Getting to see Carlos Santana is a very humbling experience. Over 4 decades in the Music Industry and still going strong, he has only good things to say about his life and his passion. Here is how the press conference went down (Note: we have questions from Eight Octaves as well as from the fellow media)

Santana: Firstly, I would like to say that I am very grateful to God. He allows this grateful opportunity to visit this great country. The real connection for me to this country come from the 60s where musicians like Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar showed the musicians in America that there is another way to represent spirituality in music. I was introduced to the beauty of spiritual principles. Today I am able to see with my own eyes and I want to connect from my heart to your heart and remind you that we are one.

Q: You have shared the stage with some of the finest musicians across continents. Could you share some of those moments with us?

Santana: Well I think that one of the highlights of my life is playing on stage with the supreme genius Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John Mclaughlin, Stevie Ray Vaughn and B.B. King because I am a child of multiplicity, not just a one trick pony. We love all the colors of the rainbow.

Q: Starting out in the days of Woodstock 69’ how do you feel your music has changed over the years?

Santana: I think today, because of the advantage or you could day disadvantage of technology and computer, music has lost some of its charm. I hear about people here who play music with such discipline. Ali Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar were very disciplined and focused. This is the difference. Musicians from the past, were more focused. When you are more focused, you become a genius. A person who makes music with computers, well, that’s not genius. You know, just because you sell a lot of records and know computers, that does not mean you are a music genius. A genius musician is like Bob Marley. You connect with your heart. You make people dance, make people laugh and uplift them.
Such people today, are very few. There are a lot of entertainers and business men, but not musicians.
Music is something completely different.

Q: Who are your favorite artists?

Santana: Oh, lets see. John Coltrane, Bob Marley, Miles Davis. Ali Akhbar Khan, Ravi Shankar and Zakir Hussain from India.

Q: Would you like to collaborate with Indian Musicians?

Santana: My heart is open, to work.. no not to work. What we do is not work. It is sharing. I am open to collaborate and share.

Q: Would you consider music to be your form of spirituality?

Santana: Yes. Music is harmony and unity. There is a balance of male and female in music. Melody is female. Rhythm is male. What a wonderful combination.

Q: Tell us about music that helped you shape up as a musician.

Santana: The music that I listened to while I was growing up was my father’s music. When I was a child I just wanted to learn the blues, you know… John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed, B.B king because I felt that the Blues is a very honest and pure way to connect. For example, John Lee Hooker’s Mmm, mmm, mmm… and everybody understood.

Q: Are you still definitive on your stance that “Drug use damages musicality”?

Santana: Well, there’s drugs and then there ‘s medicine. Humans make drugs in a laboratory  which, imprison men for example, heroine, crack, cocaine. But nature, through photosynthesis tells the plants what color, flavor and aroma to spread. When these plants dry and you turn them into tea and tea is not a drug, it’s a medicine. If you drink the right tea, it helps your kidney, liver and heart so, I always say that there’s a big difference between drugs and medicine.

Q: In 1975, you said that, “guitarists bore me to tears”. Do you still believe that or is there someone in the current soundscape who has caught your attention?

Santana: I’d like to crystallize that statement. When a person plays piano and makes it sound like a piano, I don’t like it. When a person plays guitar and makes it sound like a guitar, I don’t like it. When a person plays piano and it sounds like life, I like it!

When a guitarist makes the instrument sound like a woman singing, or even life, I like it! I just don’t like a bunch of chords or scales. I wanna hear life not just notes. That’s why I say that I don’t listen to guitar players, I say that I listen to John Maclaughlin, John Hart or Gypsy guitar players because they don’t make it sound like a guitar, they make it sound like life!

Q: It is an honor for the fans in Bangalore to see a performance by someone who has played in the Woodstock of ’69. What are your comments on this?

Santana: Well, thank you for asking that question. We play for over three hours sometimes so we go over the songs of yesterday, today and tomorrow and we do honor the widest song range that people find memorable.

Q: What was the first guitar that you picked up?

Santana: I played my first electric guitar in Tijuana (Mexico) when I was twelve and someone said that they had a “hot” guitar. In other words, it was stolen and it was really cheap but solid guitar. A Melodymaker.