All language subtitles for Carlos.2023

Do you believe in magic?

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.

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:

"Follow me."

Then we went to the backyard.

And the sun was going down.
Everything looks golden.

And he opened...

He opened the violin case,

pulled his violin out,

and then he looked at me really intense,
and he goes:

"I want to teach you something. Mira."

So he put the violin like this,
he'd lean on it, and then he goes...

And then this bird comes out of nowhere,
lands on this branch, and he goes...

And I was like-- My eyes were like,
"Oh, my God. Dad's speaking to a bird."

The bird...

And I was like, "Oh, my God."

My dad goes, "See?"

"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?

Oh, it's beautiful.

Wherever you want, dear.

I'm in trouble now.

- Yeah.
- 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?"

- We were happy.
- Yeah.

Always, every Friday, Saturday night,
just playing music.

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:

"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."

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.

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.

Mom and Dad slowly shortened the distance,
and then it got better.

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...?

I'm just...

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.

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.

I think that music was probably
too simple for him to play.

They all had the same ending,
right, dun-dun.

Sorry.

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...

♪ Mashed potatoes
Mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes... ♪

The way it resonated,
it was like watching a UFO or something.

♪ Mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes... ♪

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.

This is who I am.

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...

...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:

Dude.

I'm not a victim.
I ain't gonna play that shit.

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."

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.

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... ♪

He was not around that much.

He was always with his friends,
rehearsing.

Carlos was really focusing in his music.

- Wanna start it?
- No, you start.

Ready?

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."

♪ Drivin' that train, high on cocaine ♪

♪ Casey Jones
You better watch your speed ♪

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 ♪

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."

Next time I went to the Fillmore,
it was very different.

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... ♪

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.

♪ Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

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.

Perpetual daydreaming.

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.

How old?

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.

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."

- Carlos was not that kind of guy.
- Carlos was not, uh--

He wasn't then.
I don't think he ever will be.

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."

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."

- 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."

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:

"Look. They can't afford cigarettes.

They're passing one little cigarette."

So Dad opens his box
and he's offering everybody cigarettes.

"No, Mama, it's marijuana,"
and they go, "Oh, okay."

Thank you.

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?

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'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.

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.

I heard that in 1969,

you blew an audition
for Atlantic Records on purpose.

Right.

Because you wanted to work for Columbia.

With Columbia.

With Columbia, home of Miles Davis
and Bob Dylan. Is that true?

That's absolutely true.

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.

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.

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."

It started off being in the helicopter.

Looking out and...
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.

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...

Would you welcome, please, Santana.

And I'm like...

"Oh...

What?"

Something just hit me in my chest,
like, "Mijo, trust."

"God, I know you're here.
Please keep me in time and in tune."

Just keep that going!

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."

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.

Ladies and gentlemen, Santana!

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.

♪ 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!

♪ Something about you, baby
Keeps me from goin' to somebody else ♪

Oh, my God, October 26th, yes.

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.

Carlos Santana,
how did you start your group,

and how did you came to music?

You have to answer it, man.

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.

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 ♪

♪ Jingo
Jingo-ba ♪

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."

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.

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.

Right.

But the way we married
the blues and the percussion,

they can have a good time
trying to label you.

- Right.
- They call it psychedelic mariachi rock.

I say, "You gotta try deeper than that,
'cause that's not what it is."

♪ You've got to change your evil ways ♪

-♪ Whoa! ♪
-♪ Baby ♪

♪ Before I stop lovin' you
You've got to change, baby... ♪

From '69 to '71, that chunk right there,

there became, like, a real...

tension.

♪ This can't go on ♪

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.

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.

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..."

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.

What I was attracted to

was something
that was coming from his heart,

or something that was emanating
from his being.

Sacred is not Jerusalem
or the Vatican or Stonehenge.

Sacredness to us means family.

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."

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.

For my disciples, feel the necessity...

of the living God inside them.

They become living Gods themselves.

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.

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--

- Thank you.
- Right?

Yes.

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."

Not so far out.
You're in the center of it.

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."

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 ♪

♪ 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 ♪

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?

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 ♪

♪ 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 ♪

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

...Salvador and Stella,
'cause I love you guys so much.

Is everybody ready?

Yeah!

My father's a musician,

and his father and his father
were musicians.

G.

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.

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.

My dad comes over on the side,
and he goes:

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.

♪ I ain't got nobody ♪

♪ That I can depend on ♪

♪ I ain't got nobody ♪

♪ That I can depend on ♪

Who is Carlos Santana to you?

He is my son.

The most beloved one in the whole world.

What do you do for a living?

Music.

What do you play?

Violin.

You taught Carlos about music?

A little.

But once he grew up, like we all do,
we set our parents aside, right?

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.

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:

And my mom goes,
"Well, where you going?"

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:

"You wanna come with me?"
She goes, "No, no, no."

"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.

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.

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."

Check it out.

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.

One, two, three. Ah!

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."

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 ♪

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 ♪

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 ♪

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.

♪ Ladies and gents ♪

♪ Turn up your sound system ♪

♪ To the sound of Carlos Santana ♪

Supernatural, number one,
United States of America.

♪ Maria Maria... ♪

You're the hero to people who say,
"Yes, there can be a second act."

You represent--

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 ♪

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 ♪

Supernatural was another
"gimongous" door like Woodstock.

And the Grammy goes to Santana.

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 ♪

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.

Long live John Coltrane.

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.

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:

"I am so proud of you."

And it stayed with me.
I was, like, in a trance, man.

All I know is...

"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 ♪

♪ 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.

Like that.

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.

Hold on for a second.
Hold on for a second.

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--

I saw him talking to the band,
so seeing him as a bandleader,

I was like, "Wow.

He knows what he wants."

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.

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.

I used to have a friend who,
no matter what you'd play,

he always danced like this.

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.

I am who I am because of my mother,

and, again, because of my dad,

but mainly my mother.

She instilled in me fearlessness.

♪ Come on ♪

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! ♪

Great.

Let's go eat some tacos.