1 THE BIG INTERVIEW Episode Number: 302 Episode Title: Carlos Santana Description: From Las Vegas, Dan Rather catches up with music legend Carlos Santana. ACT 1 DAN RATHER (VOICE OVER) WHEN IT COMES TO ROCK STARS, IT’S USUALLY THE LEAD SINGER WHO STEALS THE STAGE...BUT WHEN YOU PLAY GUITAR LIKE THIS...IT’S EASY TO SEE WHY THE SMOOTH AND SULTRY SOUNDS OF CARLOS SANTANA HAVE MADE HIM A SUPERSTAR... Evil Ways BY CARLOS SANTANA (SOUND CLIP) You’ve got to change your evil ways… RATHER (VOICE OVER) FROM HIS FIRST HIT SINGLE, EVIL WAYS IN 1969... TO HIS MEGA-HIT MARIA MARIA 3 DECADES LATER, CARLOS SANTANA TREASURES EACH AND EVERY ONE OF HIS SONGS... SANTANA Each one is my first French kiss. It’s that personal and that intimate. Each one. From the first note-- (SIGHING) and then there they go (SIGHING). RATHER (VOICE OVER) THE PASSIONATE… THE SPIRITUAL… THE UNIQUE CARLOS SANTANA… TONIGHT… ON THE BIG INTERVIEW. ACT 2 RATHER (VOICE OVER) THE RICH LATIN, BLUES AND JAZZ INFUSED SOUND OF CARLOS SANTANA IS UNMISTAKABLE… 2 BEFORE “WORLD MUSIC” WAS A CATEGORY OR “CROSSOVER ARTIST” WAS A TERM, CARLOS SANTANA’S UNIVERSAL APPEAL WAS OBVIOUS. TODAY THIS INTERNATIONAL SUPERSTAR IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE GREATEST GUITARISTS OF ALL TIME....AND OVER 40 YEARS INTO HIS CAREER, HE’S STILL PUTTING OUT NEW SONGS AND BEING HONORED BY THE MUSIC WORLD. YOU MIGHT SAY MUSIC IS INGRAINED IN CARLOS SANTANA. BORN IN THE SMALL TOWN OF AUTLAN, MEXICO, HE FOLLOWED IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HIS FATHER, GRANDFATHER AND GREAT-GRANDFATHER, PICKING UP INSTRUMENTS AT A YOUNG AGE. HE CUT HIS TEETH PLAYING GUITAR IN THE STRIP-CLUBS OF TIJUANA. SANTANA Oh, okay… RATHER (VOICE OVER) RECENTLY, HE RELEASED HIS CANDID AUTOBIOGRAPHY THE UNIVERSAL TONE. IN IT HE TALKS ABOUT SOME OF THE DARKEST PARTS OF HIS LIFE INCLUDING BEING SEXUALLY ABUSED BY AN AMERICAN MAN AS A CHILD… AND HIS DIVORCE FROM HIS WIFE OF 34 YEARS. BUT THIS DEEPLY SPIRITUAL MUSICIAN ACKNOWLEDGES THERE’S MUCH MORE TO CELEBRATE THAN TO MOURN WHEN IT COMES TO LOOKING BACK ON HIS LIFE. HIS FAMILY IMMIGRATED TO THE UNITED STATES WHEN SANTANA WAS A TEEN - LANDING HIM IN THE EPICENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO’S HIPPIE CULTURE. THE SPIRIT OF THE TIME MADE AN IMPACT ON HIS MUSIC AND HIS UNFORGETTABLE APPEARANCE AT WOODSTOCK CATAPULTED HIM INTO STARDOM. SINCE THEN HE’S SOLD OVER 100 MILLION RECORDS... WON 10 GRAMMY AWARDS... 3 LATIN GRAMMYS... AND WAS INDUCTED INTO THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME. AND 4 YEARS AGO HE MARRIED THE WOMAN HE CALLS HIS “SOUL MATE,” ACCOMPLISHED DRUMMER, CINDY BLACKMAN. 3 WE MET UP WITH CARLOS SANTANA AT THE HOUSE OF BLUES IN LAS VEGAS. OUR CAMERAS WERE ALLOWED IN FOR A RARE GLIMPSE OF SOUND CHECK AS SANTANA AND HIS BAND PUT THE FINAL TOUCHES ON THEIR SHOW BEFORE OPENING NIGHT. RATHER Well, listen, I’ve been listening to you this afternoon and you’re terrific. KEYBOARD PLAYER Thank you. Thank you so much. MANAGER Dan, Carlos Santana RATHER How are you? SANTANA It’s an honor to meet you. RATHER Pleasure to meet you and thank you so much for doing this. SANTANA Thank you. RATHER I don't know how you do it. You play all afternoon, you play all night. (LAUGH) What-- SANTANA 4 Well, this is joy. You know, jo -- joy is not labor or anything like that or a job. It's-- it's-- more like an offering. You know? And the more you get into it from your heart the less you feel gravity and time and mischief or grief or anything like that. You know? Those things disappear. RATHER Well, I-- I read you. How do you get in the mindset to do that? You rehearse a great deal in the afternoon, work really hard and then you come back at night. How do you get your head up here on the stage to give it everything for the audience? SANTANA Well, thank you for asking that. You know, it-- it's-- there's two words that create a lot of energy. There's-- there's willingness to allow and allow willingness. I've been doin' this since I was a child and-- and-- and for-- for me this-- this is-- you take a deep breath and you trust that you can create thrust. RATHER And it works. SANTANA And it works. And then once we get our-- once we get chills from each other, then they're gonna get chills and then we're gonna make it memorable for them, because we're not into s-- we're not into disposable sound bytes. We-- we-- we like to make things memorable. You know? Think of the most memorable interview you ever done where-- where you go home and say, "Damn, that was great timing and great questions." There-- RATHER This is gonna be one of 'em. (LAUGHTER) RATHER (VOICE OVER) WATCHING SANTANA AT SOUNDCHECK IT WAS CLEAR THAT WHILE HE HAS FUN MAKING MUSIC HE ALSO TAKES IT VERY SERIOUSLY...HE OFTEN STEPS IN TO WORK WITH MEMBERS OF HIS BAND TO GET THE SOUND HE’S LOOKING FOR EXACTLY RIGHT… 5 RATHER By the way, I know something I want to ask. I've never seen you play the drums. SANTANA Oh yeah. You know, once in a while I--it's just for a point of reference that-- that I-- it's like a chef that-- that might ask the other chefs, "Put a little bit more oregano or onions," or somethin', you know? Because I just don't want things to sound bland and repetitious. I want it to constantly sound like-- you know, like your-- your first date and you're constantly touching and kissing and everything and it's always mounting. I want it to always mount. I want it to stay flat with sameness and predictable. RATHER Well, you talked about inspiring the audience. One of the things you want to do is inspire the audience. How do you stay inspired? You've done this thousands of times. SANTANA Yes. I-- you know, the best way to-- to-- to do one thing is to do the other and then you get this-- this thing. For example, it's impossible to be happy unless you are grateful first. So once-- once I started saying, “thank you for the shirt and thank you for the watch and thank you for my guitar and thank you for the food, thank you that the house is paid, thank you that people-- it sold out. Thank…”-- you know, the more you started thinking gratitude, the bigger the smile gets-- because the opposite of gratitude is negative entitlement and when people give you everything, at that point it's not enough. So then-- then I don't wanna be that. I-- I rather say, "Go back to when you were five years old and they give you the first roll of tickets to go to Disneyland and-- and-- and take all (LAUGH) the rides for free." You know that kind of thing? You know? So it's-- it's-- it's-- RATHER So this really strikes-- this resonates with me and I'll tell you why. My maternal grandmother, who lived a rural life in another age, was fond of saying-- and forgive her grammar, "We is above average blessed." You and I are above average blessed. SANTANA 6 That's wonderful. I-- I totally relate to that. It-- it-- it-- it means you're very present and conscious with appreciation. You know, and-- and that for me is-- is-- and what keeps everything away from gravity or time or fear. Those are the three enemies of musicians. Gravity. You want it off the ground. Time. (MAKES NOISE) You know, you gotta get rid of the time. And-- when you go into that place where it-- it's just a juicy big now. You know? (LAUGH) RATHER And that's what we have here. A juicy big now. SANTANA A juicy big now. (Da Le) Yaleo BY CARLOS SANTANA (SOUND CLIP) Yaleo, yaleo, yaleo yaleo… RATHER (VOICE OVER) I’LL BE BACK WITH MORE OF MY INTERVIEW WITH CARLOS SANTANA IN JUST A MOMENT. ACT 3 Tequila (The Champs Cover) BY CARLOS SANTANA (SOUND CLIP) Tequila! Tequila primera gente... RATHER Well you're opening at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. And I'm reminded that originally the band was called Santana’s (CLUNKING)---Blues Band. SANTANA Santana Blues Band. Uh-huh (AFFIRM). RATHER 7 Were you the leader of that band? SANTANA No, at that time there was no leader. It was mainly-- we-- we were all kind of like an organ-- livin' organism. I think I became a leader because everything that happened led me to-- to say, "Someone has to be the spiritual adult of this situation and take-- as they say, take the bull by the horns or-- or take responsibility or something." You know because after a while we are-- we all-- it-- it happens to all the bands. After a while-- other things became more important than the sacredness of the music. And-- and I-- and I was trying to-- as much as I could-- maintain diligence of consistency with honoring the music rather than the high of cocaine or this or that, you know? I wanted us not to be so distracted with the outside stimuli. 'Cause when you're inspired, man, you don't need none of that stuff.