breaks how much more of this can we take ♪ [ cheers and applause ] ♪ this is "nightline." >> byron: tonight, blindsided? the explosive war of words. more than a decade after his story inspired a big-screen blockbuster -- >> you protect his blind side. when you look at him, you think of me. >> yes, ma'am. >> byron: earning sandra bullock an oscar. retired nfl star michael ower filing a petition in court -- >> leann, she's taught me, you know -- she was the first one

that ever told me she loved me. >> byron: of also taking advantage of him. now lawyers for the family are firing back. >> michael got every dime, every dime he had coming. >> byron: how did this real-life fairytale fall apart? plus, kool and the gang. ♪ celebrate good times come on ♪ >> byron: songs like "celebration" have been a soundtrack of our lives for decades. a catalog of hits sampled time and time again from jay-z and madonna to lil' kim's "ladies night" remix. ♪ so it's ladies night ♪ >> byron: helping propel hip-hop into the mainstream. i caught inwith kool to talk about their influence, their staying power, and the crowning achievement they hope comes next. celebrity split? pop star britney spears and actor sam asghari reportedly separating after 14 months.

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with a little help. and to support my family's immune health, i choose airborne. it has an unbeatable amount of vitamin c, plus a unique blend of immune focused ingredients to turn up our immune support. airborne ♪ >> byron: good evening. thank you for joining us. it was a story made for the movies. a young man with a promising football future escaping a broken home thanks to the good will of a family who took him in as one of theirs. it earned sandra bullock an

oscar. nearly 15 years later, the hollywood script has given way to real-life allegations of deception and questions about where the dollars went. >> never had one before. >> what, a room to yourself? >> a bed. >> reporter: it's the heartwarming movie about overcoming adversity. >> tony here's your quarterback. you protect his blind side. when you look at him, you think of me, how you have my back, how you have his. okay? >> reporter: now at the center of a legal war of words between the family depicted in the film and the man whose story inspired it. "the blind side" based on the life story of former nfl offensive tackle michael oher chronicles his struggles of a homeless football star taken in by the to you wees, a tennessee family who made their fortune owning fast food franchises. sandra bullock won a best actress oscar for her pore traig

trail as leigh anne tuohy. with the tuohy family support, the real michael oher goes on to play football at ole miss on a full scholarship. >> michael oher, offensive tackle, mississippi. >> reporter: later in the nfl. 2009, after being drafted by the baltimore ravens in the first round, the tuohy family right by his side. but now, at 37 years old, oher says he was blindsided. in a petition filed monday, he accused sean and leigh anne tuohy of not giving him his fair share of the film's profits and continuing to make money off his name. claiming that when the movie studio began negotiations to the rights of his life story, he was paid nothing for a project that would not have existed without him. he says the tuohys negotiated for themselves and their two birth children, payment of about $225,000 each plus a percentage based on the movie's success. the petition also says they tricked him into believing they were adopting him at age 18.

instead, they became his conservators. >> a conservatorship is when a person takes away the decision-making powers of another, typically because they don't have the capacity to take care of themselves. it is highly unusual for a person over the age of 18 to be put into a conservatorship, especially where you don't see an issue of capacity. >> reporter: oher alleges the tuohys saw him as a gullible young man . >> we estimate each person received $1,000, each person in

the family. >> reporter: he suls said the family will end the conservatorship, which they say was established to help oher's needs, from a driver's license to helping with college admissions. >> as far as i know, you don't need this for a driver's license. people get it all the time without bringing their parents in. d-1 programs are very well funded. you get medical care through the school. it doesn't make sense to me that someone would advocate for a conservatorship which, at its heart, takes away decision-making power, when you can just do an adult adoption. >> reporter: their attorney also claims oher already knew about it. >> the fact of the matter is, he wrote a book in 2011, and in 2011 he acknowledged in that book that there was, in fact, a conservatorship. >> reporter: but it's not clear he understood what that meant. oher writes in his book of the tuohys, "they explained to me it means pretty much the exact same

thing as adoptive parents but the laws were just written in a way that took my age into account. honestly, i didn't care what it was called, i was just happy that no one could argue that we weren't legally what we already knew was real, we were family." >> a conservatorship doesn't make the conservator and the conservee members of a family. adomgs adoption does that. >> reporter: oher is asking for a full accounting of the money earned off the use of his story, an injunction barring using his name and likeness, and unspecified damages. >> this is a sad day. it's devastating to the family. and we hope that it doesn't have a chilling effect on others who want to help needy individuals. >> reporter: the tuohys further claim that oher would threaten them saying he would plant a negative story of them in the press unless they paid him $15 million. their son s.j. telling "barstool

sports" it's not the first time oher made demands. >> things in 2020, 2021, if you guys give me this much now, i won't go public. >> reporter: in response to the tuohys a claim, oher's attorney releasing a statement, we try cases based on facts and we believe justice will be served in the courtroom, and we hope we'll get there quickly. oher has been open about growing up in the projects in memphis as one of 12 children whose mother who struggled with drug addiction and a father in and out of prison. my colleague deborah roberts spoke with him in 2009. >> i've never really had a faeg father figure. >> what about your mom? >> she went around too much. >> reporter: age 11, he went into foster care, becoming homeless at times before several friends helped him with places to crash. a neighborhood mentor helped oher get into a memphis private school. just before his senior year, he met the tuohys.

>> leanne, she's the first one who ever told me she loved me. i never heard that before. >> you look at him, think of him as your son? >> he thinks i birthed him. it's gotten to the point where i think i birthed him. he takes great offense if people don't think that he's a part of the family. >> reporter: the tuohys are very open about their desire to make owe her an official family member. >> i think after several months, i just said, michael, why don't you just -- do you want to move in, honey? do you want to stay here? then it just, after five or six months, it was just like he was never not here. and i looked at my husband one night and i said, i think we need to legally adopt him. >> reporter: but oher says that never happened. oher went on to have a successful career, earning over $34 million during his nine seasons in the nfl, winning a super bowl ring with the ravens in 2013. authoring three books, one of which was a "new york times" bestseller about his life. who would $you write the book

for? >> i know there's a lot of other kids out there, young teenagers out there, that the odds of making it are shim to none. i basically did it, you know, for them. >> reporter: but he's often expressed displeasure with his on-screen depiction, speaking about it on "the jim rome show" last week. >> i think the biggest for me is, you know, being portrayed not being able to read or write. when you go into a locker room, your teammates don't think you can learn a playbook. that weighs heavy. >> reporter: despite the movie's success, oher says he felt the film diminished his accomplishments and stretched the truth about his life. >> i'm honored to have the position it's given me. but, you know, you have to understand, before i moved in with the family, i was an all-american. >> and it wasn't that you don't have gratitude to the family that took you in. that's really -- >> very grateful for every family that helped me throughout this journey.

>> byron: up next, from "ladies night" to "get down on it," kool and the gang has made millions dance for decades. so what's their secret? i spoke to kool themselves to find out. ♪ get down on it come on and get down on it get down on it ♪ ♪ get down on it get down on it ♪ ♪ how you gonna do it if you really don't want to dance ♪ ♪ by standing on the wall get your back up off the wall ♪ severe crohn's disease modeo skyrizi is the first and only il-23 inhibitor that can deliver clinical remission and endoscopic improvement. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. liver problems may occur in crohn's disease. control of crohn's means everything to me. ask your gastroenterologist about skyrizi. ♪ control is everything to me ♪

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their music is a staple of any good celebration, but it's also an inspiration with catchy hooks that have helped push hip-hop to new heights. how did kool and the gang survive nearly 60 years in the music business? i asked the man himself. ♪ their fans have known for generations, when it's time, it's time to get down on it. ♪ get down on it if you really want it ♪ ♪ get down on it ♪ >> reporter: kool and the gang is the band whose mega success of the '70s and '80s paved the way for legacy that powers on today. 60 years in the business, they're keeping old-school cool, on tour and averaging 80 shows a year. do you ever get nervous? >> um -- yes and >> reporter: founding member and bass guitarist robert kool bell,

kool and the gang is his lifelong passion. ♪ it's time to celebrate ♪ >> reporter: their fans can't get enough of famous hits like "celebration." ♪ whoo-hoo ♪ >> byron: i can remember ball games, graduations, birthday parties, "celebration." ♪ celebrate good times come on ♪ >> reporter: kool and most of the gang are onstage at the hard rock hotel. the volume in the arena is insane. >> we want to thank you all so much for coming out tonight! thank you, atlantic city! >> byron: when you perform in places like this, does it give you energy? does it drain you? >> it gives us energy. i can't move like i used to, but i got all the young guys working with me now. you do the moving, i'll do the grooving. >> byron: many people can remember where they were the first time they heard some of your songs. is there a particular song, if

you could only hear one of my songs, make sure you slis sen to this one? >> i'd have to say "ladies night." ♪ it's ladies night and the feel feeling's right ♪ ♪ oh yes it's ladies' night oh what a night ♪ >> reporter: released in 1979 with lead singer james j.t. taylor on the mic. it was a commercial powerhouse. ♪ the gang is just as celebrated for their influence on hip-hop and r&b as they are for their classics. ♪ their music used in more than 1,800 songs and counting. from snoop dogg's single "we just want to party with joao you ♪ -- ♪ get down on it get down on it ♪ >> reporter: to lil' kim's "not tonight: ladies night remix." ♪ this is ladies night oh what a night ♪

>> reporter: kool & the gang is one of the most-sampled bands in history. >> i didn't know that. over 1,800 samples. i said, 1,800 samples? i better put somebody on sample patrol. >> byron: artists like jay-z, madonna, have sampled your work. that must give you great pride to know that? >> yes, yes. >> byron: 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. >> that's great. i think back in the '70s, we became popular with a lot of the hip-hop parties. >> anything would inhip-hop if you contextualize it right. ♪ >> reporter: hip-hop artist deejay amir questlove thompson has been using social media to share iconic work that has cultural impact, including kool & the gang. questlove had a three-hour session where he only sampled your music. what do you make of that? >> he's the one that did the research on the samples. ♪

these guys do their homework. >> byron: they say game recognizes game. >> yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. >> reporter: kool started his band with his brother and friends in 1964 at the tender age of 14. he'll be 73 in october. what drew you to music? >> my grandmother played a little piano. my father was a top five featherweight. and he would fight in cuba. and dizzy gill helpsy, a lot of those musicians would be in cuba at the time. so dizzy was around the house. this is one of my first hits. >> reporter: the band starting out as the jazzy acts, then becoming the soul town band, and ultimately settling on kool and the gang in 1969. how did you get the nickname kool? >> everybody had a name in the neighborhood. so i tried to fit in.

kool and the gang. >> reporter: their music may be smooth but their journey hasn't always been. you're in an industry that doesn't always reward kindness. how have you managed to succeed for so long in your business? >> i mean -- you get some things that happen, wow, how does that happen? how'd he slip away with all that cash? for instance. but that's life. i'm not the only one to go through that. a lot of bands back in the day, on the bus with the ojays, all of them have similar problems. >> byron: people wouldn't pay you? >> yeah, slip out the backdoor. >> reporter: the band persevered, and eventually the industry took notice. grammy award-winner, seven american music awards, b.e.t. soul train, lifetime achievement awards. you've done a lot. you've been blessed, as you said, to do so much in your life. >> one thing we don't have is rock and roll hall of fame. we got all these, but not rock

and roll hall of fame. >> that has to be in the works, don't you think? >> they say that every year. it's on the board. >> reporter: kool says he's far from giving any of it up and stepping down. his band dropping their 34th studio album last month. >> george brown, my partner, and the last remaining member with me of the original kool & the gang, it started off with seven. we're down to two. he came up with this idea and concept about, hey, people want to have fun again. and the first song was called "let's party." ♪ let's party let's party oh ♪ >> byron: how much longer do you think you're going to keep doing this? >> i would say, a friend of mine said, kool, everything has an expiration date. i said, well, i'm going to hang out till i'm expired. i just love what i do. >> byron: what is the one thing in life you know for sure, for which you have no doubt? >> try to live on. we never know when we're going

to pass on. but try to do the right thing. >> reporter: kool insists he and the band will keep doing their thing as long as possible. as long as the love lives with their fans at home and around the world. >> we have a song called "love and understanding." we thought that needed to be a little more. love and understanding. we have a song called "who's going to take the weight?" well, who is going to take the weight? i'm going to leave it like that. ♪ coming up, the celebrity buzz late tonight. is pop star britney spears' marriage heading for divorce? i have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. thanks to skyrizi, i'm on my way with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur.

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♪ finally tonight, britney spears' marriage is reportedly headed for a divorce. "variety" is among several outlets reporting the pop star and her third husband, actress sam asghari, have separated after tying the knot 14 months ago. the couple dated for more than five years after meeting on the set of her music video "slumber party." ♪ ♪ slumber party ♪ >> byron: asghari spoke to abc news shortly after their wedding. >> we imagined this thing being a fairytale, and it was. >> byron: according to "variety," spears has retained a dream team of hollywood lawyers. and that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here by providing materials to teach healthy habits.