Taking a Walk.

People started asking me, what kind of appli fire do you use?

What kind of guitar is that?

The applifier to the guitar is me.

I'm the cell you know, I'm an act accumulation of a lot of things that I think in field.

I'm buzz night and I'm thrilled you're here for the Taking a Walk Podcast.

I am over the moon excited to welcome one of the most iconic guitarists in music history, Carlos Santana.

Carlos is still creating groundbreaking new music, releasing Let the Guitar Play, a collaboration with Darryl Run dmc McDaniels.

Santana is also coming to a venue near you with their Oneness tour twenty twenty four with The Counting Crows.

Carlos, It's an honor to have you on the Taken a Walk Podcast.

Think it was a joe to bewitch you.

So it's amazing You're never ending in your work.

Congratulations on Let the Guitar Play, the collaboration with Run dmc.

See how did that collaboration come about?

You know, it's like the same answer for since the beginning.

I found out as I was born, even before I was born.

Some of it is orchestrating behind the scene, uh, for each individual to have a glorious existence.

My path was said with my mom and dad and even before the later on when I got to San Francisco, because of Bill Graham and Clive Davis and BB King and TiO Poente, because all of them saw something in me and they kind of like adapted me, and they invested emotionally and financially and believing in me, and uh, and they Encouragemila.

So where I am today, it's still an extension of what I learned from Bill Graham and Clive Davis.

Just show up in compliment whatever.

I get so proud of you.

Excited about the Oneness tour with the Counting Crows that's going to be hitting twenty nine cities across North America.

I am very excited because you know, once I made a decision in nineteen seventy two not to be a victim mentality rock star.

You know what I said, I'm already really seeing the rock stars.

You know, they kind of smell rancid, and they look they look like they were not having a good time.

And I said, you know, anybody wants to be like a rock star.

But when you hate around rock stars, they really will.

They're really miserable people, you know.

And I says, I want to do something different instead of doing this shooting up or slowting or drinking, I'm gonna go like this.

I'm going to visit my light, my own dibandity, away from religion, and I want to do something different.

And as soon as I did it, you know, it was like West Point discipline.

It was like we're green because it was a discipline.

My tone jit chain.

People start asking me what kind of apple fire do you use?

What kind of guitar?

Is that?

The applifier the guitar is me.

I'm the cell.

You know, I'm an accumulation of a lot of things that I think in field.

So here's the thing.

I made a conscious decision to become a significant musician person than a rock star.

You know, if you want to sell stuff, you can say you don't have to be a rock star to be radiant.

So you have the attire that makes you look at a rock star or shoes or whatever, you know.

But as I said, hang around with rock stars I founded out to be really really depressing and frustrating because they're always complaining, you know, they're always everything's not enough, you know.

And I said, man, this stuff is boring.

You know, it's gonna be another way.

So heyter Jel mclauchle, we found a guru, a spiritual teacher from India, and he had a different perception, which is what it is on life.

And so that helped me change words, like it's not a job, it's a gift.

It's not work, it's wonder man.

That's why I changed words.

And it stimulates me.

I have more energy than what I eat.

I have more inspiration than money in the bank.

I found that there's another form of energy that I can bring out of myself.

I never received a lot of compliments, you know, from Miles Davis to Stemy Ray to Jacko to Eric Clapton African musicians, and like one of the best timpliments I ever got was from a gentleman, a gentleman named Marikantade, and he said to me, he says, uh, your belly is full, but you're hungry to feed the people.

And I was like, oh, that's who.

Thank you so much, you know.

So it means that no matter how, no matter what the world gives me.

I feel better when I'm sharing it.

Like when we braiding wood stop, everybody got fed, you know, up lending to do because Bill Brahm and Michael Nan, they're on the other side valve, they left the body.

So I want to create a global woodstock Friday, Saturday or Saturday.

You didn't do you harm any oneness with selective artists, selective songs.

It's just China, Russia and Korea.

They're joking about nuclear war in the Middle East against the United States, you know.

And remember in the fifties where people say, you know, just you know, we're having a drill, Go get under your desk, you know, just in case they dropped the bomb, like that's a help you, you know.

And I used to go, this is fucking stupid man, you know, they dropped the bomb going out of the desk.

That ain't gonna help me, you know.

So that stuff just kept striving to come back again because people try to selling you fear, which is what the media does.

Fear fear fear.

I enjoy watching scary movies out Fridays when I was young, Dracula, practice diet, you know, all that.

But after a while, they got boring.

You know, I got bored really really quick with The Exorcist.

I got bored with that frequency.

I get excited more with the positive possibilities of knowing that I can make a difference.

I can show up in the room with a lot of people and had to Mike Jagger about daling.

People would look at me because they know that I'm bringing something to the table.

Is uplifting and encouraging, you know.

Santiago is a language of light and enjoy and love.

And you know, there's not that many bands that can go to Ireland or Africa or Japan and still be like this with the family.

You know.

So after all these years, I learned that I am significant, meaning pole, precious and priceless.

This is not my ego speaking, This is my soul affirming that if God created the constellation, the universe, the galaxy, the Milky Way says he created all that, and he created you and me, we must be pretty good, you know, because God don't create garbage.

You know, we create garbage by thinking trash, you know, and so wet.

A musician is more than just playing the guitar.

You know, People saying why did you learn from Jerry Garcia.

Where did you learn from Michael Brulfield?

Why did you learn from this and what did you learn from that?

You know, I learned just compliment, Just compliment, compliment, not be asking the complimenting?

Is that that makes me seventy I'm seventy something.

I think I might be seventy seven already, but I'm still relevant, you know.

I could.

I could walk around the streets of Amsterdam at night and here a car covered around, you know, with the widows all bit and they're playing live music.

I'm like that, you know.

So it makes it feel grateful that I'm living a life where I can make my mother and my father proud.

That to me is everything.

Amen to that.

Yeah.

August tenth, nineteen sixty nine, I was privileged to be able to see Santana open for the Jefferson Airplane and a free concert in Central Park, which blew my mind.

What do you remember about that experience?

I remember constantly winning a battle of over fear, you know.

Being from California, you country, New York, you know, it's a different energy, you know, and sometimes people give me very great, very edgy in New York, you know.

And then I realized if I just walk like I owned a fucking place, you know, from the village all the way to Central Park, then they can't intimidate.

And then now I wanted it, you know, because people can read body let me.

If I'm walking around like I'm nervous nelly, you know, then they want to come after me.

But if I walk around like you don't show me shit man, you know, like I've been on here.

You know, it's something that people need to be topped.

Like someone may teach you how to body syrp.

You know, someone can teach you how to navigate or expeak the language coming to you in New York.

There should be like a procedure that teaches you before you get out of the play a conduct, how to carry yourself.

So I have it in my mind and in my heart a lot of things that I want to do and bring our curriculum to schools, you know, teach people compassion, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, just like you teach history or one two three or ABC.

Teach people about copassion, kindness, marsty, forgiveness.

You know, those are the main ingredients elements go owing nutrients for world peace, you know, And it's something that if your parents don't teach it.

A lot of church churches they self fear, you know, they they I don't deal so much with the Bible because a lot of it has got Zilla, and I don't buy it with Godzilla.

I buy with God.

God is unconditional love.

I follow out that is Jesus conditional love, forgiveness.

Anything to do with you screw up.

And you know you got to go through check mood, Charlie.

And you're not make suring that because you miss you know, you screw up with the tank commandment, tank commandos.

You know you're going to go to help for it.

I'm let you know I'm gonna spiritual adult.

You don't need to scare me to have it.

And by the way we jove it to heaven, it will scare me to have it, you know, because I didn't want to work.

And so as a musician, I find that other decicious whatever being around with me because they can see it when I walk in.

But I bring something than cocaine or hair on or this or that or lick it.

You know, I'm bringing an different energy that has nothing to do with making the drive dealer more.

You know, if they depend on me they want to start to death, you know, anything to do with the casinos.

You know, I don't gamble.

I believe in grace.

I don't believe a lot of fortune or any of that, you know.

So just the way that I was built, it shows up in my play.

And I'm happy.

I'm very very happy that I have become consistent with specificity of showing up and bringing light and loud, reminding people.

And I'm going to let you the level you're worthy, your precious, priceless, your significant and meaningful.

Carry yourself like you know, And that to me is I mean, anybody can play.

You can trade you what to play music, just I could trade you for two shovel cards.

But the kind of music that I play is the kind of music that ignites your chromosomes and your morequl the structure to believe one more time.

Believe it, old and olden.

I am the stribitual being.

I could create blessings and miracles.

It's that just tree, Jesus or Christian or auDA or Buddha or the Pope.

I could create blessed and miracles too, because I've been in viewing before.

I was born with that guilt and the more you remind people of this.

You know, it spreads by consciousness spread And this is basically to put it to go Kulle this conversation, what a positive thought creates billions of positive vibration.

That was John Coltrane who said.

That can you explain to somebody what it feels like when you're on stage performing in front of a large group of people.

And you're hitting that note so brilliantly?

What is what is that feeling like?

From your perspective, It's a spiritual orgaso.

You know, we have a spiritual orgaso.

It's more than emotion, because emotion, you know, like the roller coaster, you could go up and you gun down.

You know, one minute you feel good.

They think you feel miserable because you feel guilty.

But when you play bussi and you have a what we call a spiritual orgasm.

For me, I'm looking up to people as I always see people where they get off their seat and it's like a spiritual revival.

They start crying and laughing and dancing, and they're actually crying and laughed in dancing at the same time.

It's like the Holy girls took over it in their bodies just like it a revival at church, you know.

And when I see that, I look at the band and I go, hey, we're doing it.

You know there's a proof right there.

They say, proof is that the ploybook.

Look look at her, look at her and look at it.

I'm looking at the way they're dancing.

They're like, and that's what music does, whether it's from Beethoven or the Rolling Stones or whoever.

Music postal uplift you to a place.

I call it supreme.

Wondered my love.

That can you share three quintessential albums that to this day have still impacted you.

I love Supreme, bigil Cultreit, Uh Miles, they musketch It Suspain, the first three albums from Jimmy Hedrits, probably all of the albums by Bob Dylan, Allowed Everything by Motol, Marvin Gaye.

Uh, but I especially love one Jove.

All you need is love, Blow it in the wind.

I gravitated those songs that I call them today's elists, because when you play those songs back to back to back, when I want Little World Louis Aulestra over the Rainbow, you know you've played these songs there aside.

They decide to don't worry about a thing, you know, boy Marty, you know, treating little birds.

Uh, there's music to play on the radio, shopping malls and parking lots to make people not be suicidal or hobicide.

We can rescue people from feeling like they were a suicide.

Yeah, music will do that.

Music will will pull you out of the mistery ditch.

And so that's what I focused every day.

You know, I do read a book that's called a Course in Miracles every day.

There's a lesson, you know, and it's it's the book that shows you what all respect and a lot of this stuff in the Bible, it's upside down.

And a lot of people get upset with that because a lot of people become If you don't believe what they believe, they just send you to the healthy mediates.

You know.

It's like it's like it's like being over to the top.

Patriotic, you know.

Patriotic to me is like a monkey if it peas out of tree, it said, this is my tree.

I peeede at it.

That that's what it's called patriotic to me, you know, just because you peeed at it.

No, you know, I patriotic to me is pretty as star, you know, because I may get beat, so I look at the whole world like it's a wound, and where all the baby complicated, you know, And so therefore I'm able to play and use it that when we show up at London, we show up, where we show up, people are like, damn sat Tanna's got something differently and he got everybody elated going out and we celebrate people, Well, what do you celebrate?

We celebrate our light and we celebrate our spirit and our dibility.

That's what we celebrate it.

Carlos, thank you so much for all you continue to give us.

Thanks for being on Taking a Walk.

Good luck on the tour.

Thank you man, I'm so grateful that we got to talk.

Stay precious, and thank you.

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