How Keith Moon Saved Carlos Santana’s Debut Performance

GOLODRYGA: Well, we turn now to a musical legend who needs little introduction. Carlos Santana rose to stardom in the late 1960s has a captivating guitarist and has since gained 10 Grammys and millions of fans worldwide. His band recently released their new album called “Blessings and Miracles.” And he joined Walter Isaacson to discuss the inspiration behind the album and the people and experiences who have shaped him as an artist.

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WALTER ISAACSON: Thank you, Bianna. And wow, Carlos Santana, welcome to the show.

CARLOS SANTANA, GRAMMY AWARD-WINNING ARTIST: Thank you. Very grateful and happy to be here.

ISAACSON: And congratulations on this new album. I mean, “Blessings and Miracles.” It really picks up themes you’ve been doing for 50 years, which is sort of a spiritual soulfulness. Tell me how this new album sort of reflects your current take on the world today.

SANTANA: For me, where the world is, it seems like there’s two ingredients that we need desperately in a positive way, which is hope and courage. You know, hope and courage will bring unity, harmony, and awareness of totality. When you become aware of your own totality, you’re able to be more compassionate towards yourself and everybody else. So, I wanted to create music. I call this music mystical medicine in music to heal a world infected with fear and darkness.

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ISAACSON: You talk about how this new album and its medicine, in a way, is there to help us a little bit come out of these political times in which we’ve gotten so divided. Tell me to what extent politics is now playing into your music a little bit more.

SANTANA: I think more and more humans are graduating to becoming spiritual adults. Spiritual adults in the fifth dimension have absolutely no need for religion or politics. So, right now, in the third dimension, we honor and respect and we pay the fee of living in a world that is invested in patriotism, nationalism and everybody else not so good but we’re number one, you know. Fifth dimension, we are all worthy of God’s grace and we all worthy of our own lives. Artists create a vision that shows people whether you’re Republican or Democrat. Look, we are worthy of our own life and we can work together, embracing our differences and celebrating our uniqueness, authenticity, you know, So, sometimes it’s the way you present the words that humans go, hmm, I never thought it like that, but it sounds better than regurgitating the same stupid [bleep] we’ve been doing, which is hurting one another globally. So, music and harmony uplifts people so you can see with spirit, not with ego. Ego is the third dimension. Victim mentality.

ISAACSON: You know, we biographers sometimes believe when it’s a creative, you know, guy like yourself that it’s all about dad, that you’re really trying to live up to the values your father hit you with. Tell me about growing up with your dad in a small town in Mexico and what he did for you.

SANTANA: My dad instilled in me a certain male charm confidence. If I play the guitar or not, you know, there’s a way for a man to increase your magnanimous magnetism with women and men as far as like, you know, children because you’ve become a pillar in the community. You know, you become — you have a reputation that when you come in, because my father would come into a room and everybody would stop whatever they were saying, and they go, oh, Don Jose (ph), welcome and how are you? You know, and I noticed people’s eyes and their voice, how to change, as soon as dad would come into a room. And so, he — somehow, he gained their total respect and trust of them, you know, So, I said, that’s what I want, you know, beyond the music. I want to be like my father because he’s like Clark Gable, you know, when it comes to just charm, magnetism and all that stuff. So, I want to be like him.

ISAACSON: But, of course, it’s also really all about mom too. And I notice you dedicated your memoir a few years back to your mother. What did you get from her?

SANTANA: Thank you. My mother gave me probably the most important — at least seven times, my mother rescued me from me. You know, living (INAUDIBLE) or before I came out of the womb, you know, my mother — for all of this, you know, my mother, she was the conviction person in the house. My dad was charisma. She’s total conviction. When she says, we go, we go. You know, like, we go from out a land to Tijuana. From Tijuana to San Francisco. Whenever she would say, nos vamos, which we’re going, and I’m going if you — come with me or you stay, but I’m going, you know. And so, I learned from my mother that she had this thing about just raw, raw pure belief that God’s going to give to you. And I know he’s going to give it to me. And she’s saying almost like she’s holding God’s coat, you know, like and he’s going to give it to me, you know, And I was like, wow, this woman is really something else. So, she’s shown me undoubting faith and trust in what she believes.

ISAACSON: You said she rescued you from yourself. Wow, that’s an interesting phrase. What do you mean by that?

SANTANA: You know, a lot of people who commit suicide long-term or want to, they commit suicide because they’re being bamboozled by their own mind. You know, their own mind convinces them that they’re not worthy or this — you know, all those voices that people hear, that’s why they go see analysts, therapists and psychiatrists, you know. And my mom just — would just say a few words, and would say (INAUDIBLE), which means, that is not for you, which means cocaine, heroin, or anything that’s going to become hurtful and a distraction to your mission, which is to play music to unite the world, you know. So, don’t dillydally in a house with people who are invested in malicious darkness. You know, like Clever fools. San Quentin is full of clever fools, you know. But then, there’s wisdom. And my mom gave me wisdom with conviction.

ISAACSON: You have written about child molestation, being molested yourself when you were young by a rich American guy. To what extent do you work through that in your music?

SANTANA: You find a place where you forgive the person completely, totally and absolutely. Like for example, when you see — when I see that person now, you know, it’s — I reduce that person to a seven-year-old child and someone did the same thing to that person, you know. And when I see that child, seven-year-old child, you know, then I can see that behind that child is — there’s the sun, you know, like a lamp, a round sphere behind him. And so, if I’m not correctly spiritually centered and grounded, then I would want him to go to hell. I would want to condemn him to go to hell. But this is the thing. When you send someone to hell, you’re going with him too. And I was like, no, I don’t want to do that. So, I said, I forgive you and I release you through your own life. And since that day, I don’t have no pain or no — you know, this thing happened, no. Because I am not what happened to me. I am not the body. I am free. I still am as God created me. And God created me with purity and innocence.

ISAACSON: When you were 19, your band opened for the Who at the film war. It’s a historic moment in rock. Tell me about that. Take me back to that night.

SANTANA: You know, it was so surreal because I guess I was so excited, I kept breaking guitar strings. I had so much energy and so much zest (ph) and enthusiasm, I kept breaking strings. And the Who were not there yet, except for the drummer, Keith Moon. So, when he see me breaking the second string and the band playing but they’re waiting for me, you know, that time I only had one guitar. So, he went and opened the case from Pete (ph), you know, and he gave me the guitar. He said, go ahead. I was like, oh, thank you. You know, so I plug in the guitar and kept playing. So, Keith Moon, you know, was asking me a beat being the drummer, he gave me the guitar and I was like, oh, my God, you know. But it’s been like that every day in my life, you know, since I came to San Francisco. You know, meeting Bill Graham or Clair (ph) Davis or Miles Davis. Every day — you know, Peter Thompson or B.B. King, every day is nothing but blessings and miracles and things outside, you know, incredible moments outside of time that you can’t quantize. You know, priceless is the only that you can think of. Priceless.

ISAACSON: Tell me about Jerry Garcia at Woodstock doing — helping you.

SANTANA: So, we got there around 12:00 in the afternoon, between 12:01. He was landing in his helicopter, same helicopters that were flying in Vietnam. And when we looked downstairs, it was literally like an ocean of flesh and hair and teeth and eyes. And we were like, oh, my God, you know. And so, when we landed — anyway, to make it short. The person I saw was Jerry Garcia. And Jerry Garcia goes, hey, man, what time are you guys going to go on? I go, well, three bands after you. He goes, well, we’re not going until 12:30 at night. This is a mess, you know. It was almost 1:00 in the afternoon, and you’re not going until 12:30 at night and we’re going three bands after you? And Jerry goes, yes. And I got some of this. You want to try some of this? And it was — you know, it was something that makes you — it expends — expands your — it alters your consciousness without a shadow of a doubt. And I’m grateful because right there, it put me under fire. I could have just like — youi know, because they told me I had go on immediately, not 12:00 — so, I’m like, oh, I just came on. And I’m like — and then (INAUDIBLE) like that, you know, like, oh, I hope I can remember even my name. You know, how to move my fingers. And so, I heard his voice said, just trust me, you know, just say, God, help me stay in time and in tune. Please, God, help me — please help stay in time and in tune and I’ll never do this thing again, I promise. He helped me stay in time and in tune apparently. And here we are still talking about it because it was about energy.

ISAACSON: Let me ask you about a few influencers on your music. Let me start with Otis Rush.

SANTANA: Oh, my God. You’re talking about just pure — there’s very few people in the planet who can squeeze the juice out of a note like Miles Davis, Coltrane, Otis Rush. I mean, because when they get inside that note, they’re touching totality and absoluteness and eternity. So, you, by just hearing it, right next to you, you become part of that. It reminds you too, and you and I, that we’re not limited wretched sinners, poor little victims, you know, little tiny nothing, we’re chopped liver and God is everything. No. You know, when Otis Rush plays, whether it’s like Peter Green or Eric Clapton, all the baddest guys from Europe, we’re all listening to the same people from Chicago, you know.

ISAACSON: Is that how the blues got to be part of your musical tradition?

SANTANA: Yes. The music for me and — people were listening to this, were listening to that. I wasn’t listening to this or that. I was listening to John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Lightnin’ Hopkins, which is like the root of the blues. Kind of like Woody Guthrie and, you know, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, the blues, you know, it may be country but still blues, you know, because it’s based around folk music from the world, you know, whether it’s from Ireland or from the Africa, folk music is folk music, you know. So, I had learned from the blues that you must feel — have feeling, emotion, passion, sensation. All of it in one note. This is not background music. No. When certain people play, they get your undivided attention, because you can’t think of anything else. You’re in a spell. They take you out of your existence, you know.

ISAACSON: You develop what you called a universal tone. Explain to me what that is and how that tied into the mission you were on.

SANTANA: The universal tone, you know, all children, especially babies, they could be in an airport, there could be like two babies and — close to the gates and one baby — so they don’t know how to speak English or Spanish or (INAUDIBLE), they make a few sounds to the other baby turns around and it’s like their communicating, you know. John Lee Hooker would go — everybody knows what that is, whether you’re Japanese or — you know. So, that’s universal tone also. So, I found through my dad that I can zone in, zero in at a sound that makes molecular structure, transmogrified molecular structure. What does that mean? That’s a little far out. Transmogrified molecular structure, means your hair stands up, you cry and you laugh and you don’t know why, you start dancing. Music took you to a place where they call it being saved or, you know, a revival or, you know, all of the above, or a voodoo, you know, it’s all the same thing. It means being totally spirited. The ego has to sit this one down.

ISAACSON: Thank you so much, Carlos Santana, for joining us.

SANTANA: Stay precious. Bye.