The Age of Santana

Carlos Santana isn’t one of those musicians who sings about spirituality, then sets down his instrument and talks about nothing but profit and the challenges facing the recording industry.

Almost four decades after his breakthrough performance at Woodstock, Santana talks as if the Age of Aquarius was still very much with us. “I am aware—and it may sound strange hearing it come out of my mouth—but I am aware that I am anointed,” said Santana, “which means that like you, I am made in the image of God. The only difference is that I am a little bit more aware and more willing—key word—to let that be the primary role in my life. I’m more willing to spend more time honouring what God wants me to do.”

“I know I’ve been prepared to present key words of light,” Santana said. “It kind of goes like this: Go with love and re-establish the perfect being that you know you really are. Instead of saying, ‘You’re full of (crap)’. What does that do?

“I have accepted that a beam of light every spring tells each plant what colour to be, what smell to be, what flavour to be,” the guitarist said in a phone interview, “All of us are a beam of light that comes from the mind of God.”

For Santana, a key turning point in his spiritual life occurred in the mid-1990s, when he went into therapy to confront several issues. He went public about having been molested as a child by a friend’s father.

“When I went public ... it was to invite other people from not having that rage. I was able to finally really forgive this person, to say you’re a child of God just like me.”

Santana’s spiritual rebirth came at a time when his career had slowed notably. The late ’90s saw him caught in a seven-year gap between albums. Then the 1999 release Supernatural uncorked the monster hits Smooth and Maria Maria. It sold more than 25 million copies and earned Santana a record nine Grammy Awards.

Santana now plans to begin work on a three-disc release, The Son, Father and the Holy Ghost. But before that, he will release a studio album of Shape Shifter. It is a commercial risk, but he has never concerned himself with the pressure to sound radio-friendly. “I’m 60 years old, so I don’t need people’s approval,” he says. (NYT)