♪ i'm out of this town ♪ so out of this town ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ oh, oh, oh, whoa ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ oh, oh, oh, whoa ♪ oh, oh, oh ♪ oh, oh, oh, whoa ♪ one day you're gonna look back on what we had ♪ ♪ you're gonna think of me ♪ you're gonna think of me ♪ when i'm long gone ♪ i mean long gone [ cheers and applause ]

>> jimmy: lady antebellum and their new album "golden." you can hear a bonus song at jimmykimmellive.com. i want to thank them. i want to thank amy adams. i want to thank dave franco. my apologies to matt damon. we did run out of time for him. "nightline" is next. thanks for watching. good night. [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ,,

tonight on "nightline" -- from high school dropout to computer spy to wanted man. 29-year-old edward snowden risked everything to spill some of america's biggest secrets. tonight we hear why he did what he did and why he fears for his life. >> a fear i'll live under for the rest of my life. "thrift shop." no agents and no record labels. hip-hop group macklemore doesn't do anything by the book. find out why their unlikely anthem about secondhand shopping may signal the start of a music revolution. and we'll go inside the courtroom stunt that sent football star chad johnson to jail in tonight's feed frenzy. >> keep it right here, america. "nightline"

>> announcer: from new york city, this is "nightline" with bill weir. good evening. thanks for being with us tonight. well, a few days ago he was a brilliant high school dropout with a mind for computers, an acrobat girlfriend, and an important job mining secrets for the u.s. government. but now after saying he leaked some of those secrets to reporters and revealing his identity edward snowden is either a whistle-blowing champion of american liberty or a self-absorbed criminal traitor, depending on who you talk to. as officials try to track him down somewhere on the planet, abc's brian ross brings us what we know about this man on the run in tonight's "nightline investigates." >> my name's ed snowden. i'm 29 years old. >> reporter: tonight, he is one of the most wanted men in the world. snowden is the man who says he is responsible for one of the

greatest security breaches in american history. revealing a set of top secret programs to collect the phone records of millions of americans and monitor overseas internet traffic. >> i sitting at my desk certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge to even the president if i had a personal e-mail. >> reporter: until he checked out sometime today edward snowden had been holed up in luxury for three weeks in hong kong at the mira hotel, according to employees there. by his own account, every meal came from room service. pillows were stuffed under the door to prevent eaves dopg. he cloaked his face with a red hood. and he used the code name verax, latin for truth teller, to communicate with the "washington post." snowden told the "guardian" newspaper he knew the u.s. would be coming after him, maybe even with hit teams. >> and that's a fear i'll live under for the rest of my life, however long that happens to be. >> reporter: by revealing the massive secret programs designed as part of the effort against

terrorism, snowden is being praised by some as a hero and by others as a traitor. that's what speaker of the house john boehner told george stephanopoulos in an interview for "good morning america" tuesday. >> he's a traitor. the president outlined last week that these were important national security programs to help keep americans safe and give us tools to fight the terrorist threat that we face. >> reporter: at the white house thousands have signed a petition to pardon edward snowden, press secretary jay carney dismissed any talk of him being a hero. >> when you divulge information that provides a playbook, if you will, to how we -- efforts that this government undertakes to counter the efforts of those who would kill americans or attack the united states in some ways or our allies, you're assisting them in evading those measures. >> reporter: snowden says he is a patriot and only revealed what americans needed to know about what their government is doing.

>> the nsa specifically targets the communications of everyone. it ingests them by default. any analyst at any time can target anyone. >> reporter: snowden was never under suspicion until he disappeared from his job as a technician at the nsa in hawaii around the 1st of may, claiming medical leave for epilepsy. snowden said he didn't even reveal his plan to his girlfriend, identified as lindsay mills, a member of a hawaiian acrobatic dance troupe according to others in the troupe. neighbors said the two of them just vanished one day. >> one day they were there. the next day they were gone. >> reporter: fbi agents were seen outside his father's home in allentown, pennsylvania on monday. and lawyers who have dealt with similar cases say snowden should prepare himself for the worst. >> based on my experience, he faces an indictment with numerous counts under the espionage account, which is an antiquated, heavy-handed, world war i law meant to go after

spies, not whistleblowers. and he would face probably more than $1 million in attorney's fees and possibly facing the rest of his life in jail. >> reporter: another former nsa official who the government tried unsuccessfully to prosecute for revealing the abuse of secret programs, tom drake, says the toll on snowden will be great as it was on him. >> extraordinary. far more than i've ever revealed publicly. >> how so? >> well, personal costs, family. all your natural allies disappear because they've got retirements to consider, careers they haven't finished. families to feed. kids in college. mortgages. they want to remain safe. >> reporter: snowden spent his teenage years in maryland. his mother declined to comment, but a neighbor there said snowden was always at his computer as a young man. >> i thought he was doing schoolwork and come to find out he didn't even graduate from

high school. >> reporter: but by the age of 29 snowden claimed he had quite the top secret resume for someone who'd dropped out of high school. starting with nsa security guard and then a failed attempt to become a special forces soldier. next a huge jump, a cia spy in switzerland working with computers. and for the last four years civilian contractor working with computers at the nsa in japan, washington, and hawaii, where snowden says he decided to blow the whistle on what he calls the abuses of the privacy rights of americans. >> over time that awareness of wrongdoing sort of builds up and you feel compelled to talk about it, and the more you talk about it the more you're ignored, the more you're told it's not a problem. until eventually you realize that these things need to be determined by the public, not by somebody who is simply hired by the government. >> reporter: a psychiatrist who works with cia agents and former spies says snowden fits a classic pattern of someone angry

at the system. >> the first thing i saw is that he was an extremely bright and articulate person. he reminded me of any number of generation y, or millennial young men. a certain amount of ego, self-absorpti self-absorption, sure of himself, having kind of grand idealistic notions of how the world should be, and prepare to declare them out loud to the world. >> reporter: there's been nothing like snowden's bold, possible illegal actions since daniel ellsberg revealed the so-called pentagon papers in 1971, a top secret history of mistakes made during the vietnam war. the nixon administration tried to prosecute ellsberg, and the watergate tapes caught president nixon talking about going after the leaker. >> we've got to keep our eye on the main ball. the main ball's ellsberg. we've got to get this son of a

bitch. we can't be in a position of -- of ever allowing just because some guy's going to be a martyr, of allowing the fellow to get away with this kind of wholesale thievery or otherwise it's going to happen all over the government. >> reporter: but the prosecution of ellsberg was dropped because of government misconduct. and now 82 years old, ellsberg calls snowden an american hero. >> i've been waiting for 40 years really to see a high official who really knew the workings of our system as it has evolved and was willing to tell the truth about it. at the cost of his career, at the cost very probably of his freedom. possibly even his life. i'm very impressed by the civil courage that edward snowden has shown, and i think that he gives me hope that we may actually regain our bill of rights. we may actually regain our constitutional democracy. that was something i wasn't so sure of even a week ago. >> reporter: snowden was one of some 850,000 private contractors

working for the government with top secret clearances. but one of the few to fight the culture of secrecy that has spread across the government. he told the "guardian" he gave up a $200,000 a year job in paradise to do it. >> you can get up every day, you can go to work, you can collect your large paycheck for relatively little work against the public interest and go to sleep at night after watching your shows. but if you realize that that's the world that you helped create and it's going to get worse with the next generation and the next generation who extend the capabilities of this sort of architecture of oppression, you realize you might be willing to accept any risk and it doesn't matter what the outcome is, so long as the public gets to make their own decisions about how that's applied. >> reporter: for "nightline" this is brian ross, abc news, washington. >> our thanks to brian, who'll stay on the story and bring it to you at abcnews.com. coming up next, they've got a hit song and a meteoric rise to fame under their belts, and

it's all due to the thrift shop. ♪ i'm going to pop some tags ♪ only got $20 in my pocket ♪ i'm hunting ♪ looking for a come-up ♪ this is hey america, even though she doesn't need them, cheryl burke is cha-cha-ing in depend silhouette briefs for charity, to prove that with soft fabric and waistband, the best protection looks, fits, and feels just like underwear.

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you don't have to be a hip-hop aficionado to know that most of the genre's mainstream artists have made their bread and butter bragging about fancy cars and diamond chains and shoes with four-figure price tags.

you know, the stuff you never find at the thrift shop. but when it comes to the hip-hop act macklemore, the star attraction rhymes about just that. thrift stores and secondhand living. just one of the rules he's broken on the ride to a breakout sensation. here's abc's neil karlinsky. ♪ what, what >> reporter: he's a used fur coat wearing, scooter-riding rapper from the not so mean streets of seattle. ♪ copping, it washing passing up on those moccasins ♪ >> reporter: and thanks to him and his unlikely group you probably now know what it means to pop some tags. ♪ i'm gonna pop some tags ♪ only got $20 in my pocket >> reporter: ben hagerty, known to millions as macklemore, is an overnight sensation 14 years in the making. half his life writing, performing, and dreaming between local clubs in his beloved home town of seattle. >> out of all of the thousands of songs that i've written in my life, i never would have thought that "thrift shop" would have been the one that took over.

♪ i-n-d-e-p-e-n-d-e-n-t >> reporter: self-made stardom isn't way the music industry works. yet there they were at the top of the charts, churning through youtube clicks, all of it in just months, all of it on their own. no record label, no agents, just ben, ryan lewis, and a dream. >> we have the leverage. we have control of our music. why would we want to give that to somebody else? >> my name's macklemore, and welcome to my crib. >> reporter: we caught up with macklemore between shows on what's become a grueling international tour, sprinkled between appearances on "saturday night live" -- ♪ bought a broken keyboard >> reporter: -- and the billboard music awards. ♪ i'm just pumped about some stuff from the thrift shop ♪ >> how different is your bank account from what it was a cull couple of years ago? >> it's very different. we had no money at all. we were living at home. >> for ben his life has

completely changed. he's a mega celebrity now. >> reporter: the man with the pipes behind "thrift shop" -- ♪ i'm gonna pop some tags ♪ only got $20 in my pocket -- is an endlessly friendly 51-year-old who'd dreamed but given up hope of a music career years ago and gone to work for microsoft. then macklemore called. >> for me this is rarefied air. this is dream come true stuff. i am living a dream that i've had literally since 1968. ♪ i wear your granddad's clothes ♪ ♪ i look incredible >> reporter: thrift shop would not be an obvious song for anybody to go this is going to do really, really well. >> i swaz surprised. everybody here is surprised. the song about secondhand shopping. >> reporter: it's a recipe they were told would never work. including their subject matter. ♪ i might not be the same but that's not important ♪ ♪ no freedom till we're equal ♪ damn right i support it >> reporter: "same love" is an anthem to same-sex marriage.

others are eloquently worded first person accounts of ben's struggles with addiction and a number of songs about just plain being yourself. >> singing about same-sex marriage, trying really hard and never giving up, being frugal. i mean, that's not exactly, you know, the recipe to rap stardom. >> no. no. but it's my recipe. and i think that that's why people identify with it. it takes soul searching. it takes using the paper and the pen and turning that into a form of therapy. >> reporter: macklemore has done nothing by the book. ♪ this is the moment ♪ tonight is the night the band's second chart-topping single "can't hold us" features a 23-year-old gospel choir singer named ray dalton, who wouldn't join unless his grandmother approved. >> my grandma loves ben. she likes his words. >> how is he so down to earth with all this fame? >> i can't say.

>> oh, come on. >> reporter: trisha davis is ben's fiancee, long-time confidant, and tour manager. >> i knew this from day one. i knew that this was possible. >> really? >> i mean, when you fall in love with a drug addict totally, you know, can't afford anything guy and your mom's asking you what the heck you're doing, you know, i knew from the first time i saw him perform, i was like, he has that potential. >> reporter: today the money, the requests, the attention, all of it is rolling in like an avalanche. a lifetime of dreams all at once. >> how high can you go? >> this is all about -- >> reporter: and this time it's the music industry on the outside looking in. >> if we'd been signed to a label i can almost guarantee you we wouldn't have had the success with "thrift shop" and with "can't hold us" and with "the heist" in general. >> reporter: macklemore is living the american dream. self-made in a sea of the manufactured. still trying to figure out stardom. suddenly longing for the times

he can drive the old caddie that once symbolized the pinnacle of success. like the man said -- ♪ this is [ bleep ] awesome >> reporter: i'm neal karlinsky for "nightline" in seattle. >> that piece was awesome. thanks, neal. coming up next, former football star chad johnson shows us what not to do in a courtroom. [ female announcer ] you told jcpenney what kind of home you'd love to come home to. a home that's more joyful. more playful. more you. we listened. that's why we are introducing our all new home store. we have all the brands you know and exciting new brands you'll want to know. many on sale now, at 20-40% off. you add the kids, the pets, the craziness, the laughter, and the love. ♪

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finally tonight, we have an ill-advised courtroom display of affection and true love in aisle 5. together, a frothy concoction we like to call "the feed frenzy." some clients thank their attorneys with a bottle of wine or a nice fruit basket. but after getting community service for a probation violation, former nfl star chad johnson smacked his counselor on the butt in appreciation. >> any questions? >> hardly a shocking act in the huddle. but in this courtroom in florida the judge was so unamused.

>> i don't know if you're taking this whole thing seriously. >> reporter: she rejected the community service deal and sentenced him to 30 days in jail. where friendly rump pats take on a whole new meaning. and finally, a romance started in the frame department of a new jersey ikea. so why not start life as man and wife in the same spot? >> in the photo department. >> this weekend shirley and rasheed smith tied the knot in front of the friends and family and employees who happened to be working the day they met here. and turns out they're not the first to tie the knot in a mega warehouse of cheap swedish furniture. but what better place to realize when it comes to love, home, and family some assembly is required. >> they could all go in together and get them one of those farferflugen pull-out couches or however it's pronounced? n. swedish. thank you for watching "nightline." world news is coming up. gma in the morning. and we