Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty five, Carlos Sanbana played live Aid the
Speaker 1: historic benefit concert that was organized to raise aid money
Speaker 1: for the tragic Ethiopian famine.
Speaker 2: Dubbed the Day rock and Roll Changed the World, the
Speaker 2: benefit raised over one hundred million for famine belief across
Speaker 2: the pond. Acts like Queen U two and David Bowie
Speaker 2: played legendary sets at Wembley Stadium.
Speaker 1: On the American leg of the benefit in Philadelphia, Carlos
Speaker 1: Santana played the same stage as contemporaries from his heyday
Speaker 1: such as Joan Bias, Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, and
Speaker 1: Eric Clapton, as well as younger artists of the day
Speaker 1: like Duran, Duran and Madonna.
Speaker 2: Close to ninety thousand people attended the concert, and lively
Speaker 2: telecasts drew an estimated TV viewership of one point nine
Speaker 2: billion worldwide.
Speaker 1: This is the second era defining live show Carlos Santana
Speaker 1: has played in his lifetime, and the organizer of the
Speaker 1: American leg of the tour is the same promoter who
Speaker 1: gave Carlo his start, Bill Graham.
Speaker 2: Carlos is once again taking part in rock and roll history,
Speaker 2: but while Woodstock launched him to start him, Live Aid
Speaker 2: found him approaching the low point in his career.
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I didn't even know that he played
Speaker 1: Live Aid, Like it just skipped my mind because I
Speaker 1: only go to Queen.
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly same. But I will say maybe we
Speaker 2: were just not listening to the sound, just more the words.
Speaker 2: I think I was just distracted by Queen all times.
Speaker 1: Like if Queen's in the building, I'm not paying attention
Speaker 1: to anything else. It's just what's happening. But back to Santana.
Speaker 1: Santana's latest studio album at that point, nineteen eighty five
Speaker 1: is Beyond Appearances, was his worst performer yet, and his
Speaker 1: next three studio albums would only continue his slide down
Speaker 1: the charts.
Speaker 2: With Live Aid, Carlos Santana was helping heal the world
Speaker 2: with his music, but the world, for the most part,
Speaker 2: wasn't hearing his music.
Speaker 1: But little does he know that that will all change
Speaker 1: with patience and a bit of spiritual guidance. I'm your
Speaker 1: host Lilianavoscaz.
Speaker 2: And I'm Joseph Carrio and this is Becoming an Icon a.
Speaker 1: Weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on how
Speaker 1: today's most famous latinv stars have shaped pop culture.
Speaker 2: And given the world some extra.
Speaker 1: Leuble Sit back and get comfortable.
Speaker 3: Because we are going in the only way we know how,
Speaker 3: with Whenas, Buenasriesas and a lot of opinions as we
Speaker 3: relive their greatest achievements on our journey to find out
Speaker 3: what makes them so iconic.
Speaker 1: Carlos Santana's work during the eighties may not have left
Speaker 1: much of an impression on audiences, but the projects that
Speaker 1: kept him busy were often personal to him.
Speaker 2: Starting in nineteen seventy nine, Carlos worked on solo albums
Speaker 2: i e. Under the name Carlos Santana rather than simply Santana.
Speaker 1: Working solo allowed him to freely collaborate with artists like
Speaker 1: Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Wayne Shorter. These albums saw
Speaker 1: Carlos delve even further into jazz fusion.
Speaker 2: He also made an excursion into text mix with nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty three's Havannah Moon. The album even concludes with collaboration
Speaker 2: between Carlos and his father, Jose.
Speaker 1: The song Veede Tropical is a lushly orchestrated serenade from
Speaker 1: an old Mexican film that Jose used to sing to
Speaker 1: Carlos's mother.
Speaker 2: And in nineteen eighty seven, Carlos would record Blues Versalvabod,
Speaker 2: an album dedicated to his son, which would win him
Speaker 2: his first ever Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
Speaker 1: So while it's easy to write off the eighties as
Speaker 1: a wash for Santana the band, for Carlos Santana, you
Speaker 1: could say it was a decade of healing and growth.
Speaker 2: He became a father and continued to engage with his
Speaker 2: spirituality on his own terms, i e. Sans Guru, thank God.
Speaker 1: But when it came to the band that had been
Speaker 1: the vessel for Carlos's fame, Carlos was frustrated.
Speaker 2: He felt that he had spent the decade trying to
Speaker 2: appease his label, Columbia Records, by pursuing whichever artistic direction
Speaker 2: they deemed best.
Speaker 1: The synth driven, feel good pop rock of beyond Appearances,
Speaker 1: the classic rock course correction on nineteen eighty seven's Freedom,
Speaker 1: It's an era of flailing and flops.
Speaker 2: So he parted ways with his record label of more
Speaker 2: than twenty years and signed to Pollodor in nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1: But Carlos would have to say some more difficult goodbyes
Speaker 1: in the early nineties.
Speaker 2: His first record for the new label, Milagro, features a
Speaker 2: number of tributes to the deceased.
Speaker 1: The album features Bob Marley and Marvin Gay covers, both
Speaker 1: of whom had passed away the previous day, but.
Speaker 2: The most strongly felt tributes came at the very beginning
Speaker 2: and the very end of the album.
Speaker 1: Milago's first track opens with an early recording of Bill Graham,
Speaker 1: Santana's long time off and on manager, introducing the band
Speaker 1: on stage in the nineteen seventies. Graham had died the
Speaker 1: year before Milago's release in a tragic helicopter accident on
Speaker 1: the way back home from a concert.
Speaker 2: The tracks that closes the album, Avios, is just a
Speaker 2: minute and twenty seconds long, closing out an otherwise lively album.
Speaker 2: It's some sad ass shit.
Speaker 1: The lyrics are simply Avios, Misa, Milos, Avios Astamaniana, Goodbye,
Speaker 1: my friends, Goodbye until Tomorrow. It closes with the sample
Speaker 1: of Miles Davis playing the saxophone. Davis, another hero of Carlos's,
Speaker 1: had passed away within a month of Bill Graham.
Speaker 2: I mean it was really sad. I felt like it
Speaker 2: just opens up very emotional and to take it all
Speaker 2: the way to the end. It's just kind of like
Speaker 2: turbulent or something. I don't know, it's it can speak
Speaker 2: to you if you're there mentally, and especially if you've
Speaker 2: had a little microdoser too. I love you. Unfortunately, Mila
Speaker 2: gru was Santana's first album to fail to crack the
Speaker 2: top one hundred on Billboard. After that blow, the band
Speaker 2: took a break from recording.
Speaker 1: The next release, Sacred Fire, was a live album compiled
Speaker 1: from the group's live performances in Mexico. Released in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety three. The album is dedicated to another hero of Carlos's,
Speaker 1: says IV Chavis, the agriculture workers rights leader who died
Speaker 1: earlier that year.
Speaker 2: With his heroes falling all around him, Carlos looked for
Speaker 2: inspiration within and then the great beyond. Okay, Leana, question
Speaker 2: for the ask away, if you could pick one deceased,
Speaker 2: famous person, artist, whoever to have a conversation with for
Speaker 2: two hours, who would it be? Oh God, I know,
Speaker 2: Oh god, you're gonna be still, thought Jerry. I thought.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 2: I'm not.
Speaker 1: I'm not, I'm not. I'm really not. I actually would
Speaker 1: really love to speak with Carl Lagerfeld, whoa only because
Speaker 1: it's interesting how the people that have run Chanelle have
Speaker 1: so much controversy around them, including Coco herself. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of fodder and and rumor, and I just find
Speaker 1: him so fascinating And he was always on my bucket
Speaker 1: list of people that I thought I would interview in
Speaker 1: my lifetime, just because I've had the opportunity to interview
Speaker 1: so many incredible designers and I never got a chance
Speaker 1: to interview Karl. And I think that if I got
Speaker 1: two hours with Carl, I'd probably never forget the two
Speaker 1: hours of the rest of my life.
Speaker 2: For the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: So that's just like a famous designer, less of like
Speaker 1: a you know, global icon luminary, but just somebody very
Speaker 1: niche to me, who I think is just fascinating and
Speaker 1: also quite scary. So it would be a really interesting
Speaker 1: challenge on a personal level as well. What about you?
Speaker 2: I love that answer so much. Mine is just because
Speaker 2: this is the very first person that I you know,
Speaker 2: I never wanted to be a celebrity makeup artist. It
Speaker 2: just kind of happened. But someone that I really wanted
Speaker 2: to work with my whole life just because it's who
Speaker 2: I looked up to. It was Brittany Murphy.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: I wanted to be a celebrity makeup artist just so
Speaker 2: I can fucking do Brittany Murphy's makeup. That's all. That's
Speaker 2: all I wanted. I moved to New York and boom wow.
Speaker 2: I just want to chat with her. I just want
Speaker 2: to chat with her about her life, like I want
Speaker 2: to get to know her. And I have no idea,
Speaker 2: you know why. I was so so so drawn to her,
Speaker 2: And everyone's like, out of anyone, I've just what happened
Speaker 2: to Brittany Murphy?
Speaker 1: Well, ansoy energetically, you're just attracted to who you were
Speaker 1: attracted to.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, okay, Well, Leleana, what if I told
Speaker 2: you that on Carlos Santana's fifty second birthday he was
Speaker 2: visited by the coast of Miles Davis for two hours?
Speaker 1: I would say, can ghosts actually play instruments? Like did
Speaker 1: Miles Davis have a little trumpet? Was there trumpet in
Speaker 1: the room? Like why is he showing up if there's
Speaker 1: not a trumpet?
Speaker 2: But I think he was celebrating his fifty second birthday
Speaker 2: as Santana. Would you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm saying true, true, true.
Speaker 2: Well, according to Carlos, the two of them just hung
Speaker 2: out and chatted.
Speaker 1: Okay, gotcha. Yes, I believe in a way that Carlos
Speaker 1: could have spoken to Miles Davis for two hours on
Speaker 1: his birthday.
Speaker 2: But do you believe it was actually Miles Davis?
Speaker 1: I think that you know what, Let's just leave the
Speaker 1: dead bee and get back to telling the rest of
Speaker 1: the story with Santana.
Speaker 2: Okay, good call. According to Carlos, Miles Davis isn't the
Speaker 2: only spirit from Beyond to have paid him a visit.
Speaker 2: He's also stated that spirits have win on offers he's
Speaker 2: received to play for popes and presidents.
Speaker 1: For all we know, he asked John Lennon and Jimmy
Speaker 1: Hendrix whether he should play Live Aid. It's to say
Speaker 1: Carlos takes a ton of stock in his heroes, living
Speaker 1: or Dot.
Speaker 2: And by the nineteen nineties, many of Carlos's biggest heroes
Speaker 2: had passed on, making the spirits his most trusted advisors.
Speaker 1: At his home in San Rafael, California, Carlos Santana had
Speaker 1: developed a regular meditation practice and the little annex separate
Speaker 1: from the main house.
Speaker 2: This annex, which he dubs the church, is where Carlos
Speaker 2: retreats to commune with the beyond and to play the
Speaker 2: guitar without disturbing the family.
Speaker 1: And it's where on a quiet night in nineteen ninety four,
Speaker 1: Carlos enters a deep meditation and is visited by the
Speaker 1: angel Metatron.
Speaker 2: Medatron is an angel mentioned in Jewish and Islamic scriptures,
Speaker 2: as well as in mystical practices such as Kabbala and Stuphism.
Speaker 2: There's even obscure text that named Metatron as an angel
Speaker 2: that led the Jews out of the.
Speaker 1: Desert, and Metatron would just so happen to be the
Speaker 1: figure to lead Carlos Santana out of his own creative desert.
Speaker 2: As Carlos tells it, the angel delivered him a message quote,
Speaker 2: you will be inside the radio frequency for the purpose
Speaker 2: of connecting the molecules with light.
Speaker 1: With this news, the angel also instructed Carlos to be patient, gracious,
Speaker 1: and grateful.
Speaker 2: To Carlos, Metatron's message is a clear one. He will
Speaker 2: record a new album that will once again bring his
Speaker 2: music to the radio for the purpose of connecting the
Speaker 2: masses to the spiritual message he had now received and invigorated.
Speaker 1: Carlos shares the news with his wife, Deborah, whom Carlos
Speaker 1: credits as his most trusted business advisor at the time.
Speaker 1: She encourages him to meet with the president of aris
Speaker 1: To Records, Clive Davis.
Speaker 2: Clive Davis just so happens to be the same executive
Speaker 2: who signed Santana to Columbia Records back in the sas seventies.
Speaker 1: Carlos feels pregnant with a masterpiece of joy in his belly.
Speaker 1: That is a direct quote. I did not make that up.
Speaker 2: I was like, wait, I know right.
Speaker 1: Anyway, he cuts ties with Polydor Records and sets up
Speaker 1: that meeting with Davis.
Speaker 2: Each night leading up to the meeting, during his nightly meditation,
Speaker 2: Carlos chance for Davis twenty seven times.
Speaker 1: When they finally meet in a Los Angeles hotel room,
Speaker 1: Clive Davis gets very close to Carlos's face and asks,
Speaker 1: what does Carlos Santana want to do?
Speaker 2: Carlos repeats the words of the Angel Metatron quote, I'd
Speaker 2: like to reconnect the molecules with light and instead of
Speaker 2: slamming the door in Carlos's face. Davis continues to talk
Speaker 2: to Carlos.
Speaker 1: Carlos convinces Davis that he isn't stuck in the sixties,
Speaker 1: and Davis resolves to find hit songs that will put
Speaker 1: Santana back on the radio.
Speaker 2: It's a little less cut and dry than that. There's
Speaker 2: competing interests from other labels and the always spandy Emi,
Speaker 2: But in the end, Santana signs with Arista Records, with
Speaker 2: Carlos feeling that he's in a safe hands with.
Speaker 1: Davis and he's kind of right with Davis at the helm.
Speaker 1: On the label side, Carlos has access to Grammy winning
Speaker 1: hit makers like Casey Porter, The Dust Brothers, Dante Ross,
Speaker 1: and John Gamble.
Speaker 2: The approach to this new album will be a bit
Speaker 2: similar to the hit making formula of the first Santana record,
Speaker 2: half instrumentals and half radio ready pop.
Speaker 1: Sings, but the radio environment of the late nineties means
Speaker 1: that these songs need recognizable vocals to become hits.
Speaker 2: Enter Matchbuck twenties, Rob Thomas, do you remember, first of all,
Speaker 2: I know you had it. Do you remember how big
Speaker 2: of a hit this was at the time? Smooth hit.
Speaker 1: It's like there's lots of hits, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like this thing not leave the airways. It was like
Speaker 1: a complete and total earworm, Like you couldn't stop singing it,
Speaker 1: you couldn't stop hearing it. Everyone was playing it. It's
Speaker 1: also timing wise, like for me, it was like what
Speaker 1: we needed at the time, like that fusion between rock
Speaker 1: and la. I don't know it was. It had been
Speaker 1: missing for me.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny you say that because I would
Speaker 2: hear it and I would change it just because I
Speaker 2: you know, I know, hold On, don't get kind of Santana.
Speaker 2: I love you, but I just didn't like how it started,
Speaker 2: Like I don't like the very loud, long beginnings of
Speaker 2: those songs. But while that was going on, do you
Speaker 2: remember the timeframe I was listening to like No Scrubs,
Speaker 2: I was listening to the Heartbreak Hotel, Like I remember
Speaker 2: those songs being on at the same time that this
Speaker 2: song was on, and every time I would hear it,
Speaker 2: I would change it.
Speaker 1: I mean, the late nineties for music were like such
Speaker 1: a mood like these kids today. I don't know what
Speaker 1: you call what you listen to, but like it was
Speaker 1: such it was such a vibes like we had no scrubs,
Speaker 1: we had like Janet Jackson, like OI match, but I
Speaker 1: don't know, it was just but yes, I very much
Speaker 1: remember hearing this song. I remember like driving. I think
Speaker 1: I graduated maybe the year before the song came out,
Speaker 1: so it was like a very transitional emotional year for me,
Speaker 1: and I loved it. It's like it's I considered this
Speaker 1: song to be one of the songs of like the
Speaker 1: soundtrack to My Life.
Speaker 2: Whoa whoa fuck Okay, whoa?
Speaker 1: And not only was it everywhere, but it topped the
Speaker 1: charge for twelve consecutive weeks after being leaked on the
Speaker 1: radio on June first, nineteen ninety nine. This was Santana's
Speaker 1: very first number one single, and smooth.
Speaker 2: Kicked off a parade of hit singles put Your Lights On, Maria,
Speaker 2: Maria Guarason, Espinavo, Love of My Life, and Prima Venna.
Speaker 1: And While this collection of singles featured a revolving door
Speaker 1: of vocalists from Dave Matthews to White Club Show On,
Speaker 1: Carlos Santana's guitar was the instantly recognizable constant.
Speaker 2: Santana had been one of the defining artists of the
Speaker 2: seventies and now he was helping to define the pop
Speaker 2: music that closed out the nights.
Speaker 1: Carlos had come of age during the Summer of Love,
Speaker 1: but nineteen ninety nine was the Summer of Santana. And
Speaker 1: side note, nearly two decades later, we would flash back
Speaker 1: to the Summer of Santana with DJ Khaled and Rihanna's
Speaker 1: Wild Thoughts, which heavily sample Santana's Madia Maria.
Speaker 2: All in all, Supernatural, the album we've been talking about
Speaker 2: this whole time, would reach number one in eleven countries.
Speaker 1: In the US, it was number one for twelve weeks
Speaker 1: straight and as of today, is fifteen times platinum and.
Speaker 2: Nat the Grammy's Santana broke a record held by Michael
Speaker 2: Jackson's Thriller for most awards won in a single night.
Speaker 2: Supernatural one nine honors, including Album of the.
Speaker 1: Year, which Carlos Santana was the first Latino to ever win.
Speaker 2: Supernatural is one of the best selling albums of all
Speaker 2: time worldwide full stop, at an estimated thirty million copies
Speaker 2: as of today. So, if Carlos's mission was to reconnect
Speaker 2: molecules with the light, and there are several trillion molecules
Speaker 2: in each human body, and Santana sold thirty million copies
Speaker 2: of super Natural.
Speaker 1: That means that means wait, wait, wait, wait, what does
Speaker 1: it mean.
Speaker 2: That our boy is eating honey?
Speaker 1: I think what you're trying to say is that Santana
Speaker 1: had not only returned to stardom, but had multiplied his
Speaker 1: stardom several times over. If Woodstock brought him to the mountaintop,
Speaker 1: Supernatural sent him soaring over the Milky Way.
Speaker 2: It's not for us to say whether these unfathomable heights
Speaker 2: were part of the vision that was beamed to him
Speaker 2: by the angel Metatron, but sufficed to say this renaissance
Speaker 2: had cemented Carlos Santana's icon status for good.
Speaker 1: Santana had rocketed back to stardom off the back of
Speaker 1: Savvi production and collaborations with chart topping vocalists. Carlos went
Speaker 1: on to repeat this formula with his follow up to
Speaker 1: Supernatural two thousand and two's Chaman.
Speaker 2: Santana again topped the charts with the singles Game of
Speaker 2: Love featuring Michelle Branch, We Love Her and why Don't You?
Speaker 2: And I featuring Chad Kroger.
Speaker 1: In fact, the majority of the track lists on the
Speaker 1: album featured artists from Macy Gray to Palasi do Domingo.
Speaker 1: This approach would be the defining feature for Santana's catalog
Speaker 1: throughout the two thousands.
Speaker 2: Ending with twenty fourteens Guarason, which features a more Latin
Speaker 2: pop oriented cast of featured artists such as Lories Stefan,
Speaker 2: Miguel Pipo, Romeo Santos and more.
Speaker 1: As singles like Game of Love became radio mainstays, so
Speaker 1: too did Carlo says unmistakable guitar sound. True to his word,
Speaker 1: he had proven that he was not stuck in the sixties.
Speaker 2: Instead, his guitar became one of the most characteristically distinctive
Speaker 2: aspects of pop in the yants.
Speaker 1: That said, if you were a longtime Santana fan, this
Speaker 1: new iteration of the band may not have scratched a
Speaker 1: certain itch for you.
Speaker 2: Right. Michelle Branch and Chad Kroeger are great and all,
Speaker 2: But think of the sweaty crowd of half a million
Speaker 2: half naked music fans during Woodstock and Carlos on stage
Speaker 2: with this electric snake.
Speaker 1: Well, the longtimers would soon be in for a treat.
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, Carlos would reunite with the bandmates he
Speaker 1: had both Soared and Tumbled with Neil Sean, Greg Rowley,
Speaker 1: Michael Schreb and Michael Carabello.
Speaker 2: The band had reunited once before, in nineteen ninety eight
Speaker 2: for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, the
Speaker 2: year before Supernatural was released.
Speaker 1: The band played Black Magic Woman, and in his induction speech,
Speaker 1: Carlos thanked his family, his bandmates Bill Graham and Clive Davis,
Speaker 1: and he gave props to his Latino musical forebears, starting
Speaker 1: with Richie Vallens.
Speaker 2: The band played well together, but they didn't entertain the
Speaker 2: idea of recording another album. However, in the following years,
Speaker 2: Neil Shown, the guitarist who joined the band as a
Speaker 2: teenager and then soon left to form a Journey, repeatedly
Speaker 2: ran into Carlos in the Bay Area.
Speaker 1: Sean was keen on the idea of getting the band
Speaker 1: back together, and he mentioned it to Carlos each and
Speaker 1: every time he saw him.
Speaker 2: Carlos said that everywhere he went, Shown was there, and
Speaker 2: that quote his eyes became very vulnerable, very egoists, every
Speaker 2: time he mentioned the reunion.
Speaker 1: One day, perhaps moved by shown sincerity, Carlos invited Sewn
Speaker 1: to his rehearsal space in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2: Shown thought he and Carlos were having a meeting to
Speaker 2: discuss the possible reunion, but instead he arrived to find
Speaker 2: the whole band warming up. Carlos said to him, this
Speaker 2: is the meeting the reunion was on.
Speaker 1: Carlos says quote. It was magical. We didn't have to
Speaker 1: try to force the vibe. It was immense. The band
Speaker 1: essentially picked up right where they left off, as indicated
Speaker 1: by the title of the resulting album, Santana four.
Speaker 2: The cover of Santana four features a psychedelic depiction of
Speaker 2: a growling tiger's face, a psyched out throwback to the
Speaker 2: band's debut album cover, which featured a snarling line.
Speaker 1: The opening track puts us firmly in classic Santana territory
Speaker 1: with the pounding drum and a call to Yamaya, the
Speaker 1: mother of all Rishas.
Speaker 2: The album even features a track named after the venue
Speaker 2: where these musicians found each other, Fillmore East.
Speaker 1: In a review for All Music, Tom Jurek writes, there
Speaker 1: remains a real musical connection and share joy between these players.
Speaker 1: They may not sound young, radical, or reckless, but they
Speaker 1: do come off as if they've never stopped playing and
Speaker 1: discovering together. Here's the deal with going back to I
Speaker 1: hate to say an ex but it's effectively an X
Speaker 1: right with a band. I do think that despite whatever
Speaker 1: drama happened or whatever shit went down, like, it does
Speaker 1: not diminish the greatness that existed, right, Like, I don't
Speaker 1: believe that. I feel like, yes, it could have been
Speaker 1: like a shitty end to something, or there might have
Speaker 1: been something really big that happened, but it doesn't take
Speaker 1: away of the greatness or in this case, like the
Speaker 1: incredible legacy that they left behind as a band. I
Speaker 1: think that because Santana is so spiritual. I think he
Speaker 1: did a lot of work on himself. His bandmates probably
Speaker 1: did a lot of work on themselves, and ultimately, like
Speaker 1: if you have two people that both do the work
Speaker 1: and come back together and are like, hey, let's try again,
Speaker 1: I think that's okay, right, I mean, I think that's
Speaker 1: to me, that is the ultimate sign of growth.
Speaker 2: No, well, I think it's because you just remember the life.
Speaker 2: I hate to be all psychedelics in sixties because it's antenna,
Speaker 2: but you just remember the love that you have for them,
Speaker 2: and that's kind of what brings you back again, especially
Speaker 2: when you've done the work, You've been able to let
Speaker 2: go of the old demons and just really be present
Speaker 2: and focus on why you guys love doing what you did,
Speaker 2: and all egos and all that shit aside. It's just
Speaker 2: kind of like like, for me, I had a falling
Speaker 2: out with a hairstylist who was a really close friend
Speaker 2: of mine. Yet every time we would work together, I
Speaker 2: could drop the fact that we were upset with each
Speaker 2: other and just really work beautifully together and ping pong
Speaker 2: ideas where it would just be collaborative again. But because
Speaker 2: we love what we do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that makes I think that makes perfect sense.
Speaker 1: I think that you can always separate the ego from.
Speaker 2: The projects so much time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're still learning it, We're all still learning. But
Speaker 1: I think that's exactly what brought them together, and I
Speaker 1: think that's why they were able to kind of put
Speaker 1: all of the drama behind them. Thankfully they did, because
Speaker 1: we got them back.
Speaker 2: Hello.
Speaker 1: Carlos Santana had set out to reconnect the molecules with
Speaker 1: the light, and over the course of his journey, he
Speaker 1: reconnected and found healing with his former bandmates and reinvigorated
Speaker 1: himself as an artist.
Speaker 2: But Santana's next album, twenty nineteen's Africa Speaks, would see
Speaker 2: Carlos again assembling a new lineup. This time around, Carlo's
Speaker 2: sense of purpose drove him to foreground the sounds of
Speaker 2: the African continent and let the album serve as a
Speaker 2: vehicle for black vocalists.
Speaker 1: So he invited British singer Laura Mavola and Spanish singer Boyka.
Speaker 1: Produced by Rick Rubin, the album was a critical and
Speaker 1: commercial success.
Speaker 2: Two years later, however, Santan would release a follow up
Speaker 2: that returned to the feature heavy formula of nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: nine's Supernatural.
Speaker 1: Twenty twenty one's Blessings and Miracles featured performers such as
Speaker 1: Chris Stapleton, Fifth Harmony's Ally Brook and once again Matchbox
Speaker 1: two Rob Thomas.
Speaker 2: When asked about the shift in direction, Carlos pointed to
Speaker 2: the global pandemic. He felt that people needed hope and courage.
Speaker 1: He went on to say that the album title comes
Speaker 1: from his belief that we're born with heavenly powers that
Speaker 1: allow us to create blessings and miracles, and that music
Speaker 1: is one such heavenly power.
Speaker 2: For Carlos, the album was quote mystical medicine music to
Speaker 2: heal an infected world of fear and darkness. He felt
Speaker 2: called upon to touch people's hearts. The other radio, the.
Speaker 1: Guy believes so deeply in the transcendent healing power of music,
Speaker 1: and he sees his own musical voice as a kind
Speaker 1: of medicine or elixir.
Speaker 2: The duality of Santana is jam band versus pop accompanist.
Speaker 2: You have instrumentally focused jazz like trippy odyssey sounds that
Speaker 2: are meant for tuning in, turning on, and dropping out.
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, you have these like very
Speaker 1: you know, super accessible, easy to buy to pop right
Speaker 1: where the futured vocalist is the sugar and his guitar
Speaker 1: is the medicine.
Speaker 2: Medicine for the soul rather than the body. Because remember
Speaker 2: we're talking about a man who communes with the spirits
Speaker 2: every noche right right.
Speaker 1: And while we don't all get our music the way
Speaker 1: that Carlos did when he was growing up, we stream
Speaker 1: rather than turn on the actual radio, we can still
Speaker 1: have that experience of unexpectedly hearing sounds we've never heard before,
Speaker 1: things that change how we think about music, that open
Speaker 1: our minds, heal our souls.
Speaker 2: I'll see it one last time. HiT's a groovy scene, man,
Speaker 2: And whether you're a kid in Tijuana in the sixties
Speaker 2: turning a knob on the radio and hearing Richie Allens,
Speaker 2: or a kid today digging up music from years gone
Speaker 2: by on a streaming platform or.
Speaker 1: Your parents' old ass CD collection.
Speaker 2: The song remains the same and for Carlos Santana, it's
Speaker 2: a song worth playing every time.
Speaker 1: On the next Becoming an Icon, a reggathon origin story
Speaker 1: from San Juan, Puerto Rico, home of King of Regathon.
Speaker 1: Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael
Speaker 1: Duda podcast network. Listen to Becoming an Icon on the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast