If guitarist Carlos Santana seems relaxed, even buoyant these days, there’s a very human answer: He’s in love.
The divorced, Mexican-born music legend (he moved to San Francisco as a teenager) has found a new love. “It’s wonderful to understand that I don’t have to touch the ground right now,” he says. As for her identity, “You’re not cleared to have that information yet,” he says with a laugh.
Santana does have a lot to say about his forthcoming solo album, “Guitar Heaven,” cover versions of famous rock songs done with guest singers, which he was coaxed to do by longtime mentor and music titan Clive Davis. Even though it’s the same formula that fueled his wildly successful 1999 “Supernatural” album, it took some persuading.
“I was afraid to touch the Mona Lisas,” the guitarist explains. ” ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps,’ ‘Sunshine of Your Love,’ ‘Whole Lotta Love,’ ‘Riders on the Storm,’ ‘Back in Black.’ ” But Davis convinced Santana that he could do it, “that there’s genuineness in the pristine clarity of purpose that I would complement. I know the music and who recorded the songs. They know I wouldn’t do something inappropriate.”
Davis chose the singer for each song, among them Joe Cocker (on Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”), Nas (“Back in Black”) and his “Smooth” collaborator Rob Thomas (“Sunshine of Your Love”).
“There’s a pristine balance in when to trust the Holy Ghost in people, to receive a present,” says Santana of his trust in Davis.
“When someone offers me a present like ‘Supernatural’ or Woodstock, all you have to do is get the hell out of your own way!”
Santana’s rendition of “Soul Sacrifice” at Woodstock was a highlight of the famed 1969 festival. It was before the world knew about Santana via “Evil Ways,” “Abraxas” and “Black Magic Woman.”
Santana is honest about the back story. “I was definitely at the highest point of mescaline/LSD or whatever it was that I took,” Santana admits. “I remember asking, ‘God, please help me stay in tune and stay in time, and I promise I won’t do it again.’ Of course, I broke my promise. But at least my intentions were good.”
Santana’s music, with its then- exotic Latin elements and African rhythms, excited audiences in 1969-70. Today it probably would be relegated by corporate radio to the dusty “world music” bin.
“We didn’t have what we have now, little cookie cutter compartmentalizing,” he says. “We had Billie Holiday and Mahalia Jackson and Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson . . . human music, on this planet.”
Santana’s own influences on the guitar are, refreshingly, all over the map. “Definitely the Kings — Freddie King, B.B. King, Albert King,” Santana says. “And before that, the root, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Jimmy Reed. Then as I got sophisticated, I went toward T-Bone Walker. When I got to San Francisco, my whole consciousness changed, because this was ground zero for consciousness expansion.”
