think it would work, but for years now, people like corey williams have been filing bogus tax returns in order to collect billions of dollars in fraudulent refunds. >> by the year 2016, the i.r.s. will be hemorrhaging and losing $21 billion due to this type of fraud. >> kroft: it's only 2014. don't you think something can be done in the next two years to fix this? >> well, that is my hope. >> pelley: the department of veteran's affairs is a behemoth, the second largest agency in the entire government and america's largest healthcare system. it's suffered the biggest

scandal in its history. can one of america's top c.e.o.s fix it? how long is that going to take? >> well, it's going to take time. the news media is not helping me, right, because every adverse outcome that gets amplified by the media doesn't help me. >> pelley: you've got a bad reputation. >> i do. but we're changing it. >> ♪ i'm a one-way motorway... ♪ >> 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 along 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 morley safer. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." >> cbs money watch update sponsored by lincoln financial. calling all chief life officers. >> glor: good evening. greek banks will not open monday after the european central bank refused to extend emergency credit. an unmanned spacex rocket bound for the international space station exploded shortly after liftoff. and air b&b says the company owes $125.5 billion. i'm jeff glor, cbs news.

across america people, like basketball hall of famer dominique wilkins, are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes... ...with non-insulin victoza. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza. he said victoza works differently than pills and comes in a pen. victoza is proven to lower blood sugar and a1c. it's taken once a day, any time. and the needle is thin. victoza is not for weight loss but it may help you lose some weight. victoza is an injectable prescription medicine that may improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes when used with diet and exercise. it is not recommended as the first medication

to treat diabetes and should not be used in people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. victoza has not been studied with mealtime insulin. victoza is not insulin. do not take victoza if you have a personal or family history of medullary thyroid cancer multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if you are allergic to victoza or any of its ingredients. symptoms of a serious allergic reaction may include swelling of face lips, tongue or throat fainting or dizziness, very rapid heartbeat problems breathing or swallowing, severe rash or itching. tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. serious side effects may happen in people who take victoza including inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis) which may be fatal. stop taking victoza and call your doctor right away if you have signs of pancreatitis, such as severe pain that will not go away in your abdomen or from your abdomen to your back with or without vomiting. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you have any medical conditions.

taking victoza with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. the most common side effects are nausea, diarrhea, and headache. some side effects can lead to dehydration, which may cause kidney problems. if your pill isn't giving you the control you need... ask your doctor about non-insulin victoza. it's covered by most health plans. >> kroft: there have been lots of stories over the past few months on identity theft, and how the information can be used against you. you may have heard something

about stolen identity tax fraud; you may even have been a victim of it. it's the biggest tax scam around right now. as we first reported in september, this is how it works- - someone steals your identity files a bogus tax return in your name before you do, and collects a refund check from the i.r.s. it's so simple, you would think it would never work, but it does. its been around since 2008, and you'd think the i.r.s. would have come up with a way to stop it-- it hasn't. instead, the scam's gone viral tripling in the last three years. the government says its affecting millions of americans and costing taxpayers billions of dollars every year, proving once again what every good con man already knows-- there is no underestimating the general dysfunction and incompetence of government bureaucracy. >> wilfredo ferrer: it's a tsunami of fraud that we have been encountering. the vast number of fraudulent tax returns was something that i don't think the i.r.s. ever really was ready for. >> kroft: wilfredo ferrer is the

united states attorney for southern florida and george piro the agent in charge of the miami field office of the f.b.i. together, they run a federal task force operating at the epicenter of the largest tax scam in the country. >> ferrer: florida has been for the third year in a row on the top, number one, in terms of i.d. theft complaints. and miami is also number one in terms of metropolitan areas that suffer from identity fraud. >> kroft: don't take this the wrong way-- is there any scheme that miami is not number one at? >> ferrer: we have very sophisticated and good criminals, steve, who... who know how to... how to, you know, defeat the system. >> kroft: for decades now, south florida has been the silicon valley for scam artists, drawn here by the weather, the beaches, and the opportunity to make lots of money without actually doing much work. there's medicare fraud, mortgage fraud, securities fraud, and now what the justice department calls stolen identity tax refund fraud, a tax preparation scheme

epitomized by an over abundance of questionable-looking establishments that have sprung up here over the past few years. but this scam is so easy, you don't even need an office. >> ferrer: for this fraud, all you need is a laptop, someone's social security number, date of birth, not even their name. they can do it from their kitchen table. they can do it at a fast food chain restaurant. or they can do it on the beach as long as they have wifi access. >> kroft: actually, corey williams says you don't even need a laptop. you can file phony returns on your cell phone, if you have the right app. he used to be a legitimate tax preparer until his boss turned him on to the scam. before he was arrested and sentenced to 40 months in prison, he had made millions and millions of dollars. >> corey williams: anybody who knew about it, you'd be a fool to not... not try to get involved with making some money. i could wake up in the comfort of my own home, and just get on a laptop, do about 15 returns a

day. 15 times $3,000 a return, that's $45,000 a day. >> kroft: so you had a home office? >> williams: yeah. i used to work in... i would work in my boxers and a t-shirt, yeah. >> kroft: it as easy as one, two, three. williams gave us a demonstration. one-- you collect or buy a list of stolen identities that are readily available in miami, if you know the right people. two-- you go to one of dozens of tax preparation sites online and using the stolen social security numbers and dates of birth, you fill out a completely bogus w-2 form, claiming a modest refund of a few thousand dollars. >> williams: it has given us a refund of $4,834. >> kroft: three-- you tell the i.r.s. where to send the money your house, your bank account, or loaded onto a prepaid debit card. do you have any idea how many

returns... how many bogus returns you filled out? >> williams: has to be like in the thousands. >> kroft: did the i.r.s. pay all of it? >> williams: on a percentage range, you'd say they would pay out 40% of the tax returns. >> kroft: once you hit send, how long did it take you to get a check? >> williams: seven days. >> kroft: seven days? >> williams: yes. >> kroft: so you'd send in these returns, and seven days later, you'd get a check? >> williams: yes. >> kroft: 40% of the time? >> williams: 40% of the time. >> kroft: where would you have them send the check? >> williams: you can send the checks to an address, any address. i've seen cases where 25 checks came to one address, and the mailman delivered it. >> kroft: it sounded so outrageous, we wanted to run it by the federal task force. so you just put down a name and a social security number, and you can make up an employer, or the amount of money that was earned and withheld... >> ferrer: that's it. >> kroft: ...and send it off to the i.r.s., and they'll send you a check back for the refund? >> ferrer: they will pay, most of the time, unless they catch that there's some fraudulent you know, information. and then, it's our job to chase.

>> kroft: i'm still amazed that you don't need to provide any documentation when you file your tax return. >> george piro: there are no supporting documents when you are filing electronically. and that's the ease or the convenience that was created for the benefit of the innocent taxpayer, which is now being exploited by criminals. >> kroft: you would think that the i.r.s. computers would notice that they were sending thousand of checks to a handful of addresses, but they didn't. and you might expect that the i.r.s. would match taxpayer returns with legitimate w2 forms filed by employers. it doesn't do that either because the law requires refund checks to be sent out within six weeks, and employer w2s are often not available until months later. so, if a bogus return is received before a legitimate one, the check will go out to the crooks. >> ferrer: the way that you learn that you become a victim of this is when you go and try to file your return, the i.r.s. tells you, "oh, you've already filed." you're like, "no, i haven't." well, like, "yes, you have." well, it wasn't you, it was the fraudster who used your identity

to file the return. >> kroft: and it's not an easy problem to get fixed. many of the people in this line outside the i.r.s. office in plantation, florida, are victims of the fraud, waiting to prove their identity and claim their rightful refund. they will eventually be reimbursed, but it can involve massive amounts of paperwork multiple visits to the office, and months and months of waiting. did you know about this before you got this job? >> john koskinen: i had no idea about this before i started getting briefed last fall. >> kroft: john koskinen is the commissioner of the i.r.s.-- its fourth commissioner in just two years. it's become a high-turnover position in part because the agency has been beset by a number of embarrassing problems- - including stolen identity tax fraud-- that have led people to question its competency. it looks to me like the i.r.s. got really outsmarted by some people who were not all that bright, were not all that ingenious. >> koskinen: what happened was a lot of people discovered that

social security numbers are, a-- either easy to steal or find or buy; and then, b-- you can file a false return. >> kroft: why didn't anybody anticipate that? >> koskinen: well, i think it goes back to the fact that people didn't anticipate social security numbers were going to be so readily available. the assumption was until fairly recently was a part of your identity that you protected and took great care of, so that no one actually ever expected that they would be this easy to get a hold of. >> kroft: but there were plenty of warnings. the senate finance committee held hearings on stolen identity refund fraud way back in 2009 when then-i.r.s. commissioner douglas shulman testified. >> douglas shulman: i discussed the issue of identity theft with the senior leaders at the i.r.s. my first day on the job. >> kroft: there were more hearings in 2011, and another in 2012 with deputy i.r.s. commissioner steve miller.

>> steve miller: we cannot stop all identity theft however we are better than we were and we will get better still. >> kroft: in those ensuing years, the number of cases of stolen identity refund fraud has risen from 51,000 to nearly three million. >> ferrer: in the year 2012, the department of treasury's inspector general predicted that by the year 2016, irs will be hemorrhaging, and losing $21 billion due to this type of fraud. >> kroft: it's only 2014. don't you think something can be done in the next two years to fix this? >> ferrer: well, that is my hope. >> kroft: but it will not be easy. the entire i.r.s. system uses social security numbers as its primary means of identifying taxpayers. even though they are now ubiquitous in public, private and corporate files, just waiting to be stolen by thieves. >> ferrer: the key to this is to have somebody in the inside, or someone who has access to our social security numbers, to our date of births.

and a lot of these individuals are insiders in big institutions-- in banks, hospitals, schools, clinics. >> williams: we would approach anyone who worked at like a dental office, anybody who worked in a medical field. you would tell them if they get you 100 names, you would give them $1,000. >> kroft: these people easy to find in miami? >> williams: very easy. very easy. >> kroft: because you would think if you went in and started knocking on doors and asking people that worked at hospitals and doctors' offices and dentists' office, somebody would call the cops. >> williams: no, they... they needed the money more than they wanted to call the cops. everybody was with it, everybody was with the scam. >> kroft: was this like a community of people doing this? >> williams: more like a... a nation of people doing this. >> kroft: it's gone from hundreds of people filing hundreds of fraudulent returns to thousands of people filing millions of fraudulent returns and it's become much more

organized. u.s. attorney ferrer says some people are even setting up franchises. >> ferrer: we have had defendants, masterminds of these schemes, engage in filing parties. and what they do is that they invite their friends to a hotel room or to an apartment, and then they tell them how to do it in return for a cut of these tax returns. >> kroft: you make it sound like amway or tupperware. >> ferrer: that's what we've seen. >> kroft: even ferrer's old boss, u.s. attorney general eric holder, has had his identity stolen in an i.r.s. refund scam. and a number of members of the task force have also been victimized, including north miami beach police officer rocky festa, who says local police departments have been hit hard. >> rocky festa: aventura had nearly their entire department which was 50-some-odd officers got hit. davie fire and davie police, it was in the hundreds. they were all victims of tax return fraud. >> kroft: festa and his partner craig caitlin now work exclusively on tax refund cases and were among the first to

discover the breadth of the scam five years ago when they began finding tax documents and stacks of pre-paid debit cards when they pulled over suspicious vehicles. >> craig caitlin: here is a wire plastic with a card. >> kroft: you can get one of these prepaid debit cards almost anywhere, usually without providing identification. you then deposit and withdraw money from it as needed. it's like a bank account for people who don't have one. now is that a visa... a real visa card? >> caitlin: it's a real visa card and you can buy... >> kroft: so you can go in a convenience store and buy a visa card? >> caitlin: right off the shelf. >> kroft: if you want, the i.r.s. will electronically deposit tax refunds directly onto these cards, no questions asked, eliminating the need for crooks to ever actually set foot inside a bank or try to cash a refund check. they can spend the money in stores, or withdraw it from a.t.m.s. so is this kind of like a throwaway phone? >> caitlin: yes, sir. yeah, once the money goes on the card, you empty the money off on a.t.m.s and you put the card in the garbage.

it's pretty good. >> kroft: the prepaid cards are now used by millions of americans to collect $142 billion in government entitlements, like social security and medicare payments. i.r.s. commissioner koskinen thinks its an invitation to commit fraud. >> koskinen: the prepaid cards are the currency of criminals. our problem is you can't distinguish the number of a prepaid card from a legitimate bank account. >> kroft: almost impossible to trace, right? >> koskinen: it is almost impossible to trace. >> kroft: why doesn't somebody put an end to that? >> koskinen: there are significant percentages of the population that were unbanked, as it were called. if you don't allow them to use a prepaid card, they are going to have to get a check and they'll have to pay somebody a lot of money to cash that check. so you are disadvantaging a significant amount of the population. >> kroft: and empowering a criminal network? >> koskinen: and you are empowering a criminal network. >> kroft: five years into the scam, the i.r.s. still cannot not tell if the person filing

the return and claiming the refund is actually the real taxpayer. by comparison, the credit card companies are much better at flagging suspicious charges before they are paid out. credit card companies don't have that much of a problem with this. why can't the i.r.s. do that? >> koskinen: so that's the direction in which we're going. it's a significant move into the what i call the 21st century. we're still kind of in the late 1900s. but this is... it's still a big problem that, while we are making great progress, we've got a lot of work to do. >> kroft: and they're having trouble keeping up with the con artists. last month, the i.r.s. announced that hackers had busted into it's computer system and stolen another 104,000 taxpayer identities, which so far have been used to collect nearly $50 million in bogus refunds. as for corey williams, he is now in jail serving his 40-month sentence. we live in a world of mobile technology,

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>> pelley: the department of veterans affairs is in the midst of the biggest reorganization in its history. it comes after the agency's biggest fiasco. it was just a year ago that we learned that tens of thousands of vets were waiting months for medical care, while managers cooked the books to hide the delays. the former secretary was forced out. as we first reported last fall the new man in charge has no government or medical experience. but 62-year-old bob mcdonald does know management. he was chief executive officer of proctor and gamble, the largest consumer products company in the world. we wanted to know how a soap salesman will go about cleaning up the v.a. how many employees do you think

should be fired, based on what you know? >> robert mcdonald: well, the report we've passed up to the senate committee and house committee has about 35 names on it. i've got another report that has over 1,000. >> pelley: if 1,000 people need to go, give me a sense of what are some of the things that they did? >> mcdonald: we're simplistically talking about people who violated our values. >> pelley: and those values are what? >> mcdonald: it's integrity, it's advocacy, it's respect, it's excellence. these are the things that we try to do for our veterans. >> pelley: but bob mcdonald can't punish or fire 1,000 people right now. he's discovering how different the capitol is from capitalism. to fire a government manager, he has to put together a case and prove it to an administrative judge. >> mcdonald: scott, the reason this is... reason this is okay in some respects, is that... >> pelley: a lot of people think it's not okay... >> mcdonald: well, that's

different. >> pelley: ...that if people lied and put veterans second and their self first, they should be cleared out. >> mcdonald: absolutely. absolutely. but we've got to make it stick. >> pelley: how do you mean? >> mcdonald: so we propose the action, the judge rules, and the individual has a time to appeal. that's why we have a lot of people on administrative leave-- we've moved them out, because we don't want any harm to our veterans. >> bob, i'd like you to meet my district commander. >> mcdonald: hi, bob mcdonald. >> pelley: when we met mcdonald, he'd been on the job four months and was getting an education. he had inspected 41 v.a. facilities. we caught up with him in boston, where we discovered that he refuses to be called "mr. secretary." >> it's so good to meet you, mr. secretary. >> mcdonald: i'm bob. please call me bob. >> pelley: his washington staff can't get their heads around calling the boss by his first name, so they've taken to calling him "secretary bob." >> mcdonald: so you were with patton in north africa? >> no, he was with me. ( laughter )

>> pelley: he'll need that sense of humor because mcdonald is battling a behemoth cobbled together over decades. the v.a. is the second largest agency in the entire federal government, behind only the department of defense. >> mcdonald: we have no hope of taking care of veterans if we don't take of each other. >> pelley: he has 340,000 employees, who handle services ranging from home mortgages to college loans to heart transplants. >> mcdonald: well, you've got people who really care about veterans here. >> exactly. >> pelley: with nine million patients, the v.a. is america's largest healthcare system, but it had slipped into critical condition. last year, a doctor in phoenix exposed those phony waitlists. >> barack obama: it is dishonorable. it is disgraceful. and i will not tolerate it period. >> pelley: investigators found that the official records showed that vets in phoenix were getting appointments in 14 days, but this was the true waitlist.

those are numbers of days in the right-hand column-- more than 400 days in most cases. the investigation found that the wait may have contributed to six deaths. it was all because phoenix was overwhelmed. the general condition of the emergency room at that time you would describe as what? >> katherine mitchell: chaos. absolute chaos. >> pelley: doctor katherine mitchell was co-director of the emergency room. how well known was it inside the v.a. in phoenix that veterans were going months without getting an appointment? >> mitchell: everyone knew that, everyone that worked at the phoenix v.a. for any length of time. >> pelley: and when she reported the problems, she was reassigned to an empty clinic. >> mitchell: in 2013, i submitted a confidential o.i.g. complaint regarding the life- threatening issues within the phoenix v.a. system. >> pelley: dr. mitchell was among the first to blow the whistle. >> mitchell: i had veterans who had survived world war ii, who had survived pork chop hill, who

survived the battle of fallujah, who had gone through so many situations of combat, where it's a life and death situation. and yet, i could not guarantee their safety in the middle of metropolitan phoenix in my e.r., because we didn't have adequate staffing or training. >> pelley: a nationwide investigation confirmed the phony waitlists in phoenix and 92 other v.a. centers. when you read that in the inspector general's report, you thought what? >> mcdonald: i was incensed. i was incensed. our veterans have earned these benefits. they earn them with their lives in danger. >> pelley: it strikes me that you are coming into a system which was broken because the people in the regions were lying to headquarters. >> mcdonald: this is one of the reasons i have traveled. i've got to get to the bottom of it. i've got to meet the people, so the adverse information gets from the bottom to the top as quickly as possible. people get rewarded for bringing adverse information forward. >> pelley: that has never been the case before.

>> mcdonald: it's going to be the case now. i have a piece of paper right here from a veteran. >> pelley: the day we were with him, a vet had driven 1,200 miles to get care at the boston v.a. hospital. she slipped mcdonald this note. >> mcdonald: can you read it? it says, "i'm from alabama and i had to come here to boston to get care." that breaks my heart. >> pelley: other failures boggle the mind. in pittsburgh, six vets died of legionnaires disease in a v.a. hospital that had known its water system was contaminated. in brockton, massachusetts, a vietnam vet was hospitalized for eight years with a psychiatric disorder, but no one ever scheduled an appointment for him with a psychiatrist. when you got the call suggesting this job, i would imagine you would've thought, "oh, boy. i'm not sure i need that headache at this point in my life."

>> mcdonald: my immediate reaction was, "i want to do it." i feel like my whole life has been designed to lead to this. >> pelley: the design of bob mcdonald's life, in many ways, started at the u.s. military academy. he graduated in '75, and served five years as a paratrooper. he bought his first home with a v.a. loan. and the v.a. paid for his master's degree. in 33 years at proctor and gamble, he put tide, pampers and joy into most of the cupboards on earth. though he left west point long ago, west point never left him. the first time you saw this view of the hudson river, you were 18 years old, here at west point, getting sworn in at this very spot. and i wonder what that experience has done to inform your life? >> mcdonald: i think it's the west point motto-- "duty, honor, country." >> pelley: he's sentimental that

way, uncompromising. so it's no wonder his new number two at the v.a. is his west point classmate, sloan gibson, who used to run the u.s.o. as cadets, they sat across the table from each other in the mess hall. >> sloan gibson: the first place i visited was phoenix, ground zero. while i was in phoenix, i met with a large group of employees. they wanted to do the right thing. they worked really hard, but the system and the organization was just not supporting them. what i saw there-- leadership failure, mismanagement, and chronic under-investment in the system. >> pelley: already, gibson has suspended bonuses for all v.a. executives. and he fired the director of an alabama hospital. >> any questions? >> no, all set. thank you very much. >> okay. >> pelley: bob mcdonald's reorganization of the v.a. is designed so veterans won't have to go to war to get their benefits. >> mcdonald: well, right now they face nine different organization structures across the country, so they don't know

where to go. and if they do find somebody to go to, that person may be an expert in benefits but not an expert in heath care. and we want to create a customer service representative that that person can go to. secondly, they face multiple web sites that require multiple user names and multiple passwords and that's not acceptable. we've got to get to one web site, one entry point, and then fan people out from there. >> can you stand up for me? >> pelley: something he's already done is given doctors a raise. v.a. physicians were making less than most private doctors. it was hard to fill the open jobs, and that led to those intolerable waitlists. how many doctors and nurses and medical professionals do you need to hire right now? >> mcdonald: if we could do it today, we would tell you we probably need about 28,000, is what we said in our... in our committee testimony. >> pelley: i'm sorry, 28... >> mcdonald: yes. >> pelley: ...thousand? >> mcdonald: yes. but wait a minute, scott... >> pelley: how long is that going to take? >> mcdonald: well, it's going to take time, because every adverse outcome that gets amplified by

the media doesn't help me. i... i was on... >> pelley: you've got a bad reputation. >> mcdonald: i do. but we're changing it. it is the largest integrated health network in the united states. >> pelley: he's trying to change that reputation himself. mcdonald is personally recruiting doctors and nurses. this was massachusetts general hospital. >> mcdonald: if you want to do research, clinical work, and teach at the same time, this is a great place to work. >> pelley: later, we caught him calling a young doctor that he'd met the day before. >> mcdonald: i heard what a wonderful cardiologist you are so we've got some state-of-the- art stuff we're doing here, and we'd like to get you onboard. and if you get to washington i'd love to see you. >> pelley: and if you know the number of a good psychiatrist, mcdonald needs to hire 2,500 mental health professionals. since 2006, 400,000 vets, many from iraq and afghanistan, have applied for mental health services. >> mcdonald: we've had an instance where we've spoken to the family, and the family has told us that the individual came to the v.a., and they got out of

their car and they took their own life in our parking lot because they knew that we could then deal with it. and they didn't want to do it at home with their family. >> pelley: deal with their body... >> mcdonald: well, deal with the tragedy. >> pelley: there are many tragic, senseless failures around the v.a. but we noticed something else, too. >> if there is any bonuses to be given out, give them to these people. >> mcdonald: i will. >> pelley: everywhere mcdonald went, there were plenty of vets eager to praise their care, from rehab... >> and there was a lot of other guys and ladies that, you know was homeless like i became, and we stayed like a family... >> pelley: ...to a boston homeless shelter funded by the v.a. >> thank you for coming, sir. >> mcdonald: my pleasure. are you kidding? i knew you were here. i wanted to see you. >> pelley: while his staff gets used to "secretary bob," there's another term they're learning. he calls vets "customers,"

which, to a proctor and gamble mind, is both a compliment and a bond. mcdonald says, by next year, there will be one web site, not 12. new patients will see a doctor within 30 days, and no one will wait for their benefits. what do you owe these veterans? not the v.a., but bob mcdonald-- what do you owe these veterans? >> mcdonald: well, this... this is very personal, because i served with a lot of these guys. and we were in very dangerous situations. and anytime you jump out of an airplane in a parachute, you're putting your life in danger. and as a jump master, you're checking that person's equipment, and their life is reliant on yours. that's the kind of relationships you create. those are the relationships that drive me to do this. >> pelley: a few footnotes to our story. last fall, mcdonald apologized for telling a homeless veteran

that he had served in special operations when he had only gone through the training. as for the v.a., the average wait for a doctor is now just four days. and mcdonald fired the executive director of that phoenix hospital at the center of the scandal. >> and now a cbs sports update brought to you by pfizer. at the travelers championship in cromwell, connecticut, bubba watson won many a playoff over paul casey. watson's second win of the season, and his eighth career at the present title. meanwhile new york major league baseball, steven strasburg had his best performance of the season as the nationals beat the phillies. the mets won a 13-inning thriller against cincinnati. for more sports news and information, go to cbssports.com, jim nantz reporting from connecticut. before you and your rheumatologist

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>> cooper: when david letterman retired in may, he could have chosen just about anyone in the world to be his final musical guest. the honor went to foo fighters one of the last great american rock bands that consistently sells millions of albums and fills stadiums around the world. they were created 20 years ago by lead singer and guitarist dave grohl, but it was his latest project that really got our attention. the band has made a multi-part documentary and recorded an album called "sonic highways." it's a mix of music history, journalism, songwriting, and old-fashioned rock 'n' roll. and, as we first reported last fall, it's unlike anything any rock band has ever attempted and a reflection of everything dave grohl loves about making music. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> cooper: 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 for me 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 last year 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 history 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 and 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 both a musician and a historian, and says he was often surprised about what he learned. >> grohl: well, everybody knows nashville is 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. 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 in a 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 wouldn't be released for six months, 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... it's 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. >> cooper: 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, as i was sitting there interviewing him 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 46, 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 returned to each of the eight cities where they recorded "sonic highways," but grohl fell in love with 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. sponsored by lyrica.

before i had the shooting, burning, pins-and-needles of diabetic nerve pain, these feet grew up in a family of boys... married my high school sweetheart... and pursued a degree in education. but i couldn't bear my diabetic nerve pain any longer. so i talked to my doctor and she prescribed lyrica. nerve damage from diabetes causes diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is fda-approved to treat this pain. lyrica may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new, or worsening depression or unusual changes in mood or behavior. or swelling, trouble breathing rash, hives, blisters, muscle pain with fever, tired feeling, or blurry vision. common side effects are dizziness, sleepiness, weight gain and swelling of hands, legs and feet. don't drink alcohol while taking lyrica. don't drive or use machinery until you know how lyrica affects you. those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. now i have less diabetic nerve pain. and i love helping first graders put their best foot forward. ask your doctor about lyrica.

hey mom. yeah? we got allstate, right? uh-huh. yes! well, i found this new thing... called allstate quickfoto claim. it's an app. you understand that? just take photos of the damage with your phone and upload them to allstate. really? so you get a quicker estimate, quicker payment, quicker back to normal. i just did it. but maybe you can find an app that will help you explain this to your father. introducing quickfoto claim. just another way allstate is changing car insurance for good.

why are all these people so asleep yet i'm so awake? did you know your brain has two systems? one helps keep you awake- the other helps you sleep. science suggests when you have insomnia, the wake system in your brain may be too strong and your neurotransmitters remain too active as you try to sleep, which could be leading to your insomnia. ohh...maybe that's what's preventing me from getting the sleep i need! talk to your doctor about ways to manage your insomnia.

>> kroft: i'm steve kroft.

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captioning funded by cbs and ford captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> announcer: breach previously on big brother! the battle for a $500,000 prize. audrey, da'vonne and shelli didn't waste waste any time forming an all girl alliance. >> oh, my god. female power, baby. watch out where boys. >> announcer: after learning the battle of the block was back. >> julie: you could go from being head of household to being evicted in the same week. >> wow. announcer: james became the first head of household of the summer. >> i told you guys i wasn't going nowhere. >> announcer: but before the tomato juice could dry, julie