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[Carlos] Do you believe in magic?
-[playing "Oye Cómo Va"] -Not props and illusions.
Magic is when you command the elements to capture people's hearts.
Magic.
Not tricks.
The flow of grace.
This vato, this young dude, had big eyes, big heart, and big ears.
There's music that just makes you celebrate,
and when you celebrate, fear has to go away.
And all you have is delight.
That's real "magic" magic.
Like a hurricane.
Like an earthquake.
Like a tornado.
You can shake the world's foundation.
[song ends]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Carlos playing blues rock melody]
I seen Stevie Ray and Jimi Hendrix, man.
Coltrane and Bob Marley.
Real musicians.
They call it a force of nature.
They create a different kind of a transformation of molecular structure
through sound, resonance, and vibration.
My father said to me:
[speaking in Spanish]
[in English] "Follow me."
Then we went to the backyard.
And the sun was going down. Everything looks golden.
And he opened...
[speaks in Spanish]
[in English] He opened the violin case,
pulled his violin out,
and then he looked at me really intense, and he goes:
[speaks in Spanish]
[in English] "I want to teach you something. Mira."
So he put the violin like this, he'd lean on it, and then he goes...
[whistling melody]
And then this bird comes out of nowhere, lands on this branch, and he goes...
[mimics bird whistling melody]
And I was like-- My eyes were like, "Oh, my God. Dad's speaking to a bird."
[speaks in Spanish]
[whistles melody]
The bird...
And I was like, "Oh, my God."
My dad goes, "See?"
[speaking in Spanish]
[in English] "If you can speak to these birds,
you can speak to the hearts of people."
Cindy Cin.
Check this out.
Come a long way from Tijuana, huh?
[Cindy] Oh, it's beautiful.
Wherever you want, dear.
I'm in trouble now.
-Yeah. -[Maria] It was wonderful.
Such a natural thing to have music in the house at all times...
-Always present. -And we were always dancing
'cause my mom never allowed us to go anywhere, so we'd have parties.
With the vacuuming of the carpets,
if it wasn't a guitar string, getting it out of the machine, right,
it was Dad's violin strings.
We were going, "How are we gonna cut all this stuff?"
-[Lety] We were happy. -Yeah.
Always, every Friday, Saturday night, just playing music.
[Carlos playing blues melody]
[Carlos] We were in la Colonia Libertad.
My mom's doing her thing, you know.
It was rough. It was really, really rough.
So I said to Mom, I said, "Mom."
She goes: [speaks in Spanish]
[in English] "Someday I'm gonna get you your own house,
and I'm going to buy you a refrigerator and a dishwasher
and a washing machine and a dryer."
And, like, she goes, "That's nice, mijo." You know?
I'm like, "No, don't dismiss me like that. I'm gonna do it."
[playing "Treat"]
My mother had a divine determination that was something to witness.
The way she visualized something and she went after it,
it's literally like watching my mother grab ahold of God's garment
and pull it and say, "You're gonna give it to me.
And I know you're gonna give it to me.
So give it to me."
Future pull, I learned that from her.
You see something and you go after it.
My mother would say, "My life is just my children and cooking and José."
Man, women really loved my dad, man.
He had this charisma, his charm.
Oh, look at his hands, man.
So soft, man.
He had the softest hands.
My dad was mainly a classical player.
It was more music like Agustín Lara,
which is kind of like a Cole Porter kind of thing.
And I just knew I wanted to be like my dad,
just play music.
And he left.
And everybody said, "Josefina, you're crazy.
He's not gonna take you back."
She said, "If he don't take me back, he has to tell me in front of my kids.
I want to see his eyes when he tells me he don't want them and he don't want me."
She had so much guts, man.
[drums playing lively rhythm]
Four sisters, two brothers, a tiny dog, we drove, like, a whole week to Tijuana.
It took a long time to get there
'cause the roads weren't all paved or anything like that.
We slept in the desert.
The food was horrible.
The beans that we ate at certain truck stops, they were rancid,
and people were getting sick, but my mother would not be deterred.
When we got where my dad was staying, a lady opened up the door.
You could tell that she was a prostitute.
He snuck his head.
First thing he saw was me, out of all my sisters and brothers,
and he just looked at me in anger, embarrassment, you know, fear.
My dad had to leave that woman and come with us.
It was something that I didn't understand,
'cause you love your dad and you love your mom.
All I knew was that they would go at it.
And then my dad would come back, 4:00 in the morning,
with a bunch of musicians, and he'd serenade my mom.
["Mirage" playing]
Mom and Dad slowly shortened the distance, and then it got better.
[Letterman] Tijuana.
Was it a good life for you as you were growing up? Tough life?
Because a lot-- The only part of Tijuana I ever saw
was just as you cross the border in Southern California.
You look at it and come right back.
But there's a whole other world going on down there, isn't there?
Yeah, like New York. You shouldn't take the first impression of New York.
Yeah, yeah. And what are you off to now? Are you...?
[audience laughing and cheering]
I'm just...
[Carlos] Tijuana is like Star Wars cantina.
People who live in Tijuana, they're from different galaxies.
Especially where I grew up, la Colonia Libertad and La Coahuila,
and it smells a little funky.
The ghetto ghetto, ghetto ghetto.
My father, when he came to Tijuana, it was just mainly mariachi,
because that's the music that American tourists want to hear.
So he became a mariachi player.
[playing mariachi music]
We have nothing.
My dad had to go out and get it with a violin,
so I would join him.
At first, everything was mechanical for me.
My father taught me how to read and how to play mariachi music.
Mariachi's a combination of classical, country and western, Mexican folk.
Dad was not a good teacher.
He was very harsh. "No!" Like, "I say, no!"
And, like, "Oh, shit, gonna give me a heart attack."
So the violin had a history of something that didn't feel right.
Nothing's wrong with the violin. It was me.
[Maria] I think that music was probably too simple for him to play.
They all had the same ending, right, dun-dun.
-[laughing] -Sorry.
[mariachi music ends]
[Carlos] I'd follow my mom to the park in Tijuana,
and there was this band called Javier Bátiz and Los TJs.
And...
And he had a guitar connected to this amplifier,
and when he hit that note...
[band playing "Mashed Potatoes"]
♪ Mashed potatoes Mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes... ♪
[Carlos] The way it resonated, it was like watching a UFO or something.
♪ Mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes... ♪
[Carlos] But he had that tone.
What a sound.
I was mesmerized.
Right there, I just knew that this was all I was gonna be the rest of my life.
[speaks in Spanish]
[in English] This is who I am.
[song ends]
[playing intense guitar melody]
["La, La, La, La, La" playing]
This guy Javier Bátiz, I followed him like a puppy for, like, two, three years.
And he had so many records.
All he had was records of B.B. King, Ray Charles, and Little Richard.
And he was a composite of all three of them.
That was my first kind of like a hero kind of thing.
My portfolio expanded, you know.
It was, like, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, Lightnin' Hopkins,
a whole lot of Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.
And then I discover Lobo Y Melón...
[playing música tropical]
...which is the first time I ever heard música tropical.
It was music from Cuba and Puerto Rico and all the islands in the Caribbean.
We were in La Coahuila, the poorest part of town,
and I was playing violin with my dad.
And I says, "Dad, I don't wanna play this music."
My dad was looking at me like, "You wanna play that pachuco shit?"
Which means blues and rock 'n' roll.
And I says, "How bad can that be? Look at where we are.
There's no floor. It's just dirt. And I mean, it smells terrible.
Look at where we are. How bad can this music be?"
And my dad was like, "Damn."
And he says, "Go."
And I was like:
Whew!
'Cause I'm triumphant, man, you know?
I wanna be on top of the best thing that happened in Tijuana.
I wanna be on top of the best thing that happened in San Francisco,
the best thing that happened in London.
I don't got time for:
[sings in Spanish]
[mimics sobbing]
[in English] Dude.
I'm not a victim. I ain't gonna play that shit.
[playing rock music]
I crossed the border one time
because I heard, in this music store, they had guitars in the windows.
I'm looking at those guitars, and I wanna feel them.
I wanna smell them.
And I hear somebody say, "Hey! Hey!"
I don't turn around. I don't think they're talking to me.
I'm just a kid, a Mexican kid. "Hey!"
And I turn around, and it was three sailors,
white Caucasian sailors going:
"Hey, you fucking Pancho Villa, chili-beany motherfucker."
And I was like, "Damn. Who is he talking to?
I know he's not talking to me. I don't even know him."
It's the first time I felt the sting of racism and ignorance.
"You fucking chili-beany fucking Pancho Villa motherfucker."
And I was like...
"Damn, that's evil."
[radio changing stations]
[mariachi music playing]
My dad came to San Francisco.
He brought one of the first mariachi bands here in the Bay Area.
He started making more money, he would send money over,
then eventually, they sent for us.
I started working, washing dishes at Tic Tock's,
then pressing tortillas.
What's really beautiful about Tic Tock's was the jukebox.
["Psychotic Reaction" playing on jukebox]
The jukebox was, like, everything that kept me sane.
San Francisco was like...
watching in slow motion this garden open up musically.
And it's literally like a vortex of newness for me.
♪ I feel depressed, I feel so bad... ♪
[Lety] He was not around that much.
He was always with his friends, rehearsing.
Carlos was really focusing in his music.
[amplifiers humming]
-[man 1] Wanna start it? -[man 2] No, you start.
[band playing blues music]
Ready?
[Carlos] Stan Markham and Ron Estrada,
they both found me in the street, playing a gig.
I was still in Mission High School.
They told me up front, "Listen, we really believe in you, man.
We seen you play a couple of times now.
I'm gonna quit being a barber, and he's gonna quit being a bail bondsman.
We're gonna quit, and we're gonna be-- We're gonna become your full-time manager.
We're gonna have to sell weed for a while because we don't have any money."
And they said, "Hey, we wanna take you to this place."
I says, "Where we going?" He says, "It's called the Fillmore."
I says, "Well, what's there?" They says, "You'll see."
[Grateful Dead playing "Casey Jones"]
♪ Drivin' that train, high on cocaine ♪
♪ Casey Jones You better watch your speed ♪
[Carlos] And it was the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver...
Country Joe, and the Great Society, something like that.
♪ And you know that notion Just crossed my mind ♪
[Carlos] And the light show, with the, you know, colors
and the smell of weed and patchouli oil.
And I'm looking at it, I'm like-- 'Cause I'm still straight.
I been around marijuana all my life, since I was a child,
but I never toked.
And so I kept telling Ron and Stan:
"You're building a band around me, and I notice that they smoke weed.
And I don't smoke weed.
And every time they smoke weed, they don't play the same song twice.
They play it differently, and they forget things.
And I wish they wouldn't smoke pot, man,
so they would learn the damn song right and play it correctly," you know?
And they looked at me like, "Damn."
So they roll a joint about that big and just left it there
and said, "We're gonna get lunch. We'll be right back," and they left.
The joint is going like this:
And I'm like, "No."
So I finally went, "Okay."
[song stops]
Next time I went to the Fillmore, it was very different.
[band playing rock music]
Oh, it's like going to Disneyland for the first time
and really getting inside the ride.
It's a drag I have to go to sleep, baby,
'cause I could stay awake listening to all this stuff.
♪ Yeah, something in the beat Something in the beat... ♪
[Carlos] The Fillmore was my first alma mater.
I went there more than I went to Mission High School,
and I learned there, like a university, different subjects.
[band playing rock music]
♪ Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
[Carlos] It was the last day of school, and my friends are like:
"Hey, man, you know, what are you gonna do, Carlos?"
I said, "What are you gonna do?"
They said, "I'm gonna join the Marines."
"And what are you gonna do?"
"I'm gonna work with my dad at the warehouse."
"What are you gonna do? Carlos, what are you gonna do?"
I said:
"I'm gonna go on-stage and play with B.B. King and Eric Clapton,"
and they started laughing.
I didn't want to abandon my mom and dad
because I know that, financially, they needed my money.
But I said, "Well, they have to find another kind of way or something, man."
I just made a commitment.
You've got to be a full-time musician.
In order to do that, you have to abandon home
and don't ask permission, 'cause you're not gonna get it.
Something has to stimulate your imagination,
your determination, and your conviction.
Your reality is too limited.
I don't wanna have a reality.
I'd rather have daydreaming.
[playing blues music]
Perpetual daydreaming.
[Bill] I was in the office in the evening,
and there a noise that I heard on the wall by the windows.
I went to the windows, and there were two men
climbing up the side of the building on the drainpipe.
[man] How old?
[Bill] Oh, they were in their early--
Late teens or early 20s, 19, 20, I guess, at the time.
I don't think I asked them to come in. I think I just dragged them in.
[man] They were trying to sneak in...
Yeah, and, you know, of course, the standard question:
"What are you doing coming in?" Which is a silly question, of course.
And said, "Hey, man, you know, we have no bread, and we're--"
One guy said, "I'm a Butterfield fan,"
and Cream is playing, with Eric Clapton, of course,
and he had a harmonica in his pocket.
He said, "I play harmonica and guitar, and we don't have any money."
There was something very gentle.
You wouldn't think that even if he had the money, he would climb in.
Some guys, you would say, "If they had $1000 in their pocket,
they'd still try to sneak in, for the game of sneaking in."
-[man] Carlos was not that kind of guy. -Carlos was not, uh--
He wasn't then. I don't think he ever will be.
[Carlos] Michael Bloomfield's guitar was over there.
He was playing keyboards.
Stanley says, "Excuse me. There's a Mexican, skinny dude over there.
He plays the guitar really good. You let him play?"
So he looked at me, and he goes, "Yeah, man. Come on. Come on up, man.
Go ahead, come on up. Here's my guitar, grab it," you know?
And I jumped on it.
And when I finish, Bill Graham came to me, and he says:
"That's pretty good, kid. You got a band?" You know?
"Yeah." He says, "What's the name?" I go, "We don't have a name."
He goes, "Okay, so I'm gonna book you with your band,
and you're gonna open up for The Who.
And you're gonna open up for Steve Miller and Howlin' Wolf."
And I'm like, "Dang, okay."
[band playing "Se a Cabo"]
Bill Graham was between the real, bona fide god-bucket hippies
and Dick Clark.
That's who Bill Graham was like. A curator.
Somebody who takes a painting from the street that's badass,
and now you put it at the Louvre, you put it in the Museum of Fine Art.
Every time a band would cancel at the Fillmore West, he would call us.
Santana was the first and only band at the Fillmore to headline the Fillmore
without having a record or a record contract.
It was in the Sunday newspaper, in the pink section,
which is, like, bands to come.
There was 20 bands from San Francisco, and we were on top.
They said, "This is the band that is destined to go really far."
-[man] Who do you like? -Santana Blues Band. I just dug them.
It was Bill Graham who saw it.
You talk about the grand design, the big picture.
He always told me he liked the band, but he wanted me.
He's the one that says:
"You're a perfect child of B.B. King and Tito Puente,
and that's the music I love."
"Santana is my child."
And he adopted us like that.
Irma comes home one day, she goes, "Mom, Mom, I just saw this bus,
and it said Santana Blues," or something like that, or maybe on a...
We went, "Oh, my God, where is he? I wonder where he's at."
So that's how, little by little, we started to hear about him.
Every time we'd go to the Fillmore West to see him play,
first we would only have to line up for a block,
then we had to line three blocks, then we'd have to go all the way around.
And we're going, "What? We're standing in line to see him play."
[Carlos] Somehow my mom and dad went to the Fillmore,
which was unthinkable.
We're in between Chicago and Janis Joplin and Big Brother & the Holding Company.
My dad has his tie, shirt, sport coat, his hat.
And my mom's in nylons, whatever, at the Fillmore.
So I go, "There's no seats, Mom. We have to sit on the floor."
We sat on the floor. We were waiting.
In front of us, there were these hippie guys,
and they were passing a joint.
And my mom and Dad then smoked, and my mom says:
[speaks in Spanish]
[in English] "Look. They can't afford cigarettes.
They're passing one little cigarette."
[all laughing]
So Dad opens his box and he's offering everybody cigarettes.
"No, Mama, it's marijuana," and they go, "Oh, okay."
-[song ends] -[crowd cheering and applauding]
Thank you.
[playing "In a Silent Way"]
[Maria] Remember when the man landed in the moon, July 20th?
There was this big thing on TV,
and I looked at Mom, and my mom started crying.
And I'm going, "Mom, crying about the man landing in the moon?"
She goes, "No, I'm crying 'cause it's Carlos's birthday today."
"Oh, okay."
So as a mom, you know, you focus on your kids,
and we're going like, "Wow, this is the moon thing."
But we were so used to him being in his own world
that we were kind of used to, like, used to having Dad always working.
But we never really thought about Mom as far as missing her son, right?
[Carlos] I know my mom was suffering
'cause she didn't know where I was and who I was with or what I was doing.
But I had to.
I had to give birth to Santana and do my own thing
and just go out in the streets and go get it, you know.
["I Need Love" playing over speakers]
[playing smooth melody]
[woman] I'm gonna introduce a gentleman now
who is very significant in the record business.
With Columbia Records,
he played a great part in the popularity of Janis Joplin,
Blood, Sweat & Tears.
Mr. Clive Davis.
[Clive] Basic quality you look for is originality.
People who are setting new trends
and perhaps taking society, uh, step-by-step further,
because music has certainly played a major role
in the evolution of thought in the last 20 years.
[man] I heard that in 1969,
you blew an audition for Atlantic Records on purpose.
[Carlos] Right.
[man] Because you wanted to work for Columbia.
[Carlos] With Columbia.
[man] With Columbia, home of Miles Davis and Bob Dylan. Is that true?
That's absolutely true.
[man] Weren't you nervous about purposely blowing an audition?
No, see, because like Nirvana or Metallica,
when you have confidence in what you're doing,
they will come to you.
[Clive] The freshness of it, the heat of it,
and I just said on the spot, "This is for me, for Columbia."
And so I signed Santana.
[Carlos] We got a call that Bill Graham wanted to see us,
and he says, "There's gonna be this festival.
It's gonna be the festival of festivals."
We didn't have an album out yet. We just finished recording it.
And he says, "I told them I would only help them
if they put you in this festival.
I arranged it so you have this festival in Phoenix,
and then you have this festival in Dallas, and then in Atlantic City.
You're gonna go from 2000, to 5000,
to 15,000, to 30,000, to 60,000, to 90,000,
then there's gonna be Woodstock.
So you get used to a big crowd."
So he actually trained us like a boxer.
And he says, "I want you to know that after this festival,
you're never gonna be the same person.
Go home right now, look in the mirror, and this is one person,
but after Woodstock, this person will be no more."
[helicopter whirring]
[Carlos] It started off being in the helicopter.
Looking out and... [mimics helicopter whirring] You know?
And I walked out, and I see Bill over there,
and then I see Jerry Garcia.
And I was like, "Oh, that's comforting." You know?
Like, "Here's Jerry Garcia. Great." You know?
"Hey, how you doing?" "Hey, how you doing?"
"What time you guys gonna play?"
Uh, he says, "We're gonna go on, like, two bands after you guys."
He says, "Well, you better get comfortable."
They said we're not going on till around 12:00 at night.
So, you know, just get comfortable."
And so I'm watching all this ocean-- Multitude of flesh.
[cheering]
And Jerry Garcia says, "And by the way..."
Doop.
And I was like, "Oh."
I said, "Two, 3:00 in the morning. It's like...
Twelve o'clock in the afternoon.
Oh, yeah, I'm gonna have six, seven-- Seven, eight times, like--
Like, a little room, you know, to go through what I need to go through,
and then when I'm landing, I'm gonna be perfect to play."
Once you get past the amoeba state.
So I took it, and the next thing I know, I hear somebody says...
[man on PA] Would you welcome, please, Santana.
[crowd cheering]
And I'm like...
"Oh...
What?"
[crowd cheering]
Something just hit me in my chest, like, "Mijo, trust."
[heart beating]
"God, I know you're here. Please keep me in time and in tune."
[crowd cheering and applauding]
-[band playing "Soul Sacrifice"] -[man] Just keep that going!
[Carlos] Everything became another dimension.
I noticed that the neck of my guitar was like an electric snake.
It wouldn't stand still.
So I'm making some seriously ugly faces...
to try to keep it from slithering so much.
I'd constantly have to say, "No, no."
The neck and the guitar kept going like this, you know,
and I'm like, "No."
[grunting]
I never told anybody why the snake.
Snake represents doubt and fear that I could fail in front of--
You know, basically lay an egg in front of everybody.
[song ends]
[man on PA] Ladies and gentlemen, Santana!
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Carlos] Then I hear that...
Like an echo, echo, echo...
of that eternal moment in time.
A week after we play at Woodstock, then our album came out, the first album.
["Persuasion" playing]
♪ You got persuasion ♪
♪ I can't help myself... ♪
Out from San Francisco,
the rock group whose album is zooming to the top of the record charts,
-Santana! -[audience applauding]
♪ Something about you, baby Keeps me from goin' to somebody else ♪
[Maria] Oh, my God, October 26th, yes.
[all laughing]
The Ed Sullivan Show, we were--
We just sat there forever.
I said, "Ma, remember when he was a kid,
he used to go, 'I'm gonna be in that show,'
and we'd go, 'Okay'?"
He was like a laser when he wanted something.
Kind of like Mom.
You just laser yourself to, "This is what I want," and he got it.
-[song ends] -[audience cheering and applauding]
[woman] Carlos Santana, how did you start your group,
and how did you came to music?
[man] You have to answer it, man.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[playing "Jingo"]
[Carlos] As soon as music gets in the air, you see the people changing.
The moods, the way they talk, the whole environment.
It comes more naturally.
People are more themselves than what they are programmed to be.
[woman] And do you feel you are leading a rock group?
No, I'm not leading anything.
To tell you the truth, it was like being in a fast roller coaster.
We were so enthused with the ride
that we really didn't get a chance to see that we attained our so-called goal.
Because that wasn't our goal, I guess.
You know, our goal was just to keep playing,
opening up for people like Janis Joplin and Chicago
and all kinds of people, just opening up for them
and knowing very well that we held our own,
that people were just as enthused about us.
♪ Jingo Jingo-ba ♪
[Carlos] I didn't know what "jingo" meant until about maybe seven years ago,
and I've been doing it since '67, '66.
Jingo means "go with God."
♪ Go with, go with God ♪
Another form of saying "Godspeed."
-[song ends] -[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Carlos] When I got my first royalty
from the first album and then Abraxas,
and I brought the check, I said, "Mom, here's the check.
Go get your house, your refrigerator, your dishwasher."
And she looked at it and her eyes got really big.
And my sisters were like, "Oh, my God, Carlos," you know...
I mean, it's better than Grammys and Oscars and Heisman Trophy.
It feels better than anything.
When you can actually fulfill your promise
to give your mother, you know, what you promised...
Ah!
Nothing better.
[Whoopi] Santana was really, for rock 'n' roll, I think,
the first Latin sort of feel that anybody was able to get.
Before me, it was Ray Barretto and Mongo Santamaría
and the Temptations, which, Motown, they had congas.
[Whoopi] Right.
But the way we married the blues and the percussion,
they can have a good time trying to label you.
-[Whoopi] Right. [laughs] -They call it psychedelic mariachi rock.
I say, "You gotta try deeper than that, 'cause that's not what it is."
-["Evil Ways" playing] -[crowds cheering and applauding]
♪ You've got to change your evil ways ♪
-♪ Whoa! ♪ -♪ Baby ♪
♪ Before I stop lovin' you You've got to change, baby... ♪
[Carlos] From '69 to '71, that chunk right there,
there became, like, a real...
tension.
♪ This can't go on ♪
[Carlos] Nobody is equipped to handle name and fame
at that volume that fast.
We're not rehearsing as much as I wanted to rehearse.
They're more interested in being with the drugs
and the chicks and the expensive cars.
I started feeling...
I was jealous
that people were investing their energy
into something else other than the music that we were.
[song fades]
We did 312 concerts in one year.
We hated each other.
We couldn't stand each other. We were tired of each other.
We were tired of our clothes.
We're tired of the way we comb our hair. We were just tired of each other.
It taught me about touring. It taught me about playing.
It taught me about overindulgence.
["Golden Dawn" playing]
I don't know. For some reason, people who were hanging around us,
it wasn't artists anymore.
It was just bozos, man, you know,
people who take too many drugs.
And so, you know, at that time,
we became part of all that,
where music takes the back seat to all the other crazy stuff.
Some of us were able to ward it off,
and some of us didn't.
And so eventually, within two or three years...
the band was...
done.
We got wiped out.
When Jimi left, we were in Salt Lake City.
I swear to you, I could hear people flushing their toilets
with, you know, the cocaine or heroin or whatever.
"This didn't work for him, and it's not gonna work for me, so..."
[mimics toilets flushing]
Jimi Hendrix died. Jim Morrison died.
Janis Joplin's dying. All kinds of musicians are dying.
And for me, it was really two roads.
One was heroin...
and the other one was a spiritual meditation.
Just remember her eyes.
Her eyes were just...
You know, I looked at her, and it was just like I felt any--
It's an inner thing. You can't describe it.
[Deborah] What I was attracted to
was something that was coming from his heart,
or something that was emanating from his being.
[Carlos] Sacred is not Jerusalem or the Vatican or Stonehenge.
Sacredness to us means family.
[amplifiers humming]
[organ playing solemn melody]
[speaks in Spanish]
[Carlos] The distance musically between the third album
and Caravanserai is pretty vast, you know.
And Clive Davis is happy when he has a single.
Caravanserai didn't have a single within a million miles.
And he told me so, you know. "Carlos, I think you're making a mistake."
And I remember distinctively, I lit up a candle,
and I wouldn't even look at Clive.
I just kept looking at the candle.
And I says, "Clive, everything that you're saying
is absolutely true.
However, this is the path that I'm in right now,
and I have to see it through."
[playing "Every Step of the Way"]
I wanted to do more than just, like, crank up "Evil Ways"
and "Black Magic Woman," you know.
So I wanted to see if we can fuse rock 'n' roll and jazz,
and I think it became frustrating
to maybe some of the musicians in the band,
because they wanted to retain the soul direction of Santana,
and I don't think I did as much.
And I said, "I'm gonna cut my hair and dress all in white
and go this other kind of way."
And so I embraced a spiritual path
and a spiritual teacher named Sri Chinmoy from '72 to '82.
Me and Deborah, we went in it.
It's not lip service.
We're actually living it 24 hours a day.
At that time, we used to call it the fragrance of the soul.
[playing poignant melody]
[Sri Chimoy] For my disciples, feel the necessity...
of the living God inside them.
They become living Gods themselves.
[Carlos] Just basically no meat, no alcohol, no weed, no--
It's just, like, a Leave It to Beaver kind of existence,
being just, like, straight, square life.
[Maria] My mom always said:
"He challenges me on my faith sometimes.
And he makes me think about the way I think."
Those 11 years he was with the guru,
it was unbelievable, unbelievable.
Once you've been a Catholic all your life,
and then your son's seeking another religion...
you know, it's like, it's not comfortable for her,
'cause she used to go, "Oh, he visits all these religions."
But it wasn't a religion. It was a spirituality that he was going--
-[Carlos] Thank you. -Right?
[Cindy] Yes.
[crowd cheering]
[playing "Europa"]
[Carlos] People were like, "Cosmic Carlos was taking too much acid
or too much LSD and mescaline, ayahuasca, and peyote,"
and I'm like, "Yeah, and you have taken none.
And I can tell."
[man] Not so far out. You're in the center of it.
[Carlos] I'm more far in than far out, you know.
I think far out,
it was the term for almost when something's disconnected.
Far in is when you're in the center of it.
At this point, most people, they either tell me
that I'm crazy or that I'm crazy.
"Oh, you can't do that because you're a Mexican.
Mexicans don't do that."
They told me that for such a long time, and I was like:
"Well, maybe I'm a multidimensional Mexican.
I should be able to surf the cosmos of imagination."
At the core, el hueso.
Even beyond the hueso...
is light, spirit, and soul.
I strip myself every morning when I wake up.
I take a shower, and I see it going down the drain.
Guilt, shame, judgment, condemn, and remorse,
accusation, you know, and all that shit goes down the drain.
And I go, "That's not who I am."
[guitar playing ethereal, pensive melody]
Reality is just a perception.
When you go outside of this planet, you see eternity.
You don't see day and night,
because day and night is built around the Earth going around.
Once you go outside to a certain level of height...
and you say, "What time is it?" You go, "Now."
Because it don't matter anymore.
♪ Mañana ♪
♪ Mañana is good enough for me ♪
♪ The line is standing Around the stadium ♪
♪ Twenty blocks long ♪
♪ Waiting for Santana To play the guitar song ♪
♪ But before we can get out the bus ♪
♪ The lightning, she did flash ♪
♪ Don't worry, we'll be back tomorrow And everything'll be nice ♪
♪ Mañana, mañana ♪
♪ Mañana is good enough for me ♪
♪ Mañana, mañana ♪
♪ Mañana is good enough for me ♪
♪ So please don't be disappointed Because tomorrow the sun will shine ♪
♪ The guitar will be playing ♪
♪ And the band will sound real fine ♪
♪ Santana is here to play So don't you go away ♪
♪ We'll come back tomorrow ♪
♪ Maybe you do not have to pay ♪
♪ Mañana ♪
[Whoopi] Somebody told me there have been 35 different groupings
of the group Santana.
I didn't know that. How do you--? How does that happen?
[playing "Black Magic Woman"]
[Carlos] You have to have three things to be in my band...
and that's stamina, stability and a great disposition.
If you don't have one of those,
you can't hang out because the road is mean.
My style was not like the Rolling Stones or the Grateful Dead,
where it's, like, a forever family.
I wish it could have been, but it's not my destiny,
so it didn't happen like that.
♪ Got a black magic woman ♪
♪ I got a black magic woman ♪
♪ Got me so blind I can't see ♪
♪ That she's a black magic woman ♪
♪ She's trying to make a devil out of me ♪
[Carlos] We only play for three weeks, three weeks and a half tops.
We go home for a week, week and a half.
A lot of bands go on the road for nine months,
and, you know, they probably sold more albums
and, you know, they have more success,
but then they break up and they hate each other, you know.
So I'm-- I like those people that I'm around with now,
and I also like to pace myself.
-[thunder rumbling] -[crowd cheering]
[man on PA] Ladies and gentlemen, we know it's raining,
but please remain seated.
Santana will continue to play as long as it does not become hazardous.
[band playing rock song]
-[song ends] -[crowd cheering and applauding]
[playing "Black Magic Woman"]
[man on PA] Attention, due to the rain and lightning,
it is dangerous for Santana to continue.
Nothing else would have stopped them from playing.
Thank you for your patience,
and please be careful leaving the amphitheater.
-[thunder rumbling] -[crowd cheering]
[man] Santana lives in a home he recently bought in San Rafael.
It overlooks the bay, and it is here where he meditates
and develops the distinct characteristics of his music.
[playing poignant melody]
Santana is careful not to preach,
but doesn't hold back when explaining
what he and his wife Debbie want for their children,
5-year-old Salvador and 3-year-old Stella.
[Carlos] We wanna give them that foundation to trust us parents more,
for us to be friends first and parents later,
because that's why a lot of families get destroyed.
I mean, adulation and, you know, Grammys and platinum
and Wimbledon and Super Bowl, man, the next day, it's over.
The only thing that lasts
is the real values that you teach your family.
[poignant music playing over speakers]
[playing smooth melody]
[Carlos] I'm not what I do.
This is what I do, but this is not who I am.
Being married and being a husband and being a father,
there's no school to teach you that.
You buy a car, and then it has--
In the trunk, it has a kit that goes with the thing.
Your children become your teachers.
[Carlos] ...Salvador and Stella, 'cause I love you guys so much.
[man on recording] Is everybody ready?
[crowd] Yeah!
["Mickey's Monkey" playing]
[Carlos] My father's a musician,
and his father and his father were musicians.
G.
No, no.
I know, but they gotta sound that clean, the other one.
Uh-uh. Uh-uh. Sound like you're stepping on a cockroach.
So all of my family is like ducks to water.
We just go right to the music.
[band playing mariachi music]
We played at the Bullring in Tijuana.
It was really, really surreal to be there with my dad,
'cause my dad opened with his musicians.
I was more interested in him than anything else.
[crowd cheering and applauding]
My dad comes over on the side, and he goes:
[speaks in Spanish]
[in English] I go, "Yeah, Dad." He goes, "You know,
people know your music around the world and everything, you know."
And I go, "Where you going with this, Dad?"
He says, "When you play 'Batuka' and 'No One to Depend On,'
that's the one that la calle knows you."
♪ I ain't got nobody That I... ♪
You know, like, that one.
And somehow I didn't know
that my dad was, like, listening to my music.
I thought it was like, he listened to his music
and I listened to my music.
But that night, I realized that Dad was also checking us out.
[playing "No One to Depend On"]
♪ I ain't got nobody ♪
♪ That I can depend on ♪
♪ I ain't got nobody ♪
♪ That I can depend on ♪
-[song ends] -[crowd cheering and applauding]
[man in Spanish] Who is Carlos Santana to you?
[Jose in Spanish] He is my son.
The most beloved one in the whole world.
[man] What do you do for a living?
Music.
[man] What do you play?
Violin.
[man] You taught Carlos about music?
[Jose] A little.
[man] But once he grew up, like we all do, we set our parents aside, right?
[Jose] Once he grew up. And so did I,
when I was young and started getting into music.
And so did Carlos, he started with me
and then he didn't want to play the violin anymore and he switched to the guitar.
It's not a big career, but still, he has a good time.
He's proud of me, and I'm proud of him. And I miss him.
[guitar playing poignant melody]
[guitar and violin playing poignant melody]
[Carlos] He died the day after Halloween.
We had this tree in this house that we lived in San Rafael.
Every single leaf in this tree was covered with butterflies.
It was breathing, like, monarchs.
He actually told my mom early in the morning:
[speaking in Spanish]
[in English] And my mom goes, "Well, where you going?"
[speaks in Spanish]
[in English] He couldn't play the violin anymore. He couldn't do things--
It means "I'm out," you know.
"I'm out," you know?
Mom goes, "Where you going?" He goes:
[speaks in Spanish]
[in English] "You wanna come with me?" She goes, "No, no, no."
[man laughing]
[man] "Not yet. Not yet."
"I wanna see some more grandchildren and stuff like that," you know.
And he was watching cartoons, apparently,
and he left.
He just left, you know.
[guitar and violin continue playing poignant melody]
This Earth, time is an illusion.
Before I know it, I'll be next to them.
I present to you a human being that has shared with us dignity, integrity,
and courage to stand on his own terms,
in his own being, with his family behind him 1000%.
Ladies and gentlemen,
may I present to you the 1996 Century Award winner,
Carlos Santana.
[John] There were four things we'd listen to when we were younger
and we'd get stoned,
and we listened to Jimi Hendrix and we listened to John Coltrane.
We listened to P-Funk, and then there was Carlos.
I'm just very honored to be here tonight
to help us all induct a samurai and a shogun.
Usually when they give you the Hall of Fame award, you're done.
I was having a meeting with Chris Blackwell.
He was the main person in charge of PolyGram, Island Records.
I said, "Look, man, this is what's happening.
You work, and you share music with Bob Marley and Stevie Winwood.
So you're an artist like me.
I am pregnant...
with a mega record.
I can feel it. This album is gonna be big.
I am pregnant with something that you're not equipped to deal with.
So I'm gonna ask you,
from one artist to another artist,
let me go."
And he looked at me right in the eye, and then he looked up, and he goes:
"Tell your lawyer to call me."
[playing blues melody]
[Carlos] Check it out.
[playing melody from "Smooth"]
That's good. It's getting better.
There's a lot of middles.
Can we go all-- Drop the shoe all the way down to-- Before we get the--
Get the lows.
I went to Clive, and Clive says: "Okay, let me get this straight.
This time, you're ready to go in the ring with me.
I'll bring half of the album, and you bring half of the album?
I have the choice to select?" I says, "Yeah."
He says, "Because I got Lauryn Hill, Wyclef..."
He started naming all of them, you know. And all I had to do was say yes.
[man] One, two, three. Ah!
[playing lively melody]
[Carlos] It was something to see him say to other artists:
"Okay, you know, I'm sending you your song back
because it doesn't sound right, doesn't feel right.
This is not good for Carlos yet.
Remember, this is a Carlos album.
It's not your album, you know, so you gotta make room for the guitar."
["Smooth" playing over speakers]
[Leno] One of the greatest guitar players of all time,
performing their smash hit "Smooth."
This is his new CD, Supernatural.
Please welcome Santana and Rob Thomas.
♪ Man, it's a hot one ♪
♪ Like seven inches from the midday sun ♪
♪ Well, I hear you whisper And the words melt everyone ♪
♪ But you stay so cool ♪
♪ My muñequita ♪
♪ My Spanish Harlem Mona Lisa ♪
[Carlos] Clive Davis, he asked me, "What does Carlos Santana wanna do?"
That's when I said, "I would like to--
I wanna reconnect the molecules with the light, man."
♪ And if you said This life ain't good enough ♪
♪ I would give my world to lift you up ♪
♪ I could change my life To better suit your mood ♪
[Clive] What he means when he says "Connect the molecules to the light"
is, in essence, that he wanted a radio-friendly album.
♪ And it's just like the ocean Under the moon ♪
♪ It's the same as the emotion That I get from you ♪
[Carlos] It's very difficult to get into a car
and listen to music with your son, a father and a son,
because they play their music and we play our music.
But for some reason, Supernatural crossed all of that.
["Maria, Maria" playing]
♪ Ladies and gents ♪
♪ Turn up your sound system ♪
♪ To the sound of Carlos Santana ♪
[man] Supernatural, number one, United States of America.
♪ Maria Maria... ♪
[man] You're the hero to people who say, "Yes, there can be a second act."
You represent--
[Carlos] That it can be done,
that the world doesn't belong to 17- to 27-year-olds.
♪ She livin' the life Just like a movie star ♪
♪ Oh! ♪
♪ Maria Maria ♪
[Carlos] Clive Davis, I'm sure he can go to a piano,
he has to know what notes they are.
But he knows a hit.
He is future pull.
♪ And if you said This life ain't good enough ♪
[Carlos] Supernatural was another "gimongous" door like Woodstock.
-And the Grammy goes to Santana. -[audiences cheering]
And the winner is Santana.
This is a cool way to get to meet Santana.
Santana, featuring Everlast.
Just need to stay up here.
I'd love to thank Mr. Carlos Santana for giving an opportunity to me like this.
"Smooth."
The Grammy goes to Supernatural, Santana.
♪ Gimme your heart Make it real, or else forget about it ♪
[man] Santana's eight Grammys ties a one-night record
set 17 years ago by Michael Jackson.
You're an inspiration to all of us.
Thank you, Carlos Santana.
[audience cheering and applauding]
Long live John Coltrane.
[Carlos] This feels like a surreal dream.
And the whole world is cheering for you,
from all walks of life, you know?
That felt very, very, uh...
divinely validating.
[guitar playing poignant melody]
[Carlos] Supernatural made it possible to ride this immense wave.
And for a long time, man...
stuff that happened when I was a child, you know, it stays with you.
This is not entertainment.
It's not sensationalism, gossip, and scandalous.
I wouldn't walk into a room and say:
"Hi, I'm the guy who was molested," and wear it like a badge of honor.
But some things, people need to know, man,
because they're wrestling with it themselves.
From '57 to, like, '59,
there was one American guy who started molesting me.
And the Rolling Stone magazine, when it came out...
all the people who read it,
they said, "It happened to me,
and I thank Carlos for having the courage to say it."
My mom, she heard from someone
that he molested other kids in the neighborhood,
so she confronted me.
She's just like, "Man did this, this, and this, that?"
But she didn't have the wisdom and I didn't have the wisdom,
so I was like, "No."
I had a lot of anger towards my mom for the longest time.
As much as I love her, man, I had a lot of anger.
But like I said, she didn't have the skills or tools
to pull someone aside and say, "I love you."
I have to transcend thinking like a victim
or thinking with anger or sending this guy to hell every day...
and say, "I am not what happened to me.
I am that I am. I am the light.
I am not the body. I am free."
At the peak of Supernatural, I returned to Ayutla, Jalisco.
And-- And something just pulled my coat-- "Go over there."
This is a beautiful painting of La Virgen de Guadalupe.
And I got down on my knees,
and, uh, I looked at her,
I lit up a candle, and I was looking at her.
I kept looking at her, and she kept looking at me,
and then I heard this voice that said:
"I am so proud of you."
And, you know, my whole body went like a electric shock,
like, "Oh, my God, she's talking to me."
And she says:
[speaks in Spanish]
[in English] "I am so proud of you."
And it stayed with me. I was, like, in a trance, man.
All I know is...
[speaking in Spanish]
[in English] "I am so proud of you because I know what you're doing,
how you're doing it, and for who you're doing it."
She validated me.
I'm gonna use your energy to create something beautiful.
And I finally learned to...
tame that snake.
♪ And I'm not afraid ♪
♪ No more ♪
♪ I'm not afraid no more ♪
♪ At all ♪
I'm not afraid...
no more.
I'm not afraid at all.
Nothing.
Hey, Dad, what do you think of this thing I made up? This thing. Like this. Okay.
[playing poignant melody]
Like that.
[Carlos] After Supernatural, I think things just got out of hand,
with Deborah running the business and the offices
and the children and the homes and the families and everything.
It's very simple. It's not complicated.
People get together to make spiritual traction.
To grow together up.
When it becomes an arrangement and one person's not happy,
then you're not making spiritual traction.
You're not growing spiritually.
So you should grow apart
because the main thing is for you to grow spiritually,
with or without.
I'm sure I will always have a special place in her heart,
and she will always have a special place in my heart
because we created these incredible children.
[drums playing lively beat]
[Carlos] Hold on for a second. Hold on for a second.
[drums stop]
This is no rope-a-dope-a. There's no coasting.
This is intense, clear energy.
Peacefully take no prisoners.
Okay, just the congas.
Two, three, and--
[Cindy] I saw him talking to the band, so seeing him as a bandleader,
I was like, "Wow.
He knows what he wants."
[Carlos] I said to God:
"God, you've given me so much...
and there's so much to enjoy.
Please find me a queen
for me to share all the blessings
that you bestowed upon me."
So you showed up.
[playing intense rhythm]
[playing outro to "The Star Spangled Banner"]
[crowd cheering and applauding]
[Carlos] I love the way Cindy walks.
And she's from New York,
so she has this determination,
like our mom, you know,
this conviction, determination that was like--
I love that quality in a woman, this, like...
Like that, you know?
Check it out, Cindy.
["El Watusi" playing on jukebox]
[Cindy laughs]
I used to have a friend who, no matter what you'd play,
he always danced like this.
[all laughing]
How do you crystallize all of those influences into you?
I'm constantly learning from my sisters
how to just be more gracious
and don't be so ready to fight.
["El Watusi" continues]
I am who I am because of my mother,
and, again, because of my dad,
but mainly my mother.
She instilled in me fearlessness.
-[thunder rumbling] -[crowd cheering]
[band playing "Foo Foo"]
♪ Come on ♪
[Carlos] Playing a guitar solo,
you balance melody with rhythm...
intonation...
with time...
emotion, passion...
fire.
And it feels like there's strings between your heart
and other people's hearts.
That's why people say:
"You touch my heartstrings when you play."
People say that.
You have to know what you're saying, not repeating stuff
that you learned from records.
And when you're taking a solo, you know where you're going...
what you're trying to say...
and then you get the hell out of there.
♪ Foo Foo! ♪
-[song ends] -[audience cheering and applauding]
[man] Great.
Let's go eat some tacos.
["Toussaint L'Overture" playing]
[song ends]
["Bella" playing]
[song ends]