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Speaker 1: Hey, Latino USA listener, here's a show from our archives.

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Speaker 2: While playing with my son blows me away. I never

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Speaker 2: thought I would have members of my family be musicians.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 2: It's like every parent, you know, you never want your

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Speaker 2: kids to do what you do because you think they

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Speaker 2: can do better. But my son plays the drums and

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Speaker 2: my youngest son is a heck of a bass player.

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Speaker 2: So God said, I'm going to give you two children

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Speaker 2: who are musicians. And I used to have a band

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Speaker 2: with them called Two Kids and a Blind Guy.

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Speaker 1: From Futro Media and FPRX, it's Latino USA. I'm Marieo

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Speaker 1: Posa today. A portrait of Josse Feliciano. When I first

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Speaker 1: met Jose Feliciano the year nineteen eighty six, it was

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Speaker 1: a concert of his in southern California and I was

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Speaker 1: doing my first ever interview with him. Now. At that time,

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Speaker 1: Jsse Feliciano was one of the most famous Latinos that

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Speaker 1: I had ever met, and what I remember the most

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Speaker 1: was that he wasn't afraid to be himself. He was

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Speaker 1: eccentric and a true Bohemian artist that was truly one

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Speaker 1: incredible guitarist.

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Speaker 4: We couldn't get much child, my la, i'm'm DLin lied

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Speaker 4: my file, I just set that not all file.

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Speaker 1: And that air of confidence translates musically to everything Jose touches.

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Speaker 1: And if this is the first time you've heard of

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Speaker 1: Jose Feliciano and you're not sure you know him, well,

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Speaker 1: listen to this.

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Speaker 5: Fairley's Navida Faeries navid Fairlease Navidad.

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Speaker 1: That's Hose Feliciano's mega nineteen seventy Christmas hit, Felis Navidad,

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Speaker 1: one of the all time most famous Christmas songs in

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Speaker 1: the world. But with a career that spans almost six decades,

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Speaker 1: j says major milestones have come from him putting his

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Speaker 1: own personal stamp, a mix of soul, folk, Latin and blues,

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Speaker 1: unwell known songs, whether that's boleros of the.

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Speaker 6: Past, La Cars Zing zing yeng.

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Speaker 1: Or classic rock songs.

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Speaker 4: O Calavonian, rament Man, Sancho Ancest.

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Speaker 1: And even this star Spangled banner. Here's his iconic performance

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Speaker 1: from a World Series in nineteen.

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Speaker 7: Sixty eight, The Land and Are.

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Speaker 1: That may sound like an average game day performance, but

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Speaker 1: it was a risk that then twenty three year old

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Speaker 1: Jose took during the height of the Vietnam War. With

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Speaker 1: his soulful rendition, Jose opened the door for other artists

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Speaker 1: to perform the national anthem in their own unique ways.

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Speaker 1: Josse was born in nineteen forty five in Lattice, Puerto Rico,

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Speaker 1: and has been blind since birth. He was five years

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Speaker 1: old when he and his family migrated to Spanish Harlem,

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Speaker 1: and it was in New York City where he developed

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Speaker 1: his love for music and crafted his skills on the guitar.

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Speaker 1: In the nineteen sixties, Josse went on to become an

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Speaker 1: international sensation in Latin America and since then he's performed

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Speaker 1: on famed stages around the world. He's recorded over sixty

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Speaker 1: albums and has won multiple Grammy Awards. Josse Feliciano, now

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Speaker 1: in his seventies, joined me in the studio to talk

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Speaker 1: about how humor is one way he has of coping

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Speaker 1: about his almost sixty year career, and to talk about

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Speaker 1: one of his favorite relationships, the one he has with

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Speaker 1: his guitar. I'm wondering, Josse, when was the first time

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Speaker 1: that you remember hearing the sound of the guitar and

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Speaker 1: was it an instant?

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Speaker 3: Was it just like, yes, it was you hit the

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Speaker 3: nail on the head. How did you know? Did you

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Speaker 3: live with me?

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Speaker 1: Wait? Have you always? What?

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Speaker 8: Are you?

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Speaker 1: Just like? You just like telling jokes all the time?

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Speaker 1: Is that?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm sorry to say that has been my way

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Speaker 2: of accepting the fact that I was blind, that I

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Speaker 2: wasn't normal or what at least people around me thought

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Speaker 2: normal should be. Because in a Latin family, if you

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Speaker 2: have some kind of disability, they start thinking, Oh my god,

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Speaker 2: what's gonna happen, which happened to me. I remember hearing

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Speaker 2: my parents discussing my future. Oh poor jose what are

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Speaker 2: we gonna do about him?

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Speaker 3: He can't see, he's blind.

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Speaker 2: And I heard that and I made up my mind

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Speaker 2: right then and there that I was gonna be different.

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Speaker 2: When I was nine and I heard the guitar, I.

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Speaker 3: Fell in love. It was like.

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Speaker 2: It was like the most beautiful woman had come into

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Speaker 2: my life. I had no teachers because I had no money.

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Speaker 2: So I went to a place called the Lighthouse for

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Speaker 2: the Blind in New York and that's where I studied

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Speaker 2: classical guitar with a great teacher by the name of

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Speaker 2: Harold Morris. And Harold Morris was wonderful because not only

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Speaker 2: did he play classical guitar.

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Speaker 3: But he also played a little jazz.

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Speaker 2: And things like that, and we had great times together.

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Speaker 1: So did this sound of the guitar, did the feeling

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Speaker 1: of the guitar? Did it feel like it would be

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Speaker 1: something that would bring you? I mean, calm, peace, liberation, I.

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Speaker 2: Would say, calm, peace, liberation, and happiness. It wasn't that

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Speaker 2: I was trying to use my guitar as a crutch.

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Speaker 2: I just loved it. And then I thought to myself,

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Speaker 2: here is something you can do, Jose, that nobody else

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Speaker 2: around you can do, even my brothers. But you know,

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Speaker 2: I practiced when I'd come home from school. The guitar

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Speaker 2: was my interest.

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Speaker 1: Let me ask you about when you're now a musician,

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Speaker 1: you know, and you're doing like, for example, the cover

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Speaker 1: of Flight of the Bumblebee or La Malaginya, and this

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Speaker 1: is when it's like, yeah, you become one with your guitar.

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Speaker 1: What does that feel like?

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Speaker 8: Jose?

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Speaker 2: Well, when I played in the village, a lot of

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Speaker 2: the guitar players that were playing there I call strummers,

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Speaker 2: because they only bothered to learn enough to get around

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Speaker 2: in the folk world, and they didn't learn the rest

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Speaker 2: of things on their guitar. So for me, when I

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Speaker 2: played Maragenya, I did it with a certain amount of

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Speaker 2: vengeance because I thought to myself, I'm going to play

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Speaker 2: something that none of you can play.

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Speaker 1: So Jose, You've always had this really beautiful knack for

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Speaker 1: taking a song and completely making it into your own.

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Speaker 1: You look for a genre that your parents listen to,

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Speaker 1: for example, boleros. Yes, you hooked it up with blues

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Speaker 1: and folk. Oh my god, la cota. Yes. I was like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, memoir Roqui, I'm done a.

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Speaker 6: Tour dis se la cantina a jazz in fe.

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Speaker 1: This notion of like kind of taking boleros and making

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Speaker 1: it your music. Why did you want to do it

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Speaker 1: with la cota? What is the fe?

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Speaker 3: What I have to say might be too long for you.

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Speaker 1: Okay, well then give us a short version.

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Speaker 3: But I'm gonna try.

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Speaker 6: Oh no, no, mordoviro gesvino gel la cantin.

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Speaker 2: When I I left home, I was only eighteen, and

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Speaker 2: so I wanted to record a Spanish album that my

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Speaker 2: parents would be proud of.

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Speaker 3: Well I did.

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Speaker 2: My first album was Sombras Unavo's Unagitara. Dad introduced me

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Speaker 2: to Argentinian music, which in the fifties, the.

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Speaker 3: Tango was very popular.

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Speaker 2: I even recorded one of the tangos that Carlos Gardel

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Speaker 2: made famous, which was La and Carlos was the Elvis

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Speaker 2: Presley of Argentina. And so I recorded my first Spanish

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Speaker 2: album with my folks in mind. And when they released

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Speaker 2: it in Argentina, the album took off.

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Speaker 3: It was like Beatlemania. And you don't know.

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Speaker 2: What I went through as a blind person trying to

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Speaker 2: run into a limousine. It was wonderful and funny at

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Speaker 2: the same time.

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Speaker 1: Coming up on Latino USA, my conversation with Jose Feliciano continues.

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Speaker 1: Stay with us, Hey, we're back. And when we left off,

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Speaker 1: Jose Feliciano told us about his rise to fame in

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Speaker 1: Latin America. Now we're going to jump right into another

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Speaker 1: one of his famous covers. There's another cover that did

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Speaker 1: huge as well, the Star Spangled Banner. This was nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty eight.

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Speaker 7: Please please rise and join in the singing of our

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Speaker 7: national anthem.

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Speaker 4: Which will be played by Earl Albi's band.

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Speaker 9: It will be sung by Jose Felicio.

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Speaker 1: It's Game five the World Series in Detroit, and you

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Speaker 1: begin to strum an acoustic guitar and sing.

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Speaker 10: Oh ca musy.

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Speaker 11: By the God.

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Speaker 1: And then it becomes this huge controversy because you were

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Speaker 1: taking this star spangled banner and you know, saying it's music.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna play it my way. So take us back

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Speaker 1: to that moment.

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Speaker 2: In the star Spangled banner. I decided not to have

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Speaker 2: the band that they usually have accompany me, and the

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Speaker 2: fellow who invited me, Ernie Harwell, didn't even know what

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Speaker 2: I was going to do. So when I got introduced,

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Speaker 2: I went into it and I had long hair. Then

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Speaker 2: I wore glasses and I played the guitar, which the

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Speaker 2: guitar was only appreciated in folk music, not in just

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Speaker 2: regular music.

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Speaker 1: The rock.

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Speaker 9: Going very gay, rude, rude mass.

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Speaker 7: There Are Land.

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Speaker 8: Was fire.

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Speaker 2: I remember that I had worked on a different version

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Speaker 2: of it, and then I decided, Jose, you have to

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Speaker 2: tone it down.

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Speaker 9: And I did all the Land and on the Free,

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Speaker 9: and I decided to do it in a soulful gospel

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Speaker 9: and and of course at that time in sixty eight,

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Speaker 9: people were tired.

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Speaker 2: Of things that were going on, and I got swept

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Speaker 2: along with that, and I remembered being told that people

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Speaker 2: through shoes and things at their television sets, including the

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Speaker 2: war veterans. They weren't too happy, and as soon as

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Speaker 2: that happened, radio stations stopped playing my records.

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Speaker 1: What's kind of incredible is that you actually, in September

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Speaker 1: of twenty eighteen, the Detroit Tigers invite you to come

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Speaker 1: back to the field and perform the national anthem. Fifty

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Speaker 1: years later, his.

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Speaker 12: Performance stands out as one of the most memorable anthems

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Speaker 12: in the history of sports. Initially met with some criticism,

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Speaker 12: the performance of the Star Spangled banner on that day

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Speaker 12: is now recognized as helping pave the way for future

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Speaker 12: performers to express their patriotism with their own artistic flair.

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Speaker 12: Ladies and gentlemen, here to perform our national anthem, Please

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Speaker 12: welcome Jose Feliciano.

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Speaker 1: This time, instead of the jeers, you were met with cheers.

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Speaker 2: I was and I almost cried because what a turnaround,

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Speaker 2: you know, Oh.

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Speaker 5: See, can you see by.

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Speaker 1: What a turnaround? And you end up donating that guitar

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Speaker 1: that you used in nineteen sixty money.

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Speaker 2: I said, I don't need this guitar anymore. It's nice

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Speaker 2: to be in a museum. Not that I wanted to

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Speaker 2: be a relic, although I enjoy mustard with relic.

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Speaker 1: You need to stop, all right, So, Jose your latest

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Speaker 1: album titled Behind This Guitar. I was able to listen

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Speaker 1: to your new album, and then I was able to

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Speaker 1: listen to your version of Fleetwood Mac and the Chain,

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Speaker 1: and I was screaming, oh, I love it so much.

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Speaker 2: Well, thank you, Darling. I happen to be a huge

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Speaker 2: Fleetwood Mac fan. I love Christine McVeigh, I love Stevie Nicks.

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Speaker 3: I think she is super talented.

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Speaker 2: I think Lindsey Bookingham is a great guitarist. And so

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Speaker 2: why not cover something that you love and of.

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Speaker 13: You don't love me now you never love me again?

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Speaker 14: Marcus still you say you would never break the jay.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for keeping the nineteen seventies and eighties so

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Speaker 1: alive for everybody else.

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Speaker 3: Also, Hose, well, thank you.

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Speaker 2: You know I'm keeping me alive for me because you know,

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Speaker 2: one of the great things that happened, which I want

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Speaker 2: to mention during the Star Spangled and the best thing

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Speaker 2: that ever happened was when I met my wife, Susan.

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Speaker 2: She started my fan club, and you know, we love

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Speaker 2: each other. I love her to death. I don't think

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Speaker 2: I could have done any better.

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Speaker 15: I love the towns, I love the crowds, love the

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Speaker 15: way my life turned down.

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Speaker 3: The way it as.

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Speaker 1: I want to say that I heard the title track

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Speaker 1: to the album behind this Guitar, Yes, and it really

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Speaker 1: brings everything full circle. The name of the song, the lyrics,

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Speaker 1: you know.

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Speaker 3: It's all true.

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Speaker 2: Rick Gerard was the culprit who had me do this song.

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Speaker 2: He heard it three years ago or more, and he

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Speaker 2: talked to the writers and he said, listen, would you

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Speaker 2: let me keep the song because I intend to have

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Speaker 2: an artist recorded.

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Speaker 3: And it was me. He was thinking of.

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Speaker 15: This guitar, just a boy who had a dream in

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Speaker 15: his hall. Behind this guitar, just a guy who didn't

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Speaker 15: believe I'd get this farm.

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Speaker 2: And I cried when I was singing the lyrics, because

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Speaker 2: it's true. I used to sit up on my twin

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Speaker 2: bed at night and practice chords. I was always interested

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Speaker 2: in learning something new, sitting.

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Speaker 13: On the edge of my twin bed back until my

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Speaker 13: fingers played and it got in mind blood and my

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Speaker 13: mother would come into the bedroom and find me sleeping.

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Speaker 2: With my guitar in my arms. So all this is true,

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Speaker 2: and it hit home from.

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Speaker 14: The age of nine to right here tonight.

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Speaker 3: You might say I pretty.

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Speaker 13: Much blew off behind this Pito, behind his guitar, just.

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Speaker 14: A boy who had a dream in his.

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Speaker 10: Car, behind this guitar, Just a guy who didn't believe I.

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Speaker 3: Did this star.

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Speaker 1: As I was reading and thinking about our interview, I

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Speaker 1: realized that, you know, in media Ho San Juan, which

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Speaker 1: is like, oh my god, it's like the you know,

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Speaker 1: ode to Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans, the island memories. You

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Speaker 1: have performed this song for decades, and then you performed

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Speaker 1: this song on the Tonight Show starring Jimmy fallon Mayo Erda,

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Speaker 1: and you brought the Internet to tears.

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Speaker 14: I will scart me get it a sand Travish and.

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Speaker 3: Some one.

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Speaker 1: You re released this song last year in order to

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Speaker 1: raise money for charity. You know, as you think about

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico, your island that has gone through so much,

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Speaker 1: how do you still after playing it?

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Speaker 9: So?

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Speaker 1: I mean, do you still just get back to that?

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, I wish I was back on the island.

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Speaker 2: It makes me cry when I say it. I feel

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Speaker 2: what the writer felt. My goal in my life is that,

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Speaker 2: let's say, I hope it doesn't happen I hope I

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Speaker 2: am with my wife forever. But let's say the day

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Speaker 2: that my wife leaves this earth, I want to go

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Speaker 2: live the rest of my life in Puerto Rico, so

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Speaker 2: I don't die.

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Speaker 3: Oh, let's say in Connecticut.

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Speaker 2: I want to die where I was born, and I

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Speaker 2: don't want to do it right now as long as

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Speaker 2: my wife is still alive. So you better stay living

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Speaker 2: a long time, Susan. I want to go back to

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Speaker 2: Puerto Rico. That's my home, and I hate winda to

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Speaker 2: begin with.

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Speaker 1: Joselio, thank you for joining me on Latino USA. We

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Speaker 1: so appreciate all of your work.

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Speaker 3: Thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Jose Feliciano is a Grammy Award winning artist from Puerto Rico.

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Speaker 1: His latest album, Behind This Guitar is currently available for

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Speaker 1: streaming and dear listeners, we have such a special treat

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Speaker 1: for you now. After our interview, Jose played a live

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Speaker 1: acoustic cover of a song that's dear to his heart.

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Speaker 1: So here's a special treat from our Live from Latino

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Speaker 1: USA series. We leave you with Jose Feliciano performing Emidia Hossan.

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Speaker 3: Juan, Emiviie Hossan, Juan Juan.

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Speaker 14: And Misanos de Fancia, Mi Primer, Lucium Hemi squamour songdos

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Speaker 14: de la ma Aci Extanya, Nassium Boys, Luki soldesty no.

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Speaker 3: Peromico rasum.

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Speaker 14: Second old Friend del Mar and b die San Juana.

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Speaker 8: Abio, Boi ca Carriza, Abio, Me your savil.

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Speaker 14: Maga, my boy Erundia boyver Asunyaro traves Ojama, Who's Karami

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Speaker 14: Carreer and me die O san Juan.

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Speaker 1: To view the rest of Jose's Live from Latino USA performance,

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Speaker 1: visit our website Latino USA dot org. This episode was

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Speaker 1: produced by Jane Jamoca and edited by Sovia Paalisaka. The

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Speaker 1: Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Cruzado, Marta Martinez, Daisy Condredas,

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Speaker 1: Mike Sergent, Julieta Martinelli, Victories, Trada, Renaldo Leanoz, Junior Alejandra Saarassat,

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Speaker 1: Patrice Sulvanan, and Julia Rocha, with help from Raoul Petz.

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Speaker 1: Our editorial director is Fernande Santos. Our director of engineering

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Speaker 1: is Stephanie Lebou. Our senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our

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Speaker 1: associate engineers are Gabriel Abiez and jj Carubin. Our marketing

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Speaker 1: manager is Luis Luna our theme music, who was composed

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Speaker 1: by Zee Ruinos. I'm your host and executive producer marieo

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Speaker 1: Josa join us again on our next episode. In the meantime,

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Speaker 1: look for us on all of your social media recuerdayas

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Speaker 1: and see you in the next one.

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Speaker 16: Shoo Latino USA is made possible in part by the

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Speaker 16: Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of

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Speaker 16: social change worldwide, California Endowment building a strong state by

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Speaker 16: improving the health of all Californians, and the Heising Simon's

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Speaker 16: Foundation unlocking knowledge, opportunity and possibilities. More at hsfoundation dot org, bb.

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Speaker 11: Col Lobbyzafra, awndulquero, kaduo, Oh my God.

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Speaker 1: I feel like I'm like, I'm like, oh my god.

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Speaker 1: Hosta Feliciano is like serenading me and my studio.

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Speaker 10: Well I am is good.

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Speaker 3: I've a ticket.