( ticking ) captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> tonight, on this special edition of "60 minutes presents: an hour of music." >> ♪ i left my heart... ♪ >> tony bennett's been singing and swinging for 70 years. now, at 95, he's struggling with dementia, but as we saw when we spent time with him, not even alzheimer's could stop this legend from getting back on stage with his friend lady gaga and putting on what may be his last and best performance ever. ♪ steppin' out with my baby ♪ can't go wrong 'cause i'm in right ♪ ( ticking ) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> as often as we hear bands play, we rarely glimpse bands at

work; much less the biggest band that ever was. well, teleport to 1969, and meet the beatles. ♪ ♪ ♪ director peter jackson went deep, sifting through dozens of hours of never-before-seen film, allowing the world an intimate look at the beatles in studio, and an intimate listen to every conversation. >> left his home in tucson, arizona. ( ticking ) ♪ ♪ ♪ >> on stage, chris stapleton can silence an arena with a slow burning ballad... ♪ ♪ ♪ ...or manipulate his guitar to sound like trouble walking through the door. ♪ ♪ ♪ so, why are musicians like adele and p!nk so eager to work with this clearly country musician? just listen. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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( ticking ) >> cooper: good evening. i'm anderson cooper. and welcome to "60 minutes presents." tonight, we celebrate this first official sunday of summer with an hour of music, including tunes for nearly every taste. we'll join the beatles as they prepare for their final public concert on a london rooftop, and then head to nashville to meet country music's chris stapleton. but, we begin with another look at our poignant portrait of the legendary tony bennett. when tony bennett's family announced he had alzheimer's disease in february of 2021, few of the then-94-year-old singer's fans imagined they'd ever see him on stage again. but, last summer, with his family's help, he began rehearsing for two concerts at radio city music hall, with his friend lady gaga. no one knew for sure if tony would be able to pull it off,

but his family believed that tony's story could give hope to others struggling with alzheimer's, and they invited us to follow him, preparing for what would likely be his final act. ♪ i left my heart in san francisco ♪ >> anderson cooper: tony bennett has been singing hits and swinging jazz... ♪ high on a hill ♪ >> cooper: ...for seven decades. but for tony, now, those years are a dim memory, lost in the fog of dementia from alzheimer's. he spends much of his time in his new york apartment looking through books and old photos. what are these of? we met tony and his wife susan last june, a few weeks before his 95th birthday. is that bob hope? >> tony bennett: bob and dolores. >> susan benedetto: they sent that for your 75th birthday. and in a month and a half, you're going to be 95. ( laughs )

how about that? >> tony bennett: it's amazing. ( laughter ) >> cooper: do you feel 95? you don't look it. >> susan benedetto: how old do you feel, tone? >> tony bennett: 95. ( laughter ) >> cooper: tony has his good moments-- but susan has to do most of the talking. she says he first grew concerned about his memory six years ago. >> susan benedetto: we came home one night, and he said, "susan," he said, "i'm having a hard time remembering the names of the musicians." and-- >> cooper: the musicians he was playing with? >> susan benedetto: yeah, on s-- who he works with all the time. and so, it was unusual. and i said, "well, do you want to go see a doctor about it?" and he said, "i do." >> cooper: did you know right away that it was alzheimer's? >> dr. gayatri devi: yeah. >> cooper: dr. gayatri devi is tony's neurologist. she diagnosed him in 2017. >> cooper: do you know what is happening in-- in tony's brain? >> dr. devi: no one really knows. but i know that his hippocampus, which is the grand central station of memories-- and the conduit through which we retrieve memories, as well as lay down memories-- is not working very well. >> susan benedetto: look at this, tone. >> tony bennett: wow, what's that?

>> susan benedetto: that's a painting that you did. >> cooper: susan and tony have been together for more than 30 years. she's now his full-time caregiver. how much does tony understand about what's going on around him at any given time? >> susan benedetto: every day is different. tony-- late at night, sometimes early in the morning, he's more alert, if i can use that word. so, i'll tell him, "tone, you're going to be on '60 minutes'." he's, like, "great." i said, "you remember that show, '60 minutes'?" he's, like, "i do." but in any other given moment, he won't know. >> cooper: i mean, he recognizes you. >> susan benedetto: he recognizes me, thank goodness. his children, you know. we are blessed in a lot of ways. he's very sweet. he doesn't know he has it. >> cooper: he doesn't know he has alzheimer's. >> susan benedetto: nuh-uh. >> cooper: what he does know is that he's at home, not performing on stage. he'd continued to sing after his diagnosis... but the pandemic took him off the road. susan says it's been hard on him. >> susan benedetto: it was gayatri devi, our doctor, who said, "if he wants to sing, let him sing, because that's the best thing for him."

you know, all the meds and all the treatments they do to stimulate your brain, for him, there's nothing more stimulating than performing. >> cooper: tony's oldest son and manager, danny bennett, came up with the idea of the radio city concerts last august with lady gaga. it was broadcast on cbs this past fall. >> danny bennett: the pandemic was a big-- ( sighs ) it was a big thing for me. like, an... ending his career on-- on that note... >> cooper: it couldn't end that way. >> danny bennett: couldn't end that way. after all that he'd-- he did. ♪ oh, it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing ♪ >> cooper: tony and lady gaga released their first album together in 2014. ♪ doo-wa, doo-wa, doo-wa i've got you under my skin ♪ >> cooper: in 2018, he was able to record another album with her, which was released this past fall. by last june, however, his disease had progressed, and susan told us she wasn't sure exactly what would happen at the

planned radio city concert. >> susan benedetto: how you doing, handsome? >> tony bennett: okay. >> susan benedetto: you want to look over here at me? ( laughs ) (♪ piano ♪) >> cooper: but when it was time to rehearse, something incredible happened. tony's accompanist, lee musiker, began playing, and suddenly, the legendary showman was back. ♪ let someone start believin' in you ♪ let him hold out his hand let him find you and watch what happens! ♪ smile though your heart is aching ♪ smile even though it's breaking ♪ >> cooper: he had no notes, no cue cards. ♪ when there are clouds in the sky ♪ you'll get by ♪ >> cooper: we were amazed. all his old songs were somehow still there.

he sang an hour-long set from memory. ♪ if you just smile... ♪ ( applause ) >> lee musiker: bravo, tony. >> tony bennett: thank you. >> cooper: that was incredible. you just start playing something and it's all there? >> musiker: when i start playing, tony is completely engaged. and this is a whole new performance, and new phrases, new nuance. nothing short of a miracle. >> cooper: dr. gayatri devi explained how a transformation like that was possible. >> dr. devi: people respond differently depending on their strengths. in tony's case, it's his musical memory, his ability to be a performer. those are an innate and hard- wired part of his brain. so, even though he doesn't know

what the day might be or where his apartment is, he still can sing the whole repertoire of the american songbook and move people. >> cooper: how does music stimulate the brain? >> dr. devi: it engages multiple different parts of the brain, right? so there's the auditory cortex for hearing. there is the part of the brain that deals with movement and dance. there is the visual system that gets engaged, so it's kind of like a whole brain activator. >> cooper: tony could remember the songs-- but, could he remember how to perform them in front of thousands of people? lady gaga knew it wasn't going to be easy. >> lady gaga: and you know, anderson, for the first couple of weeks that i saw tony since covid, he called me "sweetheart," but i wasn't sure he knew who i was. >> cooper: in rehearsals last july, she found new ways to connect and communicate with her old friend-- when asking him questions, she'd keep it simple. >> lady gaga: for example, if i were to say, "tony, would you

like to sing 'love for sale'," he'll say, "yeah." and if i say, "tony, would you like to sing 'love for sale' or 'it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing'--" he might not have as easy of a response. do you want to sing "anything goes?" >> tony bennett: yeah. >> lady gaga: all right, great." anything goes," everybody! >> lady gaga: when that music comes on-- ( snaps ) it's-- something happens to him. he knows exactly what he's doing. and what's important for me, actually, just to make sure that i don't get in the way of that. >> cooper: on opening night last august, radio city's 6,000 seats were sold out. it was tony's 95th birthday... >> crowd: ♪ happy birthday to you ♪ >> cooper: ...and his fans were waiting. >> crowd: we love you, tony! >> cooper: lady gaga opened the show. backstage, susan did her best to remind tony what was happening. >> susan benedetto: we're going to watch lady gaga's set. >> tony bennett: right. >> susan benedetto: and then you're going to sing. okay? >> tony bennett: how many songs am i singing?

>> susan benedetto: i'll tell you what you're going to sing. >> cooper: when it was time, they walked toward the stage together. then, the lights went out, and the curtain went up. >> tony bennett: wow! >> susan benedetto: well, once he saw the audience, and, you know, and he raises his hands, he's-- i knew we were all right, because he became himself. he just turned on. you know, it was like a light switch. ♪ let someone start believin' in you ♪ let him hold out his hand let him find you, and... watch what happens ♪ steppin' out with my baby can't go wrong cause i'm in ♪ right ask me when will that day be the ♪ big day may be tonight! this is all i ask ♪ >> cooper: there may have been a

few missteps, but the crowd didn't care. it was tony's night, and the old crooner was in command. ♪ beautiful girls walk a little slowheyolk bme... ♪ ( cheers and applause ) >> cooper: he sang more than a dozen songs, and got at least 20 standing ovations. >> tony bennett: should we keep going? ( cheers and applause ) wow! what a great audience. >> cooper: when it came time for lady gaga to join him for some final duets, listen to what tony said as she appeared on stage: >> lady gaga: hey, tony! >> tony bennett: whoa, lady gaga! ( cheers and applause ) i like that! >> lady gaga: me, too. >> tony bennett: do it again. >> lady gaga: okay!

that's the first time that tony said my name, in a long time. >> cooper: really, in all the weeks leading up to it, he hadn't said your name? wow. >> lady gaga: i had to keep it together, because we had a sold- out show, and i have a job to do. but i'll tell you, when i walked out on that stage, and he said, "it's lady gaga," my friend saw me. and it was very special. ♪ go to the opera and i stay wide awake ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> cooper: and at the end of the night, lady gaga was there to walk tony bennett off the stage one last time. >> lady gaga: it's the last thing that i said to tony, on stage, was-- "mr. bennett, it would be my honor if i could escort you off the stage."

and he said, "okay." and i did. and, just simply being the woman that got to walk him off stage, that's enough for me. you were so amazing. >> tony bennett: the public loved it. >> lady gaga: they did! you were-- you were spectacular. everybody, mr. tony bennett! >> susan benedetto: i thought it was a triumph, really. it's, like-- you know, climbing mt. olympus, and he made it. >> cooper: a few days after that triumph, we met tony and susan on their daily walk in central park. how did you feel about the concert the other night? >> tony bennett: i don't know what you mean. >> cooper: i saw you at radio city. you did a great job. >> tony bennett: oh, thank you very much. >> cooper: tony had no memory of playing radio city at all. is this a sad story, tony bennett's last performance? >> lady gaga: no. it's not a sad story. it's emotional. it's hard to watch somebody change.

i think what's been beautiful about this, and what's been challenging, is to see how it affects him in some ways, but to see how it doesn't affect his talent. i think he really pushed through something to give the world the gift of knowing that things can change and you can still be magnificent. ♪ your golden sun will shine for me! ♪ ( cheers and applause ) >> cooper: tony bennett's album with lady gaga, released this past fall, won two grammy awards. he turns 96 in august, and, his wife susan tells us, tony is still singing all his old songs, every week, at home.

( ticking ) >> anderson cooper on witnessing what was likely tony bennett's final act. at www.60minutesovertime.com. okay, snacks and popcorn are gonna be expensive. le. going to the movies can be a lot arents. bathrooms -- even if you don't have to go, you should try. we all know where the bathroom is and how to us it, okay? you know, the stevensons told me they saved money

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>> wertheim: it's january, 1969, and the beatles are unrecognizable from the wide-eyed mop-tops who appeared on the "ed sullivan show" just five years prior. their popularity is unrivalled. they've stopped touring, and fame is exacting its price. now comes a self-imposed stress: they've given themselves three weeks to record 14 songs that they'll play to a live audience, all the while trailed by cameras. the astonishingly intimate footage was recently extracted from a london vault and placed in the capable hands of filmmaker peter jackson. as we first reported last november, his resulting three-part disney+ documentary

series, "get back," adds considerable light and joy to what was always considered to be the beatles' darkest period. you might say jackson took a sad song, and-- well, you know the rest. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> wertheim: often as we hear bands play, we rarely glimpse bands at work, much less the biggest band that ever was. well, teleport to 1969, and meet the beatles. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ you're the first person to look at this with fresh eyes in yers and years. what was it like watching this footage? >> peter jackson: it was fascinating. and after 50 years, you'd have every right to believe that everything with the beatles had been talked about. every bit of film had been seen, ever bit of music had been heard, that there was no more surprises with the beatles.

>> wertheim: from his base in new zealand, director peter jackson took a break from directing big-budget studio films like "lord of the rings," and has spent the last four years hanging out with john, paul, george and ringo. >> jackson: suddenly, bang, out of nowhere comes this incredible treasure trove of fly-on-the- wall material, 52 years later. it still blows my mind. it actually, honestly still blows my mind. >> paul mccartney: so how about, how about changing around these two, and when you sing "don't you know it's going to last," we sing, "it's a love that has no past." >> wertheim: so, give us some historical context here. under what circumstances was this footage shot? >> jackson: they've lost what they loved as teenagers. they've lost being the four guys playing in a band. so, they're going to record a new album with songs that only--

that they're only going to play live. and they're not going to do any studio tricks. there's going to be no multitracking. and they had to-- they had to figure out where and how they were going to perform to an audience. >> mccartney: bom, cha, bom-bom. >> wertheim: as the beatles wrote and rehearsed, they allowed a film crew to capture every riff, both on guitar and in conversation. >> mccartney: i mean, corny is all right in this one, because what he's doing is corny. but see, that's the thing that will make it not corny, is if we sing different words. so it's-- "i'm in love for the first time." >> wertheim: the months'-worth of filming yielded only the forgettable 80-minute documentary, "let it be," released a year later, after the beatles broke up. a lifelong beatles fan, peter jackson had always wondered, what had happened to all those hours of unseen footage? >> jonathan clyde: so, here we are vault number three. >> wertheim: his tolkien-like quest took him deep under the london headquarters of apple corps, the beatles' label. >> jackson: they just said, "we've got it all. we've got 57 hours of footage. we've got 130 hours of audio." and then they said that they were thinking about making a

documentary using the footage. i just put up my hand and said, "well, if-- if you are looking for somebody to make it? don't-- please just-- think-- think of me." >> wertheim: back in new zealand, jackson began the ultimate binge-watch, screening this musical mother lode, frame by frame. given that any beatles fan will tell you that "let it be" comes shrouded in sadness-- forever associated with the great divorce in rock and roll history-- jackson braced for the gloomy worst. >> jackson: i was watching, i was waiting for it to get bad. i was waiting for the narrative that i'd believed over the years to start happening. i was waiting for the arguments. waiting for the discontent. waiting for the misery. and, you know, it didn't happen. i mean, it shows-- you know, it shows issues. it shows problems. but-- but any band, any time, has tho-- has those-- has those problems. this is not a band that's breaking up. these are not guys that dislike each other. that's not what i'm-- what-- what we're seeing here. that's not what was being

filmed. >> john lennon: yeah, but the >> wertheim: here's what was being filmed: the four liverpudlians in their late 20s, working collaboratively, surrounded by a strikingly small, tight entourage. there's linda-- linda eastman, at the time-- taking photos. and, of course, yoko ono. as long as we're here, let's dispense now with that famous bit of beatles break-up mythology. the casual fan looking for "yoko ono broke up the beatles" might come away from this disappointed, i suspect. >> giles martin: yeah, i think that's a good thing, you know. i mean, yoko didn't break up the beatles. and-- and no one thing broke up the beatles. >> george martin: that's the original. >> giles martin: that's the original. >> wertheim: giles martin is the

son of late beatles producer george martin. giles grew up in the beatles orbit, and has since remixed most of the band's albums. when peter jackson enlisted him for this series, martin plowed through all the hundreds of hours of audio and video. >> giles martin: you can see the cracks appearing. the one thing about this movie is that people understand why they were getting tired of each other. because you get the sense of what it was like to be in a room with them, which is such a privilege for all of us. >> wertheim: despite those cracks, the beatles alchemy remains potent. >> jackson: at one point, we have footage of paul mccartney sort of strumming on-- on his bass, which he uses as a guitar half the time. just sort of strumming. i think it's early in the morning, and they're waiting for john to-- hasn't arrived yet. he's just biding some time. he slowly finds the tune. ♪("get back")

>> jackson: and so, you see this song kind of just be plucked out of thin air. >> mccartney: left his home in tucson, arizona. >> lennon: is tucson in arizona? >> mccartney: yeah. it's where they make "high chaparral." like, i can make sense of it. jojo left his home, hoping it would be a blast, pretty soon he found that he'd have to be a loner with some california grass. and now you think, okay, that makes sense, but it doesn't sing good. >> wertheim: the beatles had always been furiously productive, but this was the creative process in double time: 14 songs in 22 days. was that as much an absurd time pressure in 1969 as it would appear to be today? >> giles martin: yeah. this is the biggest band on the planet, saying we're going to do-- we're going to do our first show in three years, in three weeks' time. but we don't know where it's going to be, and we don't know what songs we're going to play. >> wertheim: as you listen to all the recordings for this project, what impressions did you arrive at, in terms of their chemistry?

>> giles martin: my impression of it is that paul and john kind of knew that they were growing apart, and "let it be" was almost like a marriage that's failing, and they want to go back on their date nights again. werth comunding matter george haon--d bristling under paul mccartney's driving ambition-- leaves the band after a week.u'vever seen in your life. it's just-- "i'm leaving now." "what?" "i'm leaving the band now." and then he goes. there's no fight, there's no argument, there's no disagreement. >> wertheim: john was in love with yoko and, in his words, he was mistreating his body. the band was competing for his attention-- not always successfully. >> lennon: when i was younger, much younger than today, i never needed anybody's help in any way. but now my life has changed in oh-so-many ways,

a wop-bop-alooma, a-wop-bam-boom. >> mccartney: we can't carry on like this indefinitely. >> lennon: we seem to be. >> mccartney: we seem to, but we can't. see, what you need is a serious program of work, not an aimless rambling amongst the canyons of your mind. >> wertheim: paul had, grudgingly, become the band's hall monitor, more lead than singer. george was persuaded to come back, but with the live performance approaching, the beatles decided they needed a change of scenery. they relocated to a makeshift studio in the basement of apple records. >> lennon: i dig a pygmy by charles hawtrey and the deaf aids. phase one, in which doris gets her oats. >> wertheim: a surge of fresh energy also came in the form of a keyboard player: billy preston, a 22-year-old texan brought in by george.

♪ ("get back") ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ what was the influence of billy preston on this album, and on the beatles at the time? bethey hhis force of nature in the room with them. and i think that's what he did. i think he orked as a catalyst and galvanized them so they could make the record and/or do the right performance. >> wertheim: it's an upbeat scene, at odds with how so many remembered that time, not least the principals themselves. but peter jackson's "get back" series doesn't just restore lost footage, or the beatles' music; it restores something much deeper.

you mentioned memory before. i wonder, did their recollections match up with this-- this documentary evidence you were presenting them with? >> jackson: 50 years later, i'm talking to-- to ringo and paul. and their memory was very miserable and unhappy. and i'd say, "look, what-- whatever your memories are, whatever you think your memories are, this is the actual truth of it. and here, look. look at-- look at this." ♪("the two of us") ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> jackson: they started to realize what-- what this is. i mean, this is a-- an incredibly amazing historical dontles work.d foriends at wor. clnds. ♪ ("for you, blue") ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> wertheim: the looming deadline didn't exactly dampen the mood in the studio. ♪ ("dig it") ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> wertheim: and what of the culmination of these sessions, that live performance? the band simply walked up a few flights of stairs, and on january 30, 1969, played atop the apple offices. ♪ ("get back") ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> wertheim: no one at the time suspected it, but this would mark the beatles' final performance, before splitting up 14 months later. it took a half century, and an

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booking.com >> alfonsi: his contemporaries will tell you he's among the best country music has these days. kentucky-bred chris stapleton is a triple threat: a powerfully-gifted singer, prolific songwriter, and skilled guitar player. as we first reported in january, his talents have connected with music fans across generations and genres. he's collaborated with artists like adele, p!nk, and carlos santana, and won eight grammy awards. but chris stapleton wasn't looking for accolades or stardom when he came to nashville. he was a storyteller. and he invited us backstage to hear his. ♪ ♪ ♪

before every concert, chris stapleton, and his all-star band-- that includes his wife, morgane-- start their night with a pre-show jam. ♪ ♪ ♪ minutes later, the music takes flight. ♪ ♪ ♪ there's no flash or gimmicks, nothing pre-recorded. it's live music in its purest form. ♪ ♪ ♪ center stage, chris stapleton looks every bit the country music star, but listen carefully. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

his music weaves between soul... ♪ ♪ ♪ southern rock... ♪ ♪ ♪ and heart-aching blues. ♪ ♪ ♪ you've sung about whiskey, women, weed, love, and heartbreak. does it get any more country than that? >> chris stapleton: i don't think it does get any more country than that. when people don't want to label me something other than a country singer-- you know, i don't probably sing like a traditional country singer, you know, but, ultimately, i'm me. and i'm just trying to be the best version of that that i can be. and whether that's playing a song that leans into blues or a song that leans into r&b or a song that leans into really distinctly outlaw country, i love all that music. and i don't feel limited to playing one type of song. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> alfonsi: on stage, he can silence an arena with a slow burning ballad. ♪ ♪ ♪ or manipulate his guitar to sound like trouble walking through the door. ♪ ♪ ♪ but off stage, we found chris stapleton to be soft-spoken, almost shy. >> chris stapleton: this guitar i got not that long ago. >> alfonsi: he showed us around his band cave in nashville, a rehearsal space filled with artifacts and awards. those are grammy's, and those are spray painted waffle irons. >> chris stapleton: they're based on airplay in the waffle house juke box, so as far i know we've won the most. >> alfonsi: the golden waffle? >> chris stapleton: yeah, well, it's called a tunie. i mean, grammy's are cool. this is fellow musicians voting for you. this is the people voting for you. >> alfonsi: the walls of the warehouse are lined with the instruments and gear he collects obsessively.

do you have a favorite guitar? this is only a fraction of it. he told us he takes about 20 of his guitars on tour. >> chris stapleton: this is number one. if i had to have one guitar, and, you know, it was an electric guitar, this would be the one i'd take with me. and the rest of them do other things and i love them very dearly, but this one this one is the one that i would take. >> alfonsi: did you ever take lessons? >> chris stapleton: i took one lesson, and then the guy that i took a lesson from quit teaching lessons. and so, that was kind of the end. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> alfonsi: musicians along the way taught him the rest. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> chris stapleton: any guitar player, like, real, you know, technically skilled, trained guitar player, will tell you that i'm not a great guitar player. >> alfonsi: that's not what they say. people say you're a great guitar player. >> chris stapleton: well, they do say that. other people say that. but i mean, i think i have a good sense of doing what i do. i'm probably more of a stylist than i am-- somebody who can do anything. i'm good at being me on guitar.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> alfonsi: chris stapleton's sense of self was sharpened in the mountains of eastern kentucky. his father was an engineer who worked in the coal mines and kept country music cds in the car. chris was an athlete, trying out a "starter mustache" back in high school. he was also listening to rap artists like dr. dre and snoop dogg. it's hard to think about you, rolling around, listening to p do. >> chris stapleton: yeah, it was-- you know, it was some of the realist-- it was so real that it translated even to some kid in eastern kentucky who had no notion of the things that he was talking about, you know. >> alfonsi: that's interesting. you used the word "real." like, it felt authentic to you even though that was not your world-- >> chris stapleton: well, i think it was. it was dangerous, too, and real and dangerous are very appealing to, you know, 15, 16-year-old

kids. >> alfonsi: stapleton graduated valedictorian from his high school and landed at vanderbilt university, transferred to kentucky, and then dropped out. eventually, discovering his dream job: writing music. you were going to be an engineer? >> chris stapleton: i was at one point, yeah. i did go to engineering school for a minute. >> alfonsi: what did-- what'd you think you were going to do? >> chris stapleton: i was-- my major was biomedical engineering. >> alfonsi: so, pretty much the same thing you're doing now. ( laughs ) >> chris stapleton: yeah, pretty much the same thing doing now. you know, i was like, well, my dad's an engineer. i'll go be an engineer, you know? and that was-- it wasn't for me. >> alfonsi: did you know you wanted to be a songwriter? >> chris stapleton: i didn't even know it was a thing. >> alfonsi: what do you mean? >> chris stapleton: i just assumed when people sang songs on records, that they made it up. you know, and then-- >> alfonsi: that it was coming from them. >> chris stapleton: yeah. and that-- and then, you know, i met somebody who was a songwriter. andthen it was just like, that's a job? they're going to pay you to sit in a room and make things up on guitar? that's m-- that's the-- i need that job. that's the job i want. >> alfonsi: in 2001, armed with the songs he'd been writing since high school, stapleton went back to nashville.

four days after arriving in town, he got a job with a music publishing company writing for other artists. he'd go on to write for some of country's biggest stars like george strait, miranda lambert, luke bryan, and blake shelton. how many songs do you think you've written? >> chris stapleton: i don't know. probably in excess of 1,000. >> alfonsi: 1,000. how many do you think are good? >> chris stapleton: ten. >> alfonsi: stop. ♪ ♪ ♪ what's a win for-- writing a what's a win for-- writing a song? when do you know, okay, this is-- i did this well. >> chris stapleton: i don't think i ever know that. the win is finishing the song. and there are a lot of songwriters who will claim that they know. "yeah, i knew this-- when we wrote this one that it was a six-week number one. and-- and i was going to get a big giant check in the mail."

i really just think those guys are full of ( bleep ). i don't think anybody knows that. like, you can't possibly know how everybody's going to feel about a song that you write. that's impossible to know. i don't trust computer research or phone surveys or anything like that. you have to take it to the people. i trust people. and i trust people who have taste. >> alfonsi: people like his wife, morgane. she was the one with the record deal when they met. her deal didn't last, but theirs did. ♪ ♪ ♪ she is the mother of their five children, his muse, and harmony singer. ♪ ♪ ♪ what was your first impression when you heard his voice, when you heard him sing, as a musician? >> morgane stapleton: it was very much a... a "whoa." he's so powerful. just the sheer volume of his voice is just-- it-- he doesn't need a microphone in a room that's quiet. it's powerful. >> alfonsi: but morgane says

chris never craved the spotlight. he was happy writing songs for others and enjoying his side hustle playing in bands. still, his powerful voice was gaining legend around nashville's music row. at age 33, already a ten-year veteran of the country music scene, universal music group offered him his own record deal. morgane had to convince him to say yes. you didn't jump on it right off the bat because of what? >> chris stapleton: oh, i'm suspicious of most things. it's just part of my personality. >> alfonsi: it is? >> chris stapleton: yeah. >> alfonsi: what were you suspicious of, they were going to tell you t-- >> chris stapleton: i don't know-- >> alfonsi: like, shave your beard and get a spray tan? >> chris stapleton: yeah, maybe. i-- i don't know.

just-- my answer back was, "okay. i-- i'll do this. but-- i'm going to need to, you know-- do what i want to do." ♪ ♪ ♪ >> alfonsi: he went on to release his first single in 2013, but it went nowhere. >> chris stapleton: the same month that that single died my dad also passed away in that same month. it was-- it was a bad month, and i didn't, didn't feel great about it, and i was in a real bad spot. >> alfonsi: hoping to help, morgane bought this vintage jeep chris had been eyeing online, even though it was 1,600 miles away in phoenix, arizona. ♪ ♪ ♪ they picked it up, and on the trip back to nashville, he wrote "traveller," the title track to his first solo album. the collection of 14 songs would be a turning point in his career. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> chris stapleton: we did that whole record in a week. >> alfonsi: you did "traveller" in one week? >> chris stapleton: yeah. >> alfonsi: you've got to be kidding me. >> chris stapleton: we were on a roll, and that's the only way i can describe it. >> alfonsi: and did you know in your heart, like, i know what this should sound like, i know what this should be?

>> chris stapleton: well, i wanted to make a record that i thought my dad would've liked. >> alfonsi: music critics loved it, but early on the album was only a modest success. that changed overnight when, at the 2015 c.m.a. awards, pop star justin timberlake, a new friend and fan, joined him to perform. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> chris stapleton: it was electric. kind of lightning in a bottle kind of moments, that was one of them, for sure. maybe-- the biggest one for us, you know? ♪ ♪ ♪ most people that were watching that show had never heard of me at that point. and then sales of that record went up, you know, a bazillion percent. and it was just nutty after that. >> chris stapelton, traveller! ( cheers and applause ) >> alfonsi: stapleton won four c.m.a. awards that night, and two grammy's a few months later. something he never dreamed of when he came to nashville to write music. >> chris stapleton: this is lower broadway. one time, a long time ago, just for almost a gag, me and a buddy came down and i said, "well, i'm just going to play on the-- the corner and see what i can do." >> alfonsi: you did? >> chris stapleton: i did. so, i played on the corner. and-- and i made, like, i don't know, $40 bucks in an hour. and at that point, that was the

most money i'd ever made in an hour, and i was like, "maybe i should just come here and play on the street." ♪ ♪ ♪ >> alfonsi: more than a decade later, just blocks from that corner, this was the crowd that came to hear him. chris stapleton has grown into one of the biggest stars in country msic, but he remains one of the most reluctant. ♪ ♪ ♪ it must be hard for you to hide out right now. you're a very distinct-looking fellow. >> chris stapleton: i am a very distinct-looking fellow. i can hide out. i can walk around a lot of places, if i'm not wearing-- >> alfonsi: the hat. >> chris stapleton: the hat. and, you know, all blacked out. but-- and also, i'm kind of scary looking. so, it also gives people just enough pause sometimes to go, "i-- i don't know if i should walk up to him right now." ♪ ♪ ♪

>> alfonsi: he may look like a hell's angel, but his songs reveal chris stapleton's true character. under the hat, it's all heart. ( ticking )

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( ticking ) captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org i serve as an equalizer. i'm the one you call when you can't call 911. previously on the equalizer... does the name mason quinn mean anything to you? robyn: people that tangle with quinn end up dead. bishop! quinn: don't come for me again, because then i'll have to come after you. everyone needs help with the kind of secrets we carry. and we can't just talk to anyone. they need to be someone in my community. robyn, i need to know that you're not putting my daughter at risk. how much does delilah really know about you? dad called. he wants to know if she feels safe in this house. robyn: lies can be necessary to protect your family, but they can backfire on you. they can hurt you and those around you in ways you'd never anticipate. (tires screech) (woman screams) (panting)