The Carlos Santana interview

Yahoo

30-03-2025

Mar. 30—Carlos Santana, the multi-Grammy Award winning guitarist and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, is coming to Albuquerque's Isleta Amphitheater on April 19, as part of his global "Oneness" tour. His new album, "Sentient," was released on March 28. Santana sat down with the Albuquerque Journal for a wide-ranging discussion on spirituality, politics and his six-decade career in music.
Hi, Mr. Santana. How are you?
Pretty good. Yourself?
I'm doing well. So, you're coming to Albuquerque in April. We're very excited, and I just wanted to ask you, given the historic and cultural ties between Mexico and New Mexico, do you feel at home when you come here?
Yeah, I feel at home. Totally at home. Absolutely.
It's been a little while since you've been here. I think you were gonna come last year, but you had to have a procedure on your back.
Yes, I have sciatica, and I had an operation. But that's corrected now, and I'm fine.
OK, great. And I heard you also broke your finger last month?
Yeah, I'm fine with that one, too.
Tell us about your new album, "Sentient."
"Sentient" is a name for a being, a person, who — I describe it like a Christmas tree, and all the ornaments around the Christmas tree are the attributes, the elements, the ingredients, the nutrients — of compassion, kindness, patience, consideration and humility. There's a lot of beautiful things that a sentient being owns and has.
We all have that, but very few people share it. A lot of people become angry and mean. But a sentient being is more consistent with emanating light than darkness or fear or ignorance.
I know you're you're a deeply spiritual man. You've been influenced by Don Miguel Ruiz, and you also studied with Hindu gurus and Indigenous teachers. How has spirituality informed your life and your music?
It brought light into the subject. It brought light and wisdom and a sense of clarity that I really needed in my life. We all need clarity every day, because there's so much darkness and ignorance outside that we need to remember to take a deep breath, go inside, and gain clarity.
A lot of people who were playing music since the '60s, since I started, they didn't do so well with time, you know. It's almost like they OD'd on themselves.
Some of them OD'd literally.
That's what I'm saying. But I was spared, because I purposely pursued spiritual discipline.
Who's been your most important spiritual teacher?
Probably my mother.
She was a healer, right? She practiced Indigenous Mexican healing medicine?
Her attitude towards life and people was very, very commendable, very practical and down-to-earth. But my mother had supreme conviction. She had this knowing conviction, and I was constantly in awe of her. She instilled conviction and my father, charisma.
Do you feel like they're still part of you? Can you feel them sort of watching over you?
Oh yes, always. They will always be in my next breath and in every drop of blood. They're there.
That's beautiful. Let me ask you, when I think about your place in music history, you've obviously done a lot. But I feel like you kind of took B.B. King's electric blues guitar, and both you and Jimi Hendrix took that into the stratosphere, into a psychedelic dimension. Is that a fair assessment?
We learned from B.B., and I also combined B.B. with African music and Tito Puente and Puerto Rican and Cuban music and all the African music. Out of all the musicians in Africa, I probably know 99.9%. I know that music. So, when I combined it with my music, I became more than a Mexican guy playing piñata music, you know?
Yeah, I can hear the influence of Fela Kuti, I think.
Oh yeah, I love Fela Kuti.
Like, you can really go into a trance, and then go into different places in your mind.
Thank you. Yes, absolutely. I feel a oneness with them, which I can articulate in the music.
Let me ask you about about the new album. Some of these songs are ones you've recorded over the years that haven't been released yet. There's collaborations with Miles Davis and Run DMC, and a Michael Jackson song. Tell us about some of those influential artists who are part of this.
By grace, I'm able to be a center stage with Run DMC, Michael Jackson — two songs from Michael Jackson, "Stranger in Moscow" and one that he actually sings on it. And one with Smokey Robinson. Three or four with Miles Davis.
Not that many artists can have that that kind of company around themselves, you know?
Right, it's incredible that you've worked with all these amazing people, and you continue to stay relevant and try new things. Different generations know you from different work that you've done. Having that kind of longevity in the music industry is also pretty rare.
Thank you. You know, I function by grace. I have a T-shirt that says "Grace is my GPS." So, to me, grace is very real, like my next breath. It's not luck or chance or fortune. Grace is solid like gravity. If you drop something 100 times, it will fall 100 times, because that's the law of gravity. There is a law of grace. And with the law of grace, anything and everything is possible.
How do we put ourselves in line to receive that grace?
Learn to meditate, open your mind, open your heart, and be nice. Be kind. Modify your mindset.
Speaking of meditation, one of my favorite albums you did was "Illuminations" with Alice Coltrane, which I think is sometimes a bit overlooked.
Oh, thank you.
You were both exploring Hinduism at that time and combining Indian music and jazz, and it's a beautiful melding of different traditions.
Yeah, I think they call it New Age now, but we were into everything from galactic music by Sun Ra to — everything. We loved exploring.
Sometimes when people think of New Age music, they think of elevator music that they play at the spa, but this is very deep and very real. What was it like working with Alice Coltrane?
It was the supreme blessing. She was very, very enlightening to me. She taught me a lot, and I learned a lot.
You know, elevator music doesn't have to have the stigma of music without balls, you know? Or music without any courage, or without any energy. What makes it like that is the people who select that music. Like, for example, I know a lot of music from (jazz guitarist) Wes Montgomery could be called elevator music, but it it sounds like you're inside of a Rolls-Royce, hearing The Beatles, you know?
So, what makes something bland and gutless, or like I said, without balls, is that some musicians don't know how to play with the fire of passion. They play without energy, without fire. That's what gives it a bad name, so people call it elevator music.
But elevator music doesn't have to be that. If I was in charge of who programs the elevator music in the shopping malls and the parking lots, people would be rocking!
I wish you were in charge of that! That would be nice. Well, I have to ask you, because President (Donald) Trump has been reelected, and I know you've been something of an activist, standing up for immigrants — especially fellow Mexican immigrants — what new era are we entering?
We're entering an era where we're learning — like a dog shakes off water — we're learning to ward off ignorance, fear, prejudice and stupidity. Have you ever seen a shaggy dog shake off water when the sun is behind it? It creates a rainbow.
So, to me, a rainbow is gonna come out of all of this. Because the United States, first of all, is a social experiment, and we're learning to be each other's brother's keeper.
Like Robin Williams said, the people of the world can borrow our Constitution, cause we're not using it! But if we learn to really utilize the Constitution, and the Bible, there will be compassion and kindness and oneness and brotherhood and unity.
A lot of corrupt corporations have taken over everything, so what you have is energy that is very, very flawed. But I still believe in the core American principles. I think that we can be a united force, and we can help the world with the problem of starvation. We could bring peace on earth. But we have to learn how to meditate. We have to learn how to feel the light that we are. That's the remedy for just about everything on the planet, to individually learn to meditate and be one with your own light, your own divinity.
That's very hopeful. I love the image of a dog, shaking off water and creating a rainbow. And it's good to have hope, because I think hopelessness can destroy people.
Light will always win over darkness. Eventually, you and I, we're gonna see that on a TV commercial — a dog shaking off water and creating a rainbow. The water is just the flaws and imperfections and limitations.
We're gonna be all right. We're on our way. We will all graduate together into a place where we can celebrate our own light and our own divinity.
Tell us about your upcoming tour.
I'm gonna do a global Woodstock tour, right now through the next year. Three days of unity, harmony and oneness. Bands from all over the world will bring all these songs that compliment life. No "slap the bitch," none of that stuff. They'll bring compassion and kindness. "Blowing in the Wind," "Imagine," "One Love," "All You Need Is Love." Different kinds of songs like that.
We can design songs that can help the individual feel more empowered within their own light, and that's what I want to do. I want to create a global Woodstock, starting at San Francisco's Golden Gate, all the way to Central Park, around to Hyde Park, and keep going and end up in Honolulu. We call it "Oneness."
Who else is gonna be part of it?
Well, I invited a lot of bands who want to do it. Earth Wind & Fire wants to do it, Eric Clapton wants to do it, Metallica wants to do it. A lot of people wanna do it. It's just a matter of sitting down with their managers and the agents and putting a blueprint on the table.
Does Metallica have the "peace and love" energy?
Absolutely! I love Metallica. Kirk Hammett is a good friend of mine.
I think sometimes we put these different groups into different categories. The music industry is always pigeonholing people.
It's not just the music industry. I mean, it's also individual people who are too much in their mind. When you are in your mind, there is separation and division. When you are in your heart, it's only one. And it's beautiful.
Well, thank you for those words of wisdom. And thank you for being Carlos Santana!
Thank you so much. Bless your family. Take care.
This interview was recorded on Feb. 18. It has been edited for clarity.