of conservatives in ohio who actually want there to be photo voter id. and he's been saying, no, we don't need it, it's too strenuous, going to make it too difficult for a lot of folks to vote. the idea that he's actively interested in limiting people's access, doesn't sound right to me given me he's taken this position that's criticized by a lot of the republicans. >> you make an amazing point with that. i didn't know he took that point. >> it's been tough for him. the republicans have been very critical. >> what i found shocking about that is that it seems juxtaposed

with his position as the arbiter of the even vote. when they say, we're split evenly on whether we can have extended voting hours, guess who gets to make the final cast vote? he does. >> he said today, i'm leveling the playing feed. that's to the extent that it's an admission that it was an unlevel playing field before. when you look at that map, it is hard to say that there wasn't politics behind some of those county disparities. the bottom line is we all should have a common interest in lowering barriers to vote and encouraging people to vote. this sort of thing, whether he was forced into it, he did the right thing. and i'll take that. he levelled the playing field. good for him. too bad it took this controversy. >> souls to the polls. coming back to you, role, for this. the other issue is this lawsuit that currently exists, same state. not leaving ohio right now. the obama administration is suing because that state has ended early voting. the friday before the election.

so obviously a lot of people know that saturday, sunday and monday before the election have been very important for a lot of people. they work. they need the weekend to vote. and church services for african-americans have souls to the polls. explain it and tell me why sunday is so critical. >> because it's the sunday right before the election. so you're telling people, let's get out to the polls. in 2008, an estimated 93,000 ohioans voted in that period. last year, the legislature changed the law and this onerous voter suppression bill changed the law. more than 300,000 folks in ohio signed signatures saying, it can't go into effect, it's not going on the ballot. the legislature said we'll throw out the whole bill except this provision. if you're in the military or veteran, you're the only people to vote. they try to make it sound as if the obama campaign doesn't want everybody in the military to vote early.

no democrat should defend this law because everybody should have the ability to vote early, not just if you're in the military. it was done precisely to target those people. >> so early is how many days? >> three days. >> hold on, there's 35 days i'm counting here. hold on. let me actually quote the secretary of state. he said, for the vast majority of voters, the early in-person voting period begins 35 days before the day of an election and ends at 6:00 p.m. the friday before the election. why do we need these three days if we have 35 days? >> why not? why not? >> it's expensive. >> 93,000 -- here's the deal. they allowed it in 2008. why all of a sudden the change? if 93,000 people voted on those three days last night, why all of a sudden change it this time? what was the rationale? >> i hear you. sounds fishy.

another big development, we have to talk pennsylvania. >> pennsylvania, big deal. we've been following the story out front. judge simpson in pennsylvania declared their controversial voter id law -- he upheld it, pushing back the challenge to the bill. this is significant for a couple of reasons. one of the things we learned is that the state's attorney general and governor said there were no known cases of in-person voter fraud in pennsylvania, which made a lot of folks say, what was the need for the law? in addition, you have the republican head of the state cle legislature say on camera, pennsylvania will vote for governor romney. the argue that this was about cutting down on fraud was challenged convincingly in this court case. nevertheless, the judge said there was no evidence that it would result in an indefinite

disenfranchisement. >> they said it would allow him to win, it wouldn't determine the outcome of the election. >> because of voter id, pennsylvania would vote for -- >> the important thing to know about judge simpson and his findings is that he determined after listening to expert witnesses that it would not be an undue burden to get access to absentee ballots -- >> but the expert -- one of those expert witnesses was the pennsylvania secretary of state who said, i don't know of any evidence of any kind of malfeasance. >> this is the document that they testified that there are no known cases of in-person voter fraud in pennsylvania. and the sk skt did testify that at least 750,000 pennsylvanias don't -- >> we'll have this conversation again. still "outfront," facebook unliked. there are a number of reasons why the site could be on the verge of losing a lot of fans and a lot of money, too. plus, a scandal in the military. a four-star general under

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investors are going to be keeping a close eye on facebook shares tomorrow because it is the end of the company's first lock-up period. if you don't know what lock-ups are, they're pretty common when a company goes public. they require early shareholders and the people on the inside to hold on to some of their stake for a particular period of time. and that prevents the market from being flooded with the company's stock. so tomorrow, if those people choose, certain facebook shareholders are going to be able to share these formerly locked-up shares. and if every single personnel jibl to do so does so, they can sell all the shares they can, it means an additional 271 million shares of facebook will be available to you for purchase. it is highly unlikely that 271 million shares are going to hit the market all at once. but we certainly could see a bigger than usual move on the stock market than this. and here's the thing. this is the only first lock-up expiration.

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we start the second half of our show with stories we care about where we focus on our own reporting from the front lines. let's start with this. the mayor of dallas has declared a state of emergency due to the west nile virus there. it clears the way for aerial spring to kill infected mosquitos. the united states is seeing a spike in west nile case this is year, the biggest since 2004. according to the cdc, there have

been at least 693 west nile cases and there have also been 26 deaths. texas has accounted for nearly half of the cases reported this year. we told you about the hypersonic aircraft designed to fly at six times the speed of sound. turns out it failed its first test flight. in a statement, the air force said the unmanned rider successfully launched and fired as planned but there was a problem with one of the device's control fins which keeps the cruiser from maintaining control causing the flight to end just seconds after it began. i'd like to get to london in an hour. so i hope they figure this one out. also, an "outfront" update for you on a story we've been closely following, the libor rate scandal. a source with knowledge of the investigation is telling the new york attorney general that he

subpoenaed seven basque as part of the inquiry into the manipulation of the key interest rate that's known as libor. it affects, for instance, the way the interest rate on your credit card or adjustable mortgage rates fluctuate. so it's a big, big deal here. and among the banks receiving subpoenas, jpmorgan, barclays, ubs and hsbc. the 911 tapes from the shooting at a sikh temple in oak creek, wisconsin, have been released. and the audio is nothing short of chilling. you can hear what it sounds like when the gunshots in the background are going off. >> yes, milwaukee sheriff. hello, can i help you? >> i'm calling from 7512 south howell avenue. there is shooting. >> okay. >> there is shooting in this. >> okay. did anybody get hit, sir? did anybody get hit? ma'am, sir? >> there is shooting. >> sir? >> there is shooting. >> sir, i understand that. did anybody get hit?

hello? >> we also learned today one of the shooting victims has now been released from the hospital. there are two others that remain hospital iszed. one of them is in critical condition. and another who's a police officer is in satisfactory condition. to the number now, it has been 377 days since the united states lost its top credit rating. what are we doing to get it back? the data out today shows that higher food prices were offset by lower energy costs, keeping inflation flat. in july, the expectation was for prices to rise slightly. let's go to our third story "outfront" tonight. republican presidential candidate mitt romney mapping out his plan on how he's going to deal with tax cuts and create more jobs. and then the bigger economic picture for the next four years, if he's elected.

that's a tall order, but andy serwe are interviewed from romney on august 6th. the interview was released online today. it will hit the stand in "fortune" magazine tomorrow. andy is here with us. andy, wow, you do the interview on the 6th. he knows his pick for vp on the 1st. he's had five days to mull over, gee, we're not so close on all our numbers. and when you look back at it, are you thinking, this guy's good? >> yeah, he's good. there's a lot of differences between what mitt romney has been espousing and what he was talking to me about and what paul ryan, his vp choice, has been espousing. it's going to be interesting to see these guys get their ducks in a row. paul ryan very famous for a plan to slash medicare. and mitt romney has not been on the same page there. there's a lot of other differences. mitt romney has come out and said that he supports the simpson/bowles physical responsibility plan. paul ryan was against that.

it just goes on and on. at some point, they're going to have to line things up. >> that's medicare. people have been prior to press him on the campaign stump to find out where they agree and what they don't agree. let's talk infrastructure. let's try this one. quote, i believe infrastructure is going to see very substantial investments over the coming decade, talking about highways as well as rail, air and communications infrastructure. this is mitt romney. so now let's look at how paul ryan talks about infrastructure. he wants a cut from $52.5 billion a year. and of course there are statistic that is we need to add to that. this is from the highway trust fund and it's also depending on gas revenue. so there are some wiggling you could do in here. but that's a lot of money and a lot of discrepancy between those two positions.

are they reconciled? >> not right now. if mitt romney is for small government, paul ryan is for smaller government. and to the extent that mitt romney would say he's going to invest in these public works and transportation sectors like that, he would say it would have offset by other cuts as well. paul ryan will just say, more than likely, my interpretation of that is, no, we're not going to put federal funding there, the private sector can do this on its own, can grow on its own. >> let's talk a little bit about jobs. he suggests that in four years, in this interview, coming out, he suggests that in four years, he will have been able to create 12 million jobs. that's sweet music to the people out there who are looking for a president who's going to give them a job. but erin burnett break the numbers down a while back. and she found that if you add 250,000 jobs per month every month for the next four years, you would get to that number. and that is more than double the

rate that we're adding jobs right now. is it feasibly possible and where does he get this idea that he could do 12 million jobs? >> it's very aggressive. and politicians are always going to be looking out in the future and suggesting they're going to be incredibly success. if he creates 10 million jobs, that would be a huge win over that time period. >> and gas prices to be $2 a gallon. >> yeah. and there's way that is he gets to christmas by suggesting if he does this with obama care, then the health care system will create thousands and millions and millions of jobs. to be fair to mitt romney, the other side makes promises about job creation, too. so this is sort of one of the oldest political games in the book. but it's a big number. >> since you said oldest, i'm going to quote something from 1939. since 1939, there's only 27% of monthly jobs reports have had growth of 250,000-plus. >> he has to hit it out of the park every single month. >> go for it, i say. john avlon, let's talk about loopholes.

they don't seem to necessarily be on the same page when it comes to either closing or leaving loopholes open. >> this has been one of the big debates going on. you see a fundamental contradiction between the romney plan as he set it out so far and the ryan plan, far more specific. here's the crux of the debate, about the politics and the policy of it. romney said he would embrace something like simpson/bowles. paul ryan served on the simpson/bowles commission and voted against its recommendations. one of the key questions about if you're going to lower rates but keep the revenues basically in place is what loopholes they're going to close. where the simpson/bowles commission says we should close loopholes, mitt romney said, that's off base. and here right when erin interviewed paul ryan in the halls of congress earlier, he spoke about it as well. let's take a listen. >> it sounds to me like you're opening to increasing revenue by

doubling revenue by getting rid of loopholes? >> and lowering tax rates. don't forget the second part which is broaden the tax base but lower the tax rates. here's the deal. like i said, most of our businesses, we don't want to charge them with a 45% tax rate when their competitors, like in canada, are having a 15% tax rate or in china a 25% tax rate. we want to lower these tax rates to get more economic growth. so we think we can get at least as much revenue to the federal government through this kind of a system. but we think we'll get more at the end of the day. >> so erin's pressing paul ryan for specifics. what loop hoels would you close? this is not a small deal. if you promise to cut rates across the board, you have to figure out how to make up some of that revenue. here's where both folks run the other direction, unlike bowles/simpson, why some politicians ran the other way, including paul ryan. mitt romney actually talked about mortgage interest. but in his interview with andy,

he was really specific saying, we're not going to let those get out of control. you see the devil's in the details. if you have these massive tax cuts, you have to tell people what loopholes you're going to close. >> we can't nail these details on the stump because they give us a one-line, working on it. good reading. thanks for coming in. great to see you. let's go to our fourth story tonight. it is developing, a four-star general under investigation and in some serious danger of being demoted and not just any demotion. a dig demotion. general william "kip" ward is accused of spending pentagon money on inappropriate travel expenses. among other things, barbara starr joining me live. this is a big deal, a four-star general. you would think there would be a

serious microscope, especially since he sort of answers directly to the sec-def on this. >> reporter: kip ward formally retired last year as the head of africa command. went through the whole ceremony, was wished the best but never really left. this investigation into his expenses was under way. what we now know is the inspector general has presented the findings to defense secretary leon pennetta. [ it's l gagss of imappropriate use of his military staff and misuse of government funds. how much money is involved, we don't really know. one official telling us it's not an insignificant amounts. somewhere in the thousands by all accounts but we really don't know how much. the findings are with defense secretary panetta.

and panetta has to determine whether to demote him back down to a three star and have him retire at that lower rank. it has happened before that people have been busted down. but this one is pretty high profile and is getting a lot of attention. >> what do you mean busted down to the three star, what about busted and booted completely and how about charged? >> reporter: that's a good point. we don't know at this point whether he possibly could face charges. that is always possible. that is much more likely to be up to the army, if there are the charges are referred from this report from the inspector general. but the findings right now do rest with panetta. they will go through some legal processes and decide what their next step will be. >> fascinating stuff. i always love these stories when it comes to the three and four-star jens because they seem untouchable. thank you so much, barbara starr. still "outfront," his sister was killed and he won a court case. so why does he feel like her

insurance company betrayed her? and later on, he was a rock legend for decades. but he never saw a dime and here's the weirdest part. he had no idea he was hugely famous. i'll explain it tonight. he's "outfront." there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning you can feel. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with a patented safety alert seat. when there's danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all-new cadillac xts has arrived, and it's bringing the future forward.

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now to the company synonymous with these ads featuring flo, a company under fire tonight, progressive insurance is finding itself smack dab in the middle of a social media firestorm that has some people questioning the company's motives. our alina cho is "outfront" with the story tonight. >> reporter: it's the headline that went viral. my sister paid progressive insurance to defend her killer in court. >> my tumbler is not an mrishl large soapbox. >> reporter: matt fisher posted the blog on monday. but the story begins in june of 2010 when matt's sister, katie, was killed in a car crash in baltimore, maryland. the suv that hit her had run a red light. the 24-year-old was killed instantly. >> the day she died, she had

just run a ten-mile road race. >> reporter: her brother says katie had a $100,000 insurance policy with progressive. >> flogot, great job. >> reporter: the family says katie's policy also stated progressive would make up the difference if she was killed by an underinsured driver, like the one that hit her. so the fisher family was paid $25,000 and thought progressive would pay the rest, $75,000. they were wrong. >> progressive took the position that my sister was at fault in the accident that killed her, which under maryland law would free them of the obligation to pay. >> reporter: out of a sense of honor and because katie fisher had student loans that still had to be paid, the family decided to go after the money. but in maryland, it's against the law to sue an insurance company that refuses payment. so the family had to sue the man who killed katie, establish negligence and then armed with that decision, forced progressive to pay. but in court --

>> progressive, my sister's insurer, sat across the room. their lawyer argued for the defendant in the case, argued that he was not negligent in my. >> reporter: so outraged he wrote on his blog, if you are insured by progressive and they owe you money, they will defend your killer in court in order not to pay you for your policy. after a world of criticism on facebook and twitter, progressive responded with the same tweet over and over saying we properly handled the claim within our contractual obligations and that in the eyes of some made matters worse. >> when you respond to a very emotional issue using a mechanical technology like twitter, it doesn't work. it's very difficult to tweet

compassion. >> reporter: the tweet has since been taken down and progressive released a statement saying it did not serve as the attorney for the defendant in the case. he was defended by his insurance company nationwide. there was a question as to who was at fault and a jury decided in the fisher family's favor just last week. we respect the verdict and now can continue to work with the fisher family to reach a resolution. but matt fisher says his family has not yet seen a check. what's your message to progressive if they're woatchin? >> when there's an adjuster or one that sits in the room and says this policy should be paid, should we pay or drag this out, add this. >> he was a rock star for years but he had no idea about it. he's out front next.

i had hoped that the new president would bring new jobs. not major layoffs, not people going through major foreclosures on their homes. he did get his healthcare through, but at what cost? he said he was going to cut the deficit in his first term. i've seen zero interest in reducing spending. he inherited a bad situation, but he made it worse. i think he's a great person. i don't feel he is the right leader for our country, though. i still believe in hope and change, i just don't think obama's the way to go for that. the president has not earned re -election, in 2012, in my book. i've seen his now definition of hope and change. it's not the hope and change i want, and it's not the hope and change i thought i was going to get. i don't feel that i helped my grandchildren by voting for president obama and i regret that. americans for prosperity is responsible for the content of this advertising.

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our fifth story out front tonight, imagine if elvis presley lived his entire life in

another country and because of that had no idea his music was popular here and made him the king of rock 'n' roll. this story is true. it wasn't elvis but this man from detroit and his music was a total flop in the united states but let me tell you, somehow it found one heck of a following in south africa. poppy harlow has this story "outfront." >> we thought it was like the inner city poet. he was this wandering spirit around the city. >> cecil rodriguez, a detroit native who tried his hand at rock history in the '70s. ♪ the mayor has the crime rate cause a woman hesitates public is irate ♪ >> when we walked in and heard the songs he was singing and what he was writing, we had to record him and make a deal. he's great. we said this is it. >> reporter: it wasn't.

rodriguez's albums flopped in the u.s. somehow his first album "cold fact" made it halfway around the world and became a massive hit. >> in south africa he was a rock god. >> to us it was one of the most famous records of all time. >> reporter: the soundtrack fueling a revolution. ♪ this system is going to fall soon to an angry young tune ♪ >> reporter: at home in detroit, rodriguez had no idea. he had given up his music career. that was four decades ago. you used to play across the street? >> i played a lot of places in detroit. >> reporter: unaware of his fame abroad, he raised his daughters doing demolition work. he made failed bids for mayor, city council and state rep. you call yourself a musical political. >> musical political, yeah. i don't see how anybody can't be. >> reporter: then at 57, he was

rediscovered by a south african music journalist and a record star owner who found clues in his lyrics. >> we found him. >> reporter: they brought rodriguez to south africa and he played to thousands of adoring fans. >> thanks for keeping me alive. >> he's on stage and the crowd is just going wild and they're singing and they're crying. >> it brings you to tears to see something like that happen to someone. >> it was epic. >> reporter: do you not think that your story is exceptional beyond belief? >> it's pretty wild, the story, you know. i'm a lucky man to be so fortunate at this late date. >> this is a true cinderella story. >> reporter: a filmmaker tells it in his documentary. "searching for sugar man." >> a construction worker, really hard manual labor without knowing at the same time he's

more famous than elvis presley in another part of the world. i thought it was the most beautiful story i ever heard in my life. >> reporter: a beautiful story but also a mystery. where were all of the royalties? >> i don't know. i do think it's an important question because the reason why rodriguez didn't know he was famous for 30 years was he didn't get royalties. >> reporter: do you ever feel jipped? >> hate is too strong an emotion to waste on someone you don't like, you know. >> reporter: do you want the fame and the fortune? >> fame is fleeting. ♪ hey baby what's your hurry >> reporter: now 70, rodriguez may finally get his due. >> thank you, rodriguez. >> reporter: do you ever pinch yourself and ask is this real? >> is it real? it certainly is a different life. you know, it's certainly not