captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> kroft: this is the largest bankruptcy in the world. what were the effects? >> the effects were the financial disaster that we are living our way through right now. >> kroft: and who got hurt? >> everybody got hurt. >> kroft: anton valukas was the man in charge of investigating the collapse of lehman brothers, the fourth largest investment bank in the world. isn't the government supposed to protect the investors? >> yes. >> kroft: aren't they charged with informing investors? >> yes. >> kroft: why didn't they do it? >> simon: the head of the catholic church may be in rome, but its heart has always been in ireland.

in recent years, though, the faith of the irish has been sorely tested-- not their faith in god, necessarily, but their faith in the church, after they learned that thousands of their children had been abused by priests. what's more, it had been covered up by the church and by the vatican, until one man spoke out. he's the archbishop of dublin. >> anybody who read what i read and met the people that i read... met, they couldn't do otherwise. ♪ ♪ >> logan: they travel with their kids, wives, future wives, even ex-wives. at first glance, it looked like one big, happy family. but this is aerosmith, a band that still fights each other over music, the spotlight and credit, even after 40 years. ♪ ♪ >> they ride my coattails. >> logan: you're not supposed to

say that they ride your coattails. >> well, maybe, but i just tell the truth. that's why they don't like me. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm leslie stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy development comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing generations of cleaner-burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self-contained well systems. and, using state-of-the-art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment. we're america's natural gas. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms.

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it was the largest bankruptcy in history; larger than general motors, washington mutual, enron, and worldcom combined. the federal bankruptcy court appointed anton valukas, a prominent chicago lawyer and former united states attorney, to conduct an investigation to determine what happened. included in the nine-volume, 2,200-page report was the finding that there was enough evidence for a prosecutor to bring a case against top lehman officials and one of the nation's top accounting firms for misleading government regulators and investors. that was two and a hf years ago, and there have been no prosecutions. anton valukas had never given an interview about his report until we broadcast this story in april of this year. this is the largest bankruptcy in the world. what were the effects? >> valukas: the effects were the financial disaster that we are living our way through right now. >> kroft: and who got hurt? >> valukas: everybody got hurt.

the entire economy has suffered from the fall of lehman brothers. >> kroft: so, the whole world? >> valukas: yes, the whole world. >> kroft: when lehman brothers collapsed, 26,000 employees lost their jobs and millions of investors lost all or almost all of their money, triggering a chain reaction that produced the worst financial crisis and economic downturn in 70 years. anton valukas' job was to provide the bankruptcy court with accurate, reliable information that the judges could use to resolve the claims of creditors picking over lehman's corpse. had you ever done anything like this before? >> valukas: i've never done anything like lehman brothers. i don't think anybody else has ever done anything like lehman brothers. >> kroft: so, your job... i mean, in some ways, your job was to assess blame? >> valukas: our job is to determine what actually happened, put the cards face-up on the table, and let everybody see what the facts truly are. >> kroft: valukas's team spent a year and a half interviewing hundreds of former employees, and poring over 34 million documents. they told of how lehman bought

up huge amounts of real estate that it couldn't unload when the market went south; how it had borrowed $44 for every $1 it had in the bank to finance the deals; and how lehman executives manipulated balance sheets and financial reports when investors began losing confidence and competitors closed in. did these quarterly reports represent to investors a fair, accurate picture of the company's financial condition? >> valukas: in our opinion, they did not. >> kroft: and isn't that against the law? >> valukas: it certainly, in our opinion, was against civil law, if you will. that there were colorable claims that this was a fraud, yes. >> kroft: by "colorable claims," valukas means there is sufficient evidence for the justice department or the securities and exchange commission to bring charges against top lehman executives, including c.e.o. richard fuld, for overseeing and certifying misleading financial statements, and against lehman's accountant, ernst and young, for failing to challenge lehman's numbers.

>> valukas: they'd fudged the numbers. they would move what turned out to be approximately $50 billion of assets from the united states to the united kingdom just before they printed their financial statements. and a week or so after the financial statements had been distributed to the public, the $50 billion would reappear here in the united states, back on the books in the united states. >> kroft: and then, the next financial statement, they would move it overseas again and file the report, and then move it back? >> valukas: right. >> kroft: it sounds like a shell game. >> valukas: it was a shell game. it was a gimmick. >> kroft: lehman misused an accounting trick called "repo 105" to temporarily remove the $50 billion from its ledgers to make it look as though it was reducing its dependency on borrowed money and was drawing down its debt. lehman never told investors or regulators about it. this is really deception to make e company look healthier than it was. >> valukas: yes. >> kroft: deliberate? >> valukas: yes. >> kroft: how are you so sure of that? >> valukas: because we read the emails in which we observed the people saying that they were doing it. we interviewed the witnesses who

wrote those emails, or some of those emails, and asked them why they were doing it, and they told us they were doing it for purposes of affecting the numbers. >> kroft: do you think that lehman executives knew that this was wrong? >> valukas: for some of them, certainly. there was concerns being expressed by... at high levels about whether this is appropriate, what happens if the street founds out about it. so, you know, there was a concern that there's a real question about whether we can do this, whether this was right or not. >> kroft: one of those people was matthew lee, who had been a senior executive at lehman and the accountant responsible for its global balance sheet. lee was one of the first to raise objections inside lehman about the accounting trick known as repo 105. >> matthew lee: it sounded like a rat poison, repo 105, when i first heard it. so i investigated what it was, and i didn't like what i saw. >> kroft: was there a point in which you saw the accounting principles employed by lehman brothers change? >> lee: november 30, 2007, was the end of our fiscal year. and i fully expected us, you know, to make a loss that year, like everyone else.

and when i saw we made money-- it was a record year, in fact-- i thought, "that doesn't sound right." you knew the markets were doing badly, so why wasn't lehman doing badly? and every time i found something and i went to my boss or whoever, no response. >> kroft: that was ten months before lehman brothers went bankrupt. lee's position required him to sign off on the accuracy of the firm's accounting practices every quarter. but in november of 2007, he declined to do it. by refusing to sign it, you were saying that you didn't believe the numbers. >> lee: correct. >> kroft: that this wasn't a fair and accurate representation of the financial condition of lehman brothers. >> lee: right. "something's up here. why can't people answer my questions?" you know, "why has repo 105 doubled? give me an answer." you know, nothing was said. >> kroft: lee continued to press people for more information, but

nothing changed. and four months before lehman collapsed, he sent this letter to lehman's top executives. >> lee: "i've been telling you all year. i've been banging my head against the wall. i'm now putting it in writing." >> kroft: says "it requires me to bring to the attention of management conduct and actions on the part of the firm that i consider to be possibly unethical and unlawful." >> lee: yeah. >> kroft: what were you talking about, specifically? >> lee: well, in that particular letter, i was general. there were so many specifics. i could have written laundry lists. >> kroft: what kind of a response did you get from this letter? >> lee: it's like throwing a grenade. i wanted to wake somebody up, at least to address the topics. >> kroft: it worked. six days after he sent that letter, matthew lee was downsized, let go after 14 years. but lehman executives couldn't ignore the letter, and asked their accountants from ernst and young to interview matthew lee. >> valukas: and in those interviews-- we have the notes, which are part of the report-- he says very specifically $50 billion, repo transactions, moving money off the balance sheet at quarter end.

so our conclusion was ernst and young certainly knew it as of that time, and did nothing with it. >> kroft: valukas says ernst and young was legally bound to make sure that lehman's audit committee and its board of directors knew about lee's allegations of the unethical and unlawful accounting practices. but they never did. did the audit committee know? >> valukas: no. >> kroft: did the board of directors know? >> valukas: no. >> kroft: did dick fuld know? >> valukas: did dick fuld know? well, he says no. >> kroft: the only place lehman's c.e.o., richard fuld, has publicly answered questions about his firm's bankruptcy has been in front of congress. >> richard fuld: i have absolutely no recollection whatsoever of hearing anything about or seeing documents related to repo 105 transactions while i was the c.e.o. of lehman. >> valukas: he said the same thing to me face-to-face. >> kroft: do you believe him? >> valukas: there was evidence which would show that that's not accurate. the president of lehman brothers told us that, in fact, he had

conversations with dick fuld about this, and documents were shared with him which would reflect the repo 105 transactions and how they were being used. richard fuld's view on that was that he has no knowledge of it. you have other evidence that he did. a jury would have to decide who's telling the truth. >> kroft: but so far, there has been no jury to hear the evidence. despite valukas's findings, and the supporting documents and testimony to back them up, the securities and exchange commission has not brought any charges of any kind against former lehman executives. for the past few months, we've made numerous requests to interview the s.e.c.'s head of enforcement. all of those requests have been declined. the securities and exchange commission has not brought a case. >> valukas: no, they have not. >> kroft: does that bother you? >> valukas: i'm not permitted to be bothered by that. you know, my job was to set out the facts, lay it out. they have to make their own prosecutive decisions. >> kroft: there is one plausible explanation why the s.e.c. has not gone after top lehman executives.

as it turns out, some of lehman's most egregious accounting shenanigans took place right under the noses of government regulators. how closely was the s.e.c. monitoring lehman brothers during this time? >> valukas: they were on premises. they were talking to the lehman people daily. they officed there. >> kroft: it was not widely known at the time, but during the last six months of lehman's existence, teams of officials from the s.e.c. and the federal reserve took up residence inside the firm to monitor its precarious financial situation. they were inside the building when mathew lee wrote his letter to lehman executives alleging unlawful accounting practices, and they were there when the practices took place. valukas says the s.e.c. also knew that lehman was being less than truthful when it said it had enough assets to survive the crisis. but that and other damaging information was never disclosed to investors, who continued to pump billions of dollars into the firm.

should it have been disclosed? >> valukas: absolutely. >> kroft: isn't the government, the s.e.c. in this case, the... the people who were supposed to protect the investors? >> valukas: yes. >> kroft: aren't they charged with informing investors? >> valukas: yes. >> kroft: why didn't they do it? >> valukas: they may not have had the expertise necessary to understand the material they were receiving. they were getting the material. whether they understood it is another question. >> kroft: the very fact that government regulators were inside the company with access to its books and records would complicate any prosecution of lehman officials. until seven months ago, david kotz was the s.e.c.'s inspector general. over the previous four years, he issued more than 100 reports about major deficiencies in the way the s.e.c. did its job. if the s.e.c. knew about some of these problems at lehman brothers and they weren't disclosed, doesn't that make it difficult for the s.e.c. enforcement division to come back and bring action against lehman brothers? they were there; they saw it. >> david kotz: yeah. i think that that's definitely an impediment to a potential case. and, certainly, if you go before a jury, the defense lawyers can make a big point about the fact

that "you were there. you knew about it. why didn't you do anything at the time? now, you're coming after them." >> kroft: in fact, former lehman c.e.o. richard fuld seemed to be trying out that defense when he testified before congress in 2008. >> fuld: throughout 2008, the s.e.c. and the federal reserve conducted regular and, at times, daily oversight of our business and our balance sheet. they saw what we saw in real time. >> kroft: let's just assume, for a moment, that anton valukas' findings are true. i mean, isn't this just a free ticket for executives to say, "well, look, you know, lehman did so-and-so, and nothing happened to them." >> kotz: right, no, i think absolutely, that's a serious problem. i mean, obviously, there has been a tremendous financial crisis. the people who engaged in improper behavior need to be punished. i think it's critical for the s.e.c. to go after, not just companies, but also individuals, where they have the evidence to do so. >> kroft: when lehman's

bankruptcy was finally settled, there were claims against it for $370 billion. the creditors settled for about 20 cents on the dollar. former c.e.o. richard fuld now runs a consulting business in manhattan. he lost most of his fortune and is embroiled in a raft of litigation, but is still a wealthy man. most of his senior colleagues at lehman have landed on their feet. ernst and young, lehman's accounting firm, is now being sued by new york state for aiding and abetting a fraud. and matthew lee, the senior accountant who blew the whistle at lehman, is still looking for work, unconvinced that much has changed in the world of finance over the last four years. >> lee: you know, the entrepreneurs of wall street are continually getting more and more sophisticated. and they don't necessarily want regulators or auditors to fully understand what they're doing. >> kroft: do you believe the balance sheets of big wall street firms, if you read them now? >> lee: these numbers are so big and the financial instruments are so complex that, you know, nobody stands a chance, really, of understanding. i'd have more fun investing in

crap tables in las vegas than wall street firms. >> cbs money watch update sponsored by:. >> glor: good evening. u.s. home sales numbers for july out this week are expected to show an increase of more than 3.5% compared to june. and the u.s. and france say they're discussing all options to fights the recent upswing in oil prices, including the release of strategic reserves. gas prices were up three cents last week. i'm jeff glor. cbs news.

>> simon: the head of the catholic church may be in rome, but its heart has always been in ireland. from the early fifth century, when st. patrick was named a bishop and started converting the irish, catholicism has been more than a religion; it's been a culture and a way of life. but in recent years, the faith of the irish has been sorely tested-- not their faith in god, necessarily, but their faith in the church, after several damning investigations provided appalling detail on the sexual abuse of children by priests. for decades, the outrage was covered up and the priests were largely protected. an irishman named diarmuid martin would not disagree with any of this. as we first reported earlier this year, he has dared to publicly criticize the church, and his words carry a lot of clout because diarmuid martin is the archbishop of dublin. you have said that the church in ireland has reached its breaking point.

>> martin: it has... it has reached a breaking point. it's at a very difficult stage. >> simon: to what extent, archbishop, do you think this crisis in the church is due to the sexual scandals? >> martin: oh, enormously. >> simon: there's overwhelming evidence that the church hierarchy was not only aware of the sexual abuse, but did little about it. the dublin archdiocese knew who the predator priests were, even wrote reports about them, but then locked up the files. investigators on a state panel, the murphy commission, asked for the files, but the church refused until diarmuid martin became archbishop. >> martin: i provided the murphy commission investigation into dublin diocese with over 65,000 documents. and the material was there. it was in my archives. >> simon: the documents revealed that one priest admitted abusing over 100 children. another said he abused children twice a month for 25 years. archbishop martin believes thousands of children suffered

similar fates. >> martin: see, abuse isn't... it isn't just the... the... you know, the actual sexual acts, which are horrendous. but sexual abuse of a child is... it's a total abuse of power. it's actually saying to a child, "i control you." and that is saying to the child, "you're worthless." >> simon: to find out how small parishes have been affected by the scandal, we went to the village of allihies on the beara peninsula on the southwestern coast. it doesn't get more irish than this. no one we talked to was aware of any abuse here, but even so, the parish is required to follow strict new church regulations designed to protect children. hard to believe, but priests are now never allowed to be alone with a child. an adult supervisor has to be there at all times. monica polly is on the church council. >> monica polly: they never take the children out on their own, they never speak with the children on their own.

there's always somebody with them. >> simon: under the new regulations, drawn up by ireland's bishops, any allegation of abuse has to be reported to civil authorities. and any priest accused of abuse has to step down while the charge is being investigated. >> polly: to be honest, i don't think we've seen it all yet. >> simon: really? >> polly: i honestly... >> simon: you think there's more to come? >> polly: i do. ( church bells ringing ) >> simon: monica polly still believes in god, she says. she goes to church every week. so does paddy sheehan. but he has concerns about his church. paddy has lived here all his life. he runs a cable car that takes farmers and birdwatchers to an island just across the channel. were you surprised? >> paddy sheehan: we were surprised. to me, we were surprised that there was so much cover-up, you know? so much hidden. so much children, so many abused. you know what i mean? to me, and i would say maybe to the parish, there was too much

cover-up, and that was a pity. >> simon: why was there this cover-up? >> polly: they cover it up because the priests were supposed to be perfect. they had an image of what they should be, and they kept to that image rather than the reality. >> martin: how do we pass that sense of strong faith to the coming generations? >> patsy mcgarry: archbishop martin is probably the only senior figure in the catholic church of ireland who has retained or achieved the necessary credibility, where this issue is concerned. >> simon: patsy mcgarry is the religious affairs correspondent for the "irish times." he says other high-ranking figures in the church have been directly tied to the cover-up... >> cardinal sean brady: we must admit that grave errors of judgment were made. >> simon: ...including archbishop martin's superior, cardinal sean brady. when he was a young priest, brady interviewed two teenagers who'd been abused by a priest. 20 years later, when one of them sued the church, it was revealed

that brady had ordered him to remain silent. >> mcgarry: he met those young people, he believed those young people, he swore them to secrecy as part of the canon law investigation process. he never informed the police, he never informed the health authorities. he informed nobody in civil society. >> simon: just last november, the church agreed to a secret financial settlement in dublin high court. cardinal brady has apologized for his actions and said he was ashamed he did not uphold the values he believes in. the priest he helped protect went on to abuse 20 more children. this is how bad it's gotten. just last summer, the vatican recalled its ambassador to ireland, the first time that's happened in 1,600 years of roman catholicism in ireland. that followed the government's charging that the church in an irish diocese had ignored complaints against 19 priests as recently as 2009.

and ireland's prime minister accused the vatican of placing its own interests over and above the protection of children. >> prime minister enda kenny: the revelations of the cloyne report have brought the government, irish catholics, and the vatican to an unprecedented juncture... >> simon: an irish prime minister had never before spoken out against the vatican in public, and enda kenny did it in parliament. >> kenny: ...because, for the first time in this country, a report into child sexual abuse exposes an attempt by the holy see to frustrate an inquiry in a sovereign democratic republic as little as three years ago, not three decades ago. >> simon: the vatican, says patsy mcgarry, also overruled archbishop martin's suggestion that two bishops associated with the scandal step down. >> mcgarry: they sent their letters of resignation to rome and rome would not accept them. >> simon: rome would not accept them? >> mcgarry: no. >> simon: can we say the pope?

>> mcgarry: of course. >> simon: archbishop martin was reluctant to hold the pope responsible. >> martin: i don't think that's really exactly the dynamic of what happened, yeah. >> simon: i see. and examining the exact dynamic is something which you would prefer not to do right here, right now? >> martin: certainly not. >> father shane crombie: lord, i am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. >> simon: some younger priests believe that the only way forward is repentance. that's why father shane crombie keeps a burned crucifix on the altar. it's all that survived when the original church here burned down 25 years ago. father crombie says it's a testament that, if his church can survive one fire, it can survive another. >> crombie: i think the fire that's burning in the church at the moment is not a bit... is not a fire of wood and of furniture, but it's a fire... the fire, obviously, of scandal, the fire of disappointment, the fire of absolute rejection, the fire of... of cover-up. all that... all that is the fire that is burning at the moment.

>> simon: and you can rebuild a church that burns down. >> crombie: it is the people, it was the people that rallied together to rebuild this church. it will be the people who will rebuild the church that is on fire. >> simon: the irish church was already in decline before the scandal, but the exodus from the pews has greatly accelerated. attendance at sunday mass is down from 90% in the early '70s to just 2% in some parishes today. ireland is also running out of priests. ♪ ♪ no ritual in the church is more awe-inspiring than this, the ordination of a priest. the church used to ordain so many priests that they were one of ireland's main exports. but last year, there was not a single ordination in dublin, and there has only been one this year. >> martin: when i entered this building, where we're meeting today, which was then a seminary, there were 120 of us

and they were building a new extension. at the moment, i have ten seminarians. >> simon: how do you...? >> martin: very good seminarians. >> simon: fine, but ten? >> martin: yeah. >> simon: the priest shortage is affecting many parishes like the small one in allihies. for the first time in the history of its diocese, the parish doesn't have its own priest. a different one commutes to town every week. that's not the way it's supposed to be like, is it? >> polly: no, and not what i was used to all my life. >> simon: it has changed the very fabric of life in allihies. as in most irish villages, the priest had always been the man to go to, far more than the mayor or the police chief. >> sheehan: and you know, it was a big shock to everybody, you know, trying to get used to it, you know what i mean? more so to the old people because they're so used to the priest meeting them. >> simon: sure. >> sheehan: calling to the house and talking to them and everything, you know.

>> simon: archbishop martin knows his church is in trouble. he also knows the solution, if there is one, is not silence. you are the one who challenged not only the church in ireland, but the vatican. >> martin: i would, you know, never sat down to challenge anybody. i set out, sat down, you know, to say aloud what was going on in my mind, in my heart. >> simon: if diarmuid martin was more outspoken than other irish clergy, it may be because he was an outsider. although he was born and ordained in ireland, he spent most of his career outside the country as a roving ambassador for the vatican, before he returned to dublin as archbishop. when an abused child comes to you, archbishop, what do you say to him or to her? when they're... many, many years later. that's when they come forward. what i try to do is to imagine what they looked like when they were a child. >> simon: one man told him he had been assaulted when he was only eight years old.

>> martin: basically, he had been raped, you know, and he'd been raped in a sort of chapel, which makes it even more... more heinous. >> simon: can you reveal what you said to him? >> martin: i don't say much. i listen. >> simon: the archbishop was so traumatized by this man's story that when he visited a school the next day, he asked to see children the same age as that child raped in that chapel. >> martin: and the teacher said, "where would you like... would you like to see some of the classes?" and i said that, "okay, i'd begin... i'd like to see eight- year-olds." and he must have thought i was crazy. but if you went in on the day of the opening of a new school, where... you know, when the archbishop and the minister are coming, and the eight-year-olds are all dressed up and with their hair combed and so on, it's devastating.

>> simon: you couldn't imagine it? >> martin: it... it's just... you know, what do you say? you know, you just see... you see the... you know, to... it was just somebody like that that was... that was... i mean, a grown man is one thing, but when you actually see a child, you need to do that. this is the gospel of the lord. >> simon: last year, archbishop martin did something the church in ireland had never done. he held a service of atonement for abuse victims, prostrated himself on the altar, and in an act of humility, washed their feet. >> martin: there's still a long path to journey in honesty before we can truly merit forgiveness. there's a real danger today of people saying, "the child abuse scandal is over. let's bury it. let's move on." it isn't over. child protection and the protection of children is something will go on for...

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>> logan: after 40 tumultuous years together, aerosmith is one of the last great american rock bands standing. but by the standards of rock music, the band should be long gone, survivors of legendary drug problems and vicious arguments, the kind of which have taken down so many other groups of their generation. yet, with the help of singer steven tyler's over-the-top personality and his two-year run as a judge on "american idol" that ended in may, they remain one the most popular concert

draws in music. as we showed you when we first aired this story earlier this year, they discuss all of it with us-- especially each other- - with brutal honesty, perhaps even hurtful candor, rarely heard on the record. ♪ ♪ they travel with their kids, wives, future wives, even ex- wives. at first glance, it looked like one big, happy 40-year-old family. $20 million for ten shows in south america brought them together, and they arrived in each country like conquering heroes. ♪ ♪ how good a band is aerosmith today in 2012 compared to the last 40 years?

>> steven tyler: this band is better than it's ever been. it's not because i'm old now and the band's been around forever and it's our last tour. bull ( bleep ). it's because this band's that good. ♪ ♪ >> logan: their music is guitar driven and melodic, with lots of sexual innuendo. >> tyler: we're going out and we're wowing 80,000 people. to do that and do it well is really an art form. ♪ ♪ >> logan: it's the clothes, the rock-star posing, the energy-- all longtime aerosmith calling cards, four decades in motion. singer steven tyler is now 64; lead guitarist joe perry, 61. you've been described as the... the "greatest american rock band." is that how you feel? >> joe perry: we've been around

long enough that we... we have seniority. ( laughs ) i don't know. there have been other bands that have... that have been great, you know, and come and gone. but we're still here. >> logan: backstage, all five members make accommodations for their age before every show-- 62-year-old drummer joey kramer tapes his hands to prevent blisters. 60-year-old guitarist brad whitford gets help loosening up a tight shoulder, and 60-year- old bassist tom hamilton protects his precious hearing. without those, would you be deaf by now? >> hamilton: i went for a long time, you know, playing... you know, standing next to joey, our drummer. ( laughter ) >> logan: is he really loud? >> hamilton: oh, he is horrendous. >> logan: hamilton has survived throat cancer; kramer, a nervous breakdown; all five of them, severe drug and alcohol abuse. they told us they're all clean now... >> tyler: ( screams ) >> logan: but steven tyler's health remains an ongoing threat

to the band's existence. he's battled hepatitis c, torn his a.c.l., and had surgery on his vocal chords and both his feet. >> tyler: my feet, from dancing around. >> logan: you're getting old. >> tyler: yeah. ( laughs ) yes, i am. thanks for pointing that out. >> logan: at this concert in sturgis, south dakota, in 2009, tyler was once again addicted, this time to prescription painkillers his doctors gave him for his feet. he fell off the stage and nearly broke his neck. the tour was cancelled and triggered a series of events that caused the future of aerosmith to spiral out of control. were you angry with steven when he fell off the stage? >> perry: to be honest, i was expecting it. i mean, he wasn't in good shape. yeah, i was pretty pissed off at that point, you know, that... that it... he let himself get that far. >> logan: and that he was doing drugs again?

>> perry: yeah. >> logan: steven tyler had a broken shoulder and 20 stitches in his head. brad whitford admits that he and his band mates purposely didn't check on him for weeks. >> brad whitford: everybody's life dramatically changed in an instant because he was, in my mind, irresponsible. and... and i was very angry at him. >> logan: do you see why they were mad at you? >> tyler: oh, positively. not quite to the extent of not calling me for 27 weeks. >> logan: so, were you high? were you using again? >> tyler: oh, yeah. oh, i was. >> logan: and that's why you fell? >> tyler: i was... but wouldn't you think, after 40 years, the guys would come around, go, "look it, i'm pissed off at you but, did you break your neck? you all right?" i was hurt by that. and i went away to get well, and i came back a sober and better person, while two of them were still high. >> logan: while tyler was recovering, he found out the band was looking for a new lead singer. that was when "american idol" asked him to be a judge. why did you decide to do

"american idol"? why did you want to do that? >> tyler: i was pissed off at the band for trying to find some other lead singer. i wasn't sure if i wanted to stay with the band because of their behaviors. just the right amount showing. that's nice. >> logan: steven tyler's decision turned out to be yet another point of contention. the others were upset that he never consulted with them, but tyler was embraced by the "american idol" audience and aerosmith album sales soared. aerosmith doesn't just have its old fans; it has a whole generation of new fans today. is that, in part, because of steven's, you know, presence on "idol" and... and the prominence and celebrity that that's generated for not just him, but also for the band? >> perry: i mean, there's no denying "american idol's" a part of it, but he wouldn't be on that show if it wasn't for the band, you know, him being part of aerosmith. ♪ ♪ >> logan: tension and drama have always been part of aerosmith.

they formed in 1970, and cut their teeth playing clubs and high schools around boston. within five years, they were selling every ticket they could print, peaking in 1978 when they headlined sold-out football stadiums across america. by that time, they were all drinking heavily and using hard drugs. tyler and perry were so hooked on heroin and cocaine, they were dubbed the "toxic twins." ♪ ♪ isn't it true that, night after night, you were just sometimes so high that you were terrible out there? >> tyler: oh, sure. >> logan: do you think you'd get away with that, in this day and age? >> tyler: it's what we did. it was accepted back then. that was the rock and roll. everybody was high. ♪ ♪ >> logan: so high, perry and tyler were often at each other's throats.

♪ ♪ >> the... the guys talked about chairs flying, that kind of thing. >> perry: well, they're... they're being pretty accurate, i think. there were dressing rooms that just got destroyed. it'd be like two silverback gorillas, and they... they, like, tear branches and rip up the ground and... and scream and yell. but they never actually get any closer than this, you know. >> logan: by 1980, the band's ongoing conflict tore them apart. four years later, millions they'd made were gone. so they reunited, got clean, and by the mid-1990s, they were as popular as they'd ever been. what makes aerosmith great? >> whitford: it... it takes somebody so over the top, and in our case, with our lead singer, steve... steven tyler, who's this amazingly gifted musician. he has perfect pitch. >> logan: i'm watching you two over here. you're exchanging looks. what does all that mean? >> joey kramer: well... >> logan: you were rolling your

eyes. >> kramer: i'm not... >> logan: joey. ( laughter ) >> kramer: huh? >> logan: you're rolling your eyes inside at the mention of steven tyler's greatness. >> kramer: there's no doubt about steven's greatness. when you ask what makes the band great, i think that it's a combination of all of us. what that was right now, i can't tell you. ( laughter ) >> hamilton: i think a lot of it is he's unbelievably competitive. you know, he's competitive with us, with each member of the band. >> tyler: how was it? was it as good for you as it was for me? >> logan: steven tyler does everything he can to control the band, and he tried to control our cameras, too. he's also quick to entertain, always unfiltered and spontaneous. >> tyler: ♪ love in an elevator... >> logan: he moved to los angeles to work on "american idol," and early this year, he juggled his tv work while writing a new aerosmith album. so you will actually write

lyrics while you're driving? >> tyler: oh, yeah. yeah, yeah. you know what? i'm a.d.d. personified. >> logan: and o.c.d.? >> tyler: i'm not sure about that, but i'm... i'm a.d.d. now, i forgot what i was saying. >> logan: sorry. i interrupted you. ( horn honks ) ( laughs ) he is obsessive about the band and their music. he presses them hard for perfection-- sometimes too hard, they say, and diplomacy is not his forte. >> tyler: they ride my coattail, because they know i care. >> logan: and you're not supposed to say that they ride your coattail, because that'll drive them crazy. >> tyler: well, maybe. but i just tell the truth. that's why they don't like me. >> logan: all the guys said that they respect you incredibly, and it was clear. they also said they love you. but they also had some very harsh things to say. joey, for example, he said you tortured him. tom said you can be "unspeakably cruel," were his words.

brad said that you can be extremely demanding and sometimes impossible to talk to. >> tyler: they're 100% right. i've said many things to all those guys that i should never have said, that i didn't mean. >> logan: is there a fine line between being a perfectionist, and fixating over small things that don't matter? >> tyler: oh, sure. you have to know when to leave it. >> logan: do you know? >> tyler: it's okay. leave it. positively. >> logan: what would your band members say about that? >> tyler: you know what? i'm going to be big-headed right now, okay? i think my perfectionism and my busting everyone's chops is what got this band to where it is, today. in the end, i get a real good song. and in the end, i get the hits. yeah, i'm that good. i was doing this, you know... ♪ ♪ >> logan: yet, as we discovered, steven looks to joe perry for approval. >> tyler: ♪ cruising for the ladies ♪ cruising for the ladies...

and i went, "cruising for the ladies," to joe. and i went, "no, i can't do that, no." and i thought, "dude... dude looks like a lady." and i said, "joe, i... what do you think about 'dude looks like a lady'? should i do that?" and he goes, "why not? you sung everything else." and i needed that. that was great approval. >> logan: do you like steven? >> perry: yeah. well, there's sides of him i like and there's sides i don't, but i'll put up with whatever i have to to have... have this guy in my band because he's got it. he's a world-class voice. >> logan: has it ever come to blows? >> perry: no, that would damage the relationship too much. besides, he needs his jaw to sing, so it's never come to that. >> logan: he needs his jaw to sing. ( laughs ) >> tyler: oh. "i need my jaw to sing." that's a terrible... terrible message that sends. i always sleep with one eye open with him, you know. >> logan: so it bothers you that he said that? >> tyler: oh, sure, it does. "he needs his jaw to sing."

does that mean that maybe there's a fight in the near future? i think he's still got a good, strong ego. ♪ ♪ >> logan: their new album is due this fall, and so too is yet another leg of american concert dates, when they'll continue playing their old classics, like this 1977 hit, "draw the line," something these five guys from boston are still trying to figure out how to do. ♪ ♪ >> go to 60minutesovertime.com to hear lara logan's backstage stories about aerosmith. copd makes it hard to breathe,

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