60 Minutes (1968) s47e06 Episode Script

You've heard a lot about the Dallas hospital that treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in America.
But you've never heard what actually happened from the people who fought for his life at the risk of their own.
You're about to meet four nurses who treated Duncan from the time he came into the emergency room, to the moment that he died.
The staff had been blindsided by a biomedical emergency that burst into their ER like a wildfire.
Contrary to reports that the hospital bungled the response, the story the nurses tell sounds more like a heroic effort to stop an outbreak.
On September 28, Duncan was rushed by ambulance to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
He was isolated in a separate section of the ER and nurse Sidia Rose, starting the night shift, was briefed on the special precautions required for what they now suspected was a case of Ebola.
Sidia Rose: I went over and met with a nurse who gave me a report.
She also went over the protective gear that we would be wearing that night.
She gave, you know, finished briefing me on what was going to happen, and I literally burst out in tears.
Scott Pelley: Why? Sidia Rose: It's very scary.
I know about Ebola, and the only reason I do, it's because I've been just researching it on my own.
Since January, I kept hearing the word popping up in the news.
And I just wanted to find out about it.
Richard Townsend: When our supervisor said that we had a potential Ebola case, I don't want to call it calamitous but there was a lot of concern, people became very vocal, understandably it's the boogie man virus.
Emergency room nurses Richard Townsend and Krista Schaefer made sure that Rose was suited up properly.
As per the hospital's protocol, she worked with Duncan alone, with Townsend watching over her.
Scott Pelley: When you went to approach Mr.
Duncan for the first time, what did you do? How did you prepare for that? Sidia Rose: I gathered myself together.
I put on my protective wear and I went in and introduced myself to him and you know just let him know that I would be the nurse helping him tonight.
Scott Pelley: What were you telling yourself? Sidia Rose: I was very frightened.
I was.
But and I just dried my tears, rolled down my sleeves, so to speak, and went on about my night.
Scott Pelley: But why do you go in there? Why don't you say, "You know, this one's not for me"? Sidia Rose: As a nurse, I understand the risk that I take every day I come to work and he's no different than any other patient that I've provided care for.
So, I wasn't going to say, "No, I'm not going to care for him.
" Scott Pelley: But you were risking your life to take care of this patient.
Sidia Rose: Oh, I know that.
And that's why I, as frightened as I was, I didn't allow fear to paralyze me.
I got myself together.
I'd done what I needed to get myself prepared mentally, emotionally, and physically, and went in there and did what I was supposed to.
Though Duncan's test results wouldn't be known for two days, she was certain she was witnessing Ebola.
Sidia Rose: The first time when I went in and he vomited, I was standing in front of him, he was sitting on the commode, and there was just so much it went over the bag, it was on the walls, on the floors.
I had two pairs of gloves on and shoe covers.
And I had my face shield on.
I didn't have two masks on at the time, I had just one.
No, we didn't have any head covers.
But I wiped down the walls, wiped down the floor with some bleach wipes.
Richard Townsend: He was having so much diarrhea and vomiting that he, you know, she was constantly having to give him the little bags that we have for people to vomit into.
Richard Townsend: All of that was hazardous waste and it had to be bagged and then double bagged and then put into a separate container that could then be disposed of later.
Because anything that has any of his bodily fluids on it has the potential to be lethal to somebody else.
Eric Duncan was 42 years old, from Liberia, which is ground zero for this outbreak.
Half of all the cases in the world are in Liberia.
He flew to Dallas to visit family, became sick a few days later, and then made his first visit to the Dallas hospital.
It was the night of September 25 when Duncan first came into this emergency room.
According to the hospital records, he had a temperature of 100.
1.
Over the course of the four hours or so that he was here, his temperature spiked to 103, but then it dropped back down.
Again, according to the hospital records, he told the staff that he had come from Africa, but did not specify West Africa or Liberia.
About three o'clock in the morning, with his symptoms not very severe, the staff decided to send him home with antibiotics.
But three days later he was back in the ER gravely ill and about as contagious as he would ever be.
The virus is not transmitted though the air but physical contact with a single viral particle can cause infection.
The hospital notified state health authorities immediately.
And they wanted Sidia Rose to ask several urgent questions of Duncan.
Sidia Rose: I explained to him, "We are under the impression that you may have been exposed to Ebola.
And I said, "Where are you from?" And he told me Liberia.
Sidia Rose: And I asked, "Have you been in contact with anyone who's been sick? Scott Pelley: He said? Sidia Rose: No.
He said no.
State and federal health officials wanted to know if Duncan had been with anyone who had died in Liberia.
Sidia Rose: And that's when he said to me his family had suffered a loss.
That he had buried his daughter who had died in childbirth.
But nurse Rose says Duncan told her it wasn't Ebola that killed his daughter.
Rose told us that she reported this to the Texas Department of Health, but then Duncan denied his own story when he spoke to those officials.
Scott Pelley: What information was it that he denied to the health officials? Sidia Rose: About his travels, about him burying his pregnant daughter who had died in childbirth.
He denied that.
He said that's not true.
Scott Pelley: So he wasn't honest with them.
Sidia Rose: Yeah.
This is nurse Richard Townsend, who dressed in the protective gear that was recommended by the CDC at the time, just as Sidia Rose did.
Scott Pelley: Was any of your skin exposed? Sidia Rose: At that time it was just a gown that I was wearing, so yeah.
Not my hands, not my legs, my face, I had my face shield on, the mask with the face shield.
Scott Pelley: So your neck was exposed? Sidia Rose: Yes.
Scott Pelley: So the CDC protocols that you would've looked up the day he came into the emergency department was in your estimation deficient? All: Yes.
On September 29, Duncan was carried from the emergency department to intensive care.
Nurse Nina Pham, who was involved in the transfer, would become the first person to catch the virus in the United States.
It took 48 hours to get Duncan's positive test results.
And by then the hospital, on its own, had equipped the staff with suits that allowed no skin to be exposed.
It would be another three weeks before the CDC made this its new standard.
Then the hospital moved out all of the patients in medical intensive care and reconfigured the 24-bed unit for just one patient.
It was a strange scene for ICU nurse John Mulligan.
John Mulligan: By the time I came in, they had already received the Tyveks, the pappers.
So we had the full hazmat gear that people are used to seeing.
Scott Pelley: Is this the full suit? John Mulligan: This is the full suit, yes.
There were always two of us in the room at all times.
And we were designated two people to be in there.
I've been in health care for nearly 20 years and I've never emptied as much trash as just from the waste of his constant diarrhea that he was having was remarkable.
And we had these longer surgical type gloves on.
They were taped to the Tyvek suit, full headgear with a circulator with a HEPA filter that would plug into the back.
And the first time I got out of that suit, it literally looked like someone had pushed me into a swimming pool.
I was drenched.
They were working 16 to 18 hour days, spending two hours at a time in Duncan's room.
John Mulligan: And we held his hand and talked to him and comforted him because his family couldn't be there.
Scott Pelley: You held his hand through the spacesuit? John Mulligan: I did.
He was glad someone wasn't afraid to take care of him.
And we weren't.
Richard Townsend: I have nothing but respect and admiration for everyone that was involved in his care you know everyone has someone in their lives that they love and they care about.
I have a five-year-old and a three-year-old and my wife is pregnant.
And the mortality rate for pregnant women with Ebola is, it's essentially 100 percent.
Scott Pelley: But Richard, why don't you go to the administration and say, "You know, I'm sorry.
But my wife is pregnant.
" Richard Townsend: People were allowed to request not to be tasked with his care.
Krista Schaefer: We asked for volunteers.
Everyone volunteered.
Scott Pelley: Everyone was a volunteer, everyone that was there wanted to be there? Krista Schaefer: Every person, housekeeping, respiratory, physicians, nurses.
But despite all the volunteers Duncan grew worse.
An experimental drug wasn't helping.
John Mulligan: Early Saturday morning he had become very critically ill and was placed on a respirator.
Scott Pelley: He was intubated.
John Mulligan: He was intubated.
Scott Pelley: Tube down his throat? John Mulligan: Tube down his throat.
He had a dialysis catheter placed because he was not making any urine, but he needed to.
He was heavily sedated and he had tears running down his eyes, rolling down his face, not just normal watering from a sedated person.
This was in the form of tears.
And I grabbed a tissue and I wiped his eyes and I said, "You're going to be okay.
You just get the rest that you need.
Let us do the rest for you.
" And it wasn't 15 minutes later I couldn't find a pulse.
And I lost him.
And it was the worst day of my life.
This man that we cared for, that fought just as hard with us, lost his fight.
And his family couldn't be there.
And we were the last three people to see him alive.
And I was the last one to leave the room.
And I held him in my arms.
He was alone.
Scott Pelley: Sidia, you spent perhaps the most time talking with Mr.
Duncan and I wonder what you think people should know about him.
Sidia Rose: He was very kind and very appreciative.
Even something as simple as me just giving him cold washcloth to cool his face down because his fever wasn't breaking, even that he was grateful for.
He told me thanks.
Within days of Duncan's death, nurse Nina Pham was admitted to the hospital with Ebola.
Scott Pelley: When Nina became sick, that must've sent a lightning bolt through the staff because now it's one of you.
John Mulligan: I thought someone was playing a cruel joke until I finally looked at my phone and saw the missed text messages and the voicemails and turned the news on and went, "Oh my goodness.
" Then four days later, nurse Amber Vinson fell ill.
Both nurses have since recovered; this is Nina Pham leaving a hospital on Friday.
But many on the staff still wonder whether they could be next.
Scott Pelley: Are any of you, all of you, still self-monitoring for signs of infection? Sidia Rose: I am.
Scott Pelley: You are? You're still within the 21-day window? Sidia Rose: For Mr.
Duncan I'm passed my 21-day period.
But for Nina Pham I'm still being monitored.
I've been asymptomatic.
My temperature has been rock solid.
Those who contract the virus are not infectious until they actually become sick.
Members of the medical staff must take their temperature now twice a day and show the reading to a state health official.
But, in at least one other way, the effect of fighting this virus could linger.
John Mulligan: I would have nightmares, and still do, of my co-workers being infected and not being able to get to a hospital and treatment and dying.
And so it's like any traumatic event, this too shall pass.
It's just going to take a little time.
There are few fields of medicine that are having a bigger impact on how we treat disease than genetics.
The science of genetics has gotten so sophisticated so quickly that it can be used to not only treat serious diseases but prevent thousands of them well before pregnancy even begins.
Diseases that have stalked families for generations - like breast cancer - are being literally stopped in their tracks.
Scientists can do that by creating and testing embryos in a lab, then implanting into a mother's womb only the ones which appear healthy.
While the whole field is loaded with controversy, those who are worried about passing on defective and potentially dangerous genes see the opportunity to breed out disease.
Norah O'Donnell: Did you ever envision that you would have the capability you have today? Dr.
Mark Hughes: No, but that's the fun of science.
It's constantly surprising you.
[Dr.
Mark Hughes: Wow.
Look at that.
.]
Dr.
Mark Hughes is one of the scientists leading the way in a rapidly growing field known as reproductive genetics.
He pioneered a technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, an embryo screening procedure that can identify deadly gene mutations - and alter a child's genetic destiny.
[Dr.
Mark Hughes: This one's got a minus two.
.]
Dr.
Mark Hughes: We all throw genetic dice when we have children.
But when you know the dice are loaded and that there's a really reasonable chance that your baby will have an incurable, dreadful condition, you're looking for an alternative.
Dr.
Hughes helped develop PGD two decades ago to screen embryos for one disease: cystic fibrosis.
Today, because of advances in the mapping of the human genome, he says it can be used to root out virtually any disease caused by a single defective gene.
Norah O'Donnell: Let me do a rapid fire yes or no.
Can you use PGD for Tay-Sachs? Dr.
Mark Hughes: Yes.
Norah O'Donnell: Muscular dystrophy? Dr.
Mark Hughes: Yes.
Norah O'Donnell: Sickle-cell anemia? Dr.
Mark Hughes: Yes.
Norah O'Donnell: Hemophilia? Dr.
Mark Hughes: Yes.
Norah O'Donnell: Huntington's disease? Dr.
Mark Hughes: It's one of the most common disorders we test for, yes.
Norah O'Donnell: Alzheimer's disease? Dr.
Mark Hughes: If it's a mutation in a particular gene that causes early onset, we can test for it, yes.
Norah O'Donnell: So you can test for Alzheimer's.
Dr.
Mark Hughes: This is a small subset of a particular kind of Alzheimer's that attacks very early in life.
Norah O'Donnell: Colon cancer? Dr.
Mark Hughes: If we know which of the colon cancer genes, yes.
Norah O'Donnell: Breast cancer? Dr.
Mark Hughes: We do it regularly.
Dr.
Hughes' lab is one of a handful in the country that provides this genetic testing, which is why 3,000 couples turn to him each year.
Among them, Matt and Melinda, who asked that we not use their last name.
If they hadn't done the embryo screening procedure, their four-year-old son Mason and his baby sister, Marian, might very well have been born with a genetic mutation that increases the risk of breast, ovarian, prostate, and pancreatic cancer.
It wasn't until Melinda herself was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer seven years ago that she found out she carried that gene mutation known as BRCA1.
Norah O'Donnell: Did you know what BRCA1 was? Melinda: Not a clue.
But as it turned out, it had haunted her family for generations.
At age 29, facing chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, Melinda was afraid that if she had children one day, they would also be cursed with that potentially deadly mutation.
Norah O'Donnell: What did doctors tell you about the risk of passing on this BRCA mutation? Melinda: Fifty percent.
So flip a coin.
Norah O'Donnell: And I bet that weighed on you even heavier.
Melinda: Yes.
It's a lifetime of having to worry about it.
And I just didn't want my kids to have to do that.
The best way to ensure that was to do embryo screening for the BRCA1 gene mutation, which Dr.
Hughes says is among the fastest-growing parts of his business.
Dr.
Mark Hughes: This takes the risk.
For example, in breast cancer, it takes the risk if you have this mutation from 50/50 of passing it to the next generation down to less than one percent.
But the screening isn't easy.
All couples, even fertile ones, must first go through in-vitro fertilization, the process in which a man's sperm is injected into a woman's eggs under a microscope to create embryos.
Then, five days later, a tiny tube just one twentieth the diameter of a human hair is used to extract from each embryo one single cell to be genetically tested for disease.
Norah O'Donnell: It's just one cell? Dr.
Mark Hughes: Yes.
Norah O'Donnell: You can tell that much from one cell? Dr.
Mark Hughes: You can tell an awful lot in one cell.
That cell is packed up at fertility clinics across the country and shipped overnight in ordinary looking boxes like these to screening labs.
We followed the process at Dr.
Hughes lab, called Genesis Genetics just outside Detroit, where a team of scientists took over.
Norah O'Donnell: So what do you do with that one cell when it arrives here? Dr.
Mark Hughes: Well we're busy.
We have to break the cell open; they have to pull out this enormous encyclopedia of genetic information.
He's talking about the cell's DNA, our genetic code that scientists represent with four letters - A, C, T and G.
For a gene to work properly, the letters have to be strung together in the right order.
If they're not, that could spell trouble.
It's Dr.
Hughes' job to find the mutation - or "typo" - in a gene that could cause disease.
Dr.
Mark Hughes: So you have to find that typo in effectively six billion letters.
Norah O'Donnell: A typo in six billion letters? Dr.
Mark Hughes: Yeah.
Norah O'Donnell: So how do you do that? Dr.
Mark Hughes: Technology is amazing.
Dr.
Hughes used the technology to screen Matt and Melinda's embryos in 2010 - ruling out the ones that carried the BRCA1 mutation, which would have given their children a reasonable chance of getting breast or other cancers.
Norah O'Donnell: About how many of them tested positive for the BRCA1 gene? Dr.
Mark Hughes: About half and indeed, if you look at her embryos, here is an affected, an affected, an affected, an affected.
That's four.
It's about half.
It is just what you'd expect.
It's just what you'd expect in nature.
But with the powerful intervention of science, embryos that carry a harmful mutation are often discarded, which is one reason the decision to go ahead with the screening was a difficult one for Matt and Melinda.
Melinda: We prayed a lot about it.
It's a hard decision to make.
Norah O'Donnell: What did you struggle with? Melinda: Was it right? Was it the right thing to do? Is it playing God? Is it ethical? And the more we learned about it and got comfortable with the idea, it was like, "Yes, absolutely.
" Norah O'Donnell: You have said, "The breast cancer stops with me.
" Melinda: Yes.
It's not just my children.
It's their children and my grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Forever and all for time, in my bloodline, yeah.
The entire process cost them around $16,000 - a small price to pay, Melinda says, for her children's health.
But Anne Morriss didn't get to change the odds for her child.
By the time she learned she carried a dangerous mutation, she had already passed it on to her son, who's now seven.
At birth, Alec seemed the picture of health, but then came an unexpected call from a doctor.
Anne Morriss: He started by saying, "Can you please go check and make sure that your child is still alive and then come back and we can continue this discussion.
" Norah O'Donnell: So a doctor calls you and says, "I need to tell you something but can you go check that your son is still alive.
" Anne Morriss: That's how the conversation started.
Norah O'Donnell: What was your reaction? Anne Morriss: You know, your heart just falls out of you.
A newborn screening test revealed Alec had a rare and sometimes fatal metabolic disorder called MCAD deficiency; he had to be fed every few hours just to stay alive.
Unlike breast cancer, MCAD deficiency is a recessive disorder, meaning a child must inherit a copy of the faulty gene from both parents.
Anne Morriss had used an anonymous sperm donor to conceive, but in an incredible case of bad luck, he just happened to carry the same mutation she did.
Anne Morriss: Every human being walking the planet is a carrier for a rare disease.
But what matters is who we choose to partner with reproductively.
Like, that's where the risk shows up.
Now she wants to reduce the risk of a bad genetic match for others - well before they start the reproductive process.
She just started a company called GenePeeks with Lee Silver, a Princeton University professor who's also a molecular biologist -- though his latest idea doesn't take place in a lab.
It's entirely virtual.
Lee Silver: We are creating digital babies.
Norah O'Donnell: Digital babies? Lee Silver: Yes.
Norah O'Donnell: So you're simulating the process of reproduction, but on a computer.
Lee Silver: Exactly.
Silver says all it takes is a saliva sample to obtain DNA.
He then combines the genetic information from both prospective parents in a computer to make a thousand digital babies.
Norah O'Donnell: this is a digital baby.
Lee Silver: This is a digital baby.
It contains virtual DNA - which like real DNA, is represented by those same four letters - A, C, T and G.
Lee Silver: This baby has a mutation.
He says that by analyzing the DNA in all those digital babies, he is able to calculate the risk of two people conceiving a child with any one of 500 severe recessive pediatric disorders.
For now, GenePeeks is available for $2,000 to clients using sperm banks and egg donors to conceive, though its founders say the goal is to expand it to all couples who want to have a baby.
Norah O'Donnell: You think everyone who's going to have a baby should go and have a digital baby first? Lee Silver: I see a future in which people will not use sex to reproduce.
That's a very dangerous thing to do.
That may sound far-fetched, but the way Lee Silver sees it, there will come a time when couples will no longer want to conceive naturally because it's too risky.
Lee Silver: It's safer to have a baby with this pre-knowledge, this genetic information that might help them avoid disease.
But with the promise of this technology also comes the fear that some parents would want to use it to select genetic traits in their children that have nothing to do with disease - a debate Lee Silver himself stoked when he wrote the patent for GenePeeks.
Norah O'Donnell: We read your patent and it says your technology could be used to assess whether a child could have other traits, like eye color, hair color, social intelligence, even whether a child will have a widow's peak? If your company is so focused on preventing disease, why would you include those traits? Lee Silver: The purpose of the list of traits is simply to demonstrate that our technology can be used to study anything that's genetically influenced.
That doesn't mean we're going to actually do that.
Norah O'Donnell: OK.
But you're running a company? That could be big business? Lee Silver: We are the ones who invented this technology and we're going to use it to study pediatric disease.
At the moment, we will make sure the technology is used only for that purpose.
And at the moment, you'll have to take his word for it because there are no real rules in this country limiting what this kind of technology can be used to screen for, leaving those decisions up to scientists like Lee Silver and Mark Hughes.
Norah O'Donnell: So we should trust you to set the boundaries? Dr.
Mark Hughes: If I'm setting a boundary saying, "I'm not willing to do that," that's no different from any other field of medicine.
So sure.
Norah O'Donnell: But do you wrestle with this at all? I mean, who is the gatekeeper? Dr.
Mark Hughes: That's the question.
Should it be some group sitting around a mahogany table or should it be all left up to the patient? If it would get to the point where it was like cosmetic surgery, that would be downright awful.
But I'd think those are all straw men arguments.
And people asked me these very questions that you're asking me right now, That's in part because researchers still only fully understand traits and diseases caused by a single flawed gene.
There's a lot left to learn about the interaction of multiple genes.
But when that happens, Mark Hughes and Lee Silver believe their technologies will be able to screen for a host of genetically complex diseases that they say could include schizophrenia, and some types of diabetes and heart disease.
Lee Silver: I think it's going to be used by society in the 21st century, just like we used antibiotics and other advances in the 20th century, to drastically reduce the risk of infectious disease.
We're going to be able to drastically reduce the risk of genetic disease.
Norah O'Donnell: You're comparing this ability with reproductive genetics to antibiotics and vaccinations? Lee Silver: I am.
And in some ways, this is more powerful.
Earlier this month, because of how quickly the industry is growing, the FDA proposed guidelines to review certain genetic testing to ensure the technology used in the diagnosis of serious diseases is accurate and safe.
Foo Fighters is one of the last great American rock bands that consistently sell millions of albums and fill stadiums around the world.
The band was created 20 years ago by its lead singer and guitarist Dave Grohl, but it's his latest project that really got our attention.
The band has made a multi-part documentary and recorded a new album called "Sonic Highways.
" It's a mix of music history, journalism, songwriting and old-fashioned rock 'n' roll.
It's unlike anything any rock band has ever attempted, and a reflection of everything Dave Grohl loves about making music.
Foo Fighters' sound is raw, real rock 'n' 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.
Anderson Cooper: But isn't that easy to say for someone who's, you know, incredibly successful? Dave Grohl: It's really easy to say.
But that's the way I felt before any of this happened.
I I wasn't doing it so that this would happen.
I was doing it because I loved it.
Anderson Cooper: And you still love to play? Dave Grohl: Oh, dude, yeah, a lot.
That love of playing is what Grohl believes should always be at the heart of music.
Dave 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.
" Anderson 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?" Dave Grohl: Who's to say who's good or not? Imagine Bob Dylan standing there and singing "Blowin' in the Wind" in front of those judges.
"Sorry, it's a little nasally and a little flat.
Next.
" Anderson Cooper: How would you do in "American Idol"? Dave Grohl: Oh, 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.
Grohl was singing his heart out when we met up with Foo Fighters in May 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.
" [Dave Grohl: Where you from?.]
[Trombone Shorty: From New Orleans, from here, Trem?? neighborhood.]
Dave Grohl: When I interview these people 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.
Anderson Cooper: And the reason is the history of how that music was formed.
Dave Grohl: It could be anything.
In Seattle, it rains all the time, so people stay in their basements and write songs.
Grohl approached the project as a both a musician and a historian, and says he was often surprised about what he learned.
Dave Grohl: Well everybody knows Nashville as the country music capital of the world.
But then I start to realize, wait a minute, all of the foundation of a lot of these musicians is in the church.
Whether it's Dolly Parton or Carrie Underwood, like they started in the church.
I never knew that.
Anderson Cooper: It seems like the subtext is the roots of music matter Dave Grohl: Oh, yeah.
Anderson Cooper: and are important for people to know.
Dave 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? 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.
Anderson Cooper: The way you're writing songs for this album is completely different than Dave Grohl: Yeah.
Anderson Cooper: anything you've ever done.
And, as far as I know, different than anyone's ever really done.
Dave Grohl: These are all things that people have talked about.
New Orleans is a crossroad, the spirits on the square.
Cyril Neville used to watch his family play music through like cracks on the door.
He'd press his face against the screen.
He'd go home with the imprint of the screen on his head.
Anderson Cooper: So these are all phrase you got out of interviewing various artists.
Dave Grohl: Yeah, words and phrases.
Grohl had just written the song an hour earlier.
It won't be released until next month, 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.
" Dave 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.
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 pretty similar.
Anderson Cooper: That's interesting.
Chris Shiflett: It's interconnected.
The first episode is about the history of punk rock and the blues in Chicago.
Dave Grohl: This is a good example of a moment in an interview that made its way into one of our songs.
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.
.]
Dave Grohl: Man when that came out of his mouth, when he said that, I just thought "I have to tell his story in this song.
" 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.
Dave 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.
Anderson: Your teeth itched? Dave Grohl: There was spit and sweat.
And that night, I just thought, I can do this.
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.
Dave Grohl: Losing Kurt was just earth shattering, and I was afraid of music after he died.
Anderson Cooper: You couldn't even listen to music? Dave Grohl: No, man.
I swear, 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.
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.
Dave 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.
" Anderson Cooper: How did you come up with the name, Foo Fighters? Do you like the name? Dave 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 UFO's in World War II.
Now 45, 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.
Dave Grohl: This is all I do man Anderson Cooper: There's not other interests you have? This is it? Dave 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.
Foo Fighters will be returning to each of the eight cities where they recorded "Sonic Highways," but Grohl is looking forward to one city in particular.
Dave Grohl: That week we had in New Orleans totally changed my life.
Anderson Cooper: How so? Dave Grohl: It made me fall head over heels in love with music all over again.
One of his favorite memories from that week in New Orleans was when Foo Fighters gave that 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.