Oh and Carlos Santana is very spiritual so I am not sure if he said Archangel Michael lightly. He has a close relationship with another Archangel... (if you believe in this kind of thing, of course.)
Santana: Right Place, Right Time, Right ArchangelHe tells VH1 how he became "pregnant" with the idea for his career-reviving smash Supernatural...
It's a wonder Carlos Santana didn't try to contact the archangel Metatron a few years earlier. Once the Bay Area Afro-Cuban guitar legend did commune with his guiding spirit, he told VH1 that he became "pregnant" with the idea for his career-reviving smash, Supernatural, which earned a record nine Grammys and sold nearly 25 million copies. With collaborators like Wyclef Jean, Eric Clapton and Matchbox Twentys Rob Thomas - all of whom said they dreamt of collaborating with Santana - its no wonder the album had otherworldly success. Here, the bandleader talks about the albums conception, why Wyclef wouldnt speak to him when they first met, and how the biggest success of his life almost ruined his family.
VH1: What does Supernatural mean to you?
Santana: It's a masterpiece of joy. It's a mansion. Every room is designed to take the listener outside their body into a place where they will expand. If I listen to Abbey Road or Jimi Hendrix's Are You Experienced?, they take me to a place that is outside of the realm of space and time.
VH1: Talk about what was happening creatively in the period just before Supernatural. Did you feel complacent?
Santana: No. I still had the same passion. But I wasn't with a record company at that time. I got pregnant, so to speak, with the concept of Supernatural three or four years before [former Arista Records Chairman] Mr. Clive Davis [signed me]. I knew I had a masterpiece of joy in my belly, but I didn't want to give it to the company that I was with. I always create, man. I have enough right now to do three or four CD's. I don't listen to the radio, but I do trust that Mr. Clive Davis does. He guides me as far as how to do something collectively. It's timing and grace, not a formula, gimmick or gizmo.
VH1: You've said an angel visited you before the sessions. Were you informed about Supernatural during this visit?
Santana: It was a meditation in which three women, two men and myself sat down. I just met them that day in this spiritual bookstore in San Rafael. I walked in asking, "Do you have any books on the archangel Metatron, because I feel like he's calling me? Every time I see him, it's from the side, but I want a full-on look." They said they we're having a meditation on him the next night [and they invited me]. Within 20 minutes, he was right there, speaking through this lady. Metatron said "they're going to put you back into the airwaves, but they need something from you." I said, "Okay, what is it?" They said, "You need to be patient, gracious and grateful at all times." It's like a contract. It was like constructing a golden gate between the light and the molecules through sound resonance, vibration and colors. I said, "Okay, I'll try it." The next thing I know ... everywhere I went there would be Santana music. In the cab, in the street. By the time [album co-producer] Clive [Davis] called me, I was already in.
VH1: Some of your collaborators said they had a dream about hooking up with you.
Santana: Eric [Clapton] was one. Dave Matthews, Rob Thomas, Wyclef. They all had stories about how before they got the call, we were all connected somehow with Santana. I was the last to know.VH1: Talk about the first conversation you had with Clive Davis where you discussed Supernatural?
Santana: He invited me to his bungalow and he said, "What does Santana want to do?" I didn't hesitate. I said, "I want to reconnect the molecules with the light." That was the centerpiece of our friendship, our bond. To my amazement, he didn't back down. He said, "Okay. How do you propose to do that?" It wasn't like, "Uh oh, this hippie took too many trips." I said, "It's the songs." It's the same thing for Whitney Houston, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis or Bob Marley. He goes, "What do you mean?" They all need a song. John Coltrane played "My Favorite Things" 'til the day he passed. So, he goes, "So, you're open?" I said, "Yeah, I'm totally open." He said, "I'll bring seven songs and you bring seven songs." That was that.
VH1: Was there anyone on your initial wish list who didn't make it to the project?
Santana: Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson and Prince. But we never approached them. Everyone who we called is there.
VH1: Matchbox's aesthetic seems contrary to your music.
Santana: I don't know about that. All I know is that Rob is a sweet person and a great writer. I never really listen to critics. I stopped doing that on the very first album when they started calling me psychedelic mariachi rock. I said, "What the hell is that?"
VH1: Did Rob's voice appeal to you?
Santana: Yeah, and I'll tell you the criteria: innocence and purity. There's still enough of that in his voice. There's still enough of that in Lauryn Hill's voice, Michelle Branch's voice. I need to be connected with purity and innocence. Because people don't really lose it. You might just misplace it.
VH1: Tell me about the first time you heard "Smooth."
Santana: I was in an office upstairs. It was the last song that came in. When I first heard it, it sounded a little far. The only thing that I requested is that they sing it again in a different way, because I didn't believe the singer. When I hear Miles and Coltrane, I believe them immediately. They went back and redid it and I said, "Oh yeah." We did it in one take, with my band and Rob singing it in the same room. That's when you know it's happening.
VH1: Did it feel like a hit?
Santana: I don't know what a hit is. I leave that to Mr. Clive Davis. All I know is that, if it touches me and moves me ... if I can play this song for the next 15 years, whatever years I have left. If I can't play it live, I won't record it. I don't want to hide behind the amp and go, "Okay, here's a hit. I don't believe in it, but I hope you like it."
VH1: What was it like when Dave Matthews came in? What did you share as guitar players?
Santana: He has a huge heart and an enormous sense of humor. Everything's really light and innocent around him. The main thing that I learned from him is how to be comfortable in my own skin. I played him this classical concerto and showed him a couple of lyrics I wrote right before we came to the studio in a meditation for my wife. He loved it. What I love about him is that he captured a male Billie Holiday with a Louis Armstrong vibe in it. I was shocked at how simple it was for him to arrive at that sound with power, grace, joy and innocence. I was, like, "Man, this guy is bad, really bad."
VH1: Everlast said "Put Your Lights On" was the first song he wrote after his heart surgery.
Santana: An angel gave it to him. That's what he told me. He saw himself leave the body when they were operating on him. The first thing that he heard when he got back into the body is [the lyric], "Hey, now." I was, like, "Whoa." That song is perfect for all those children who have a bad day in school and they're going to shoot other people. Listen to that song, it's rough, like Johnny Cash. To me, it's the centerpiece of Supernatural, because the message is so powerful. Molecules connected to the light. Do it with light, don't do it with anger and violence.
VH1: Wyclef says "Maria Maria" was written on the spot.
Santana: He came in, I said, "Hi." They were still connecting wires to the console and I thanked him for coming. He kept looking at me and wouldn't say anything. He was looking right in my eyes, and he was quite close to me. He goes, [Singing], "Yo, yo, yo, come on," and says, "Get a pen, man, write this thing down." He wrote the song looking right in my eyes. He grabbed it right out of the ether. I was like, "Oh, man, this is a trip."
VH1: That was the first time you two had met?
Santana: First time we ever met.
VH1: Before you said hello?
Santana: On the spot. I'm not making it up.
VH1: There's a line in that song when he gives a shout out to you. It seems a self-aggrandizing to give props to you in your own song.
Santana: I'm comfortable learning from Bo Jackson, Dennis Rodman ... they talked about themselves in the third person. I have no problem with that. At this point, Carlos is a different entity than who I am. It takes a life of its own. I asked my children, "Am I the same guy when you see on stage when I'm at home?" They go, "No, that's a different guy." It's a compliment.
VH1: What was it like being in the studio with Lauryn Hill?
Santana: I met her in Miami when I recorded a song ["To Zion"] on her CD. She invited me to the Grammys to play with her. That was the first time I'd ever been at the Grammys since I started in 1967! She has a very elegant and had a gracious vibration about her [when she came in for my album]. Everything was very quiet and delicate and I didn't want to play loud because I know she pregnant. But she said, "No, no, no, crank it up, man!" I remember hitting a note and she went, "Ah!' I got scared, like, did the water break or the baby gonna come out?" And she said it was just that I assaulted all her senses with that note. I love that God gave her a position to speak to the homies, the hard-core street people, with a message of unity and harmony. [Also] Eric Clapton was in the audience [at the Grammys] and because of that he came and joined on my CD.
VH1: Do you have a long history with him?
Santana: We go back to 1970. But we had never recorded together before. It was really easy, one take. Clapton is a deep guy, man. If anybody knows delta blues like Robert Johnson, it's him. If you watch him play by himself when he's warming up, it's like watching a Shinto or a Zen.
VH1: Did Clive ever say "This is going to be a monster record?"
Santana: Oh, yeah. I remember being in a Jamba Juice in L.A. and the phone rings and it's, "Mr. Davis wants to talk to you." And he goes, "Congratulations, we just went platinum." All of a sudden, it became like a domino effect. Every week it started going from the ridiculous to 25 times platinum. I can pinch myself 'til I bruise like a banana and I'm not gonna wake up.
VH1: Did you laugh to yourself saying, "I'm 52 and on top of the Billboard charts?"
Santana: No. It was happening so fast I felt like a frog inside a blender. That's why I stopped for almost two years. We stopped at the peak, pulled the plug right after the Grammys, because I didn't want to get a divorce, you know? My family is not for bargaining.
VH1: Describe the impact the success had on your relationship with your wife.
Santana: Total strain, because my wife is the one that's in charge financially, business, morally, ethically. There's so much stuff on her plate that she's, like ten Superwomen. She signs all the checks and I'm living la vida loca over there while she's up to here. Being with my wife and my kids is more important than ten Supernaturals. It was a specific conversation, very clear. There was a lot of pain, a lot of anger. It was like, "Unless you come and help me and we do this thing together like we started, it's over." So I said, "Stop. Pull the plug."
VH1: How were the audiences pre and post Supernatural?
Santana: More children. More older people. People over 60, children under 15, under 12. It's kind of like going to a three-ring circus or something, a positive circus.
VH1: Where were you when you found out about the Grammy nominations?
Santana: I was getting out of the shower and my wife says, "Well, Mr. Grammy Nomination, how does it feel to be nominated for 11?" I said, "What are you talking about? Are you kidding?" Then, the kids started making fun, like, "Well, you'll probably get one, or three, if you're lucky." I said, "Well, I don't care. Whatever happens." I don't think they ever gave one to Bob Marley or Jimi Hendrix, so the rebel in me always felt like it was for certain bourgeois plastic, synthetic people. I don't belong with that kind of people anyway.
VH1: What was Grammy night like for you?
Santana: I felt like a dog retrieving a Frisbee about eight, nine times, whatever it was. After the first one, I went into some kind of shock amnesia thing where I don't remember anything other than the last one when Mr. Bob Dylan and Lauryn Hill pointed at me and said, "You're gonna get it."
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