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Cape Town – Music icon Carlos Santana is coming back to South Africa and will perform on 11 April 2018 at Cape Town Stadium; on Friday, 13 April in Durban at The ICC Arena and then finally on 14 April 2018 at the Ticketpro Dome in Joburg. Buy tickets here.
The guitar virtuoso’s special guests will be local greats Mango Groove.
WATCH A VIDEO OF THE ARTIST PERFORMING HIS HIT MARIA MARIA, LIVE HERE:
Ahead of his local tour Carlos spoke to Channel24 about what brings him back to the Rainbow Nation, who his favourite African musicians are and what inspires him to keep making amazing music.
The legend, who previously toured South Africa in 2014, also spoke about DJ Khaled's song Wild Thoughts - which samples his song, Maria Maria (see above) - and told us what he always takes on tour and why.
HERE’S CHANNEL24'S INTERVIEW WITH CARLOS SANTANA:
What made him come back to South Africa:
I need to constantly come home and reconnect with my people. I was born in Mexico and raised in the United States, but my home is in Africa. I need that for my spirit and for my soul. Something in me recognises that everything was given birth to in Africa (it is) the cradle of civilisation. I really believe in my heart and in spirit that Africa is what people call the garden of Eden. So, when I come to Africa I feel like I connect to the music and it’s very tangible and vibrant. The music from Africa is the future for this planet. Because the music is a healing frequency and a healing force, and we need this healing force to heal the fever of fear that is permeating the planet so much today.
What African music and artists he loves:
Well, I love all of it and I especially love Fela and Sam Kuti. I love all of them - Angelique Kedjoe, Brenda Fassie, Baba Maal; I love them all. I know who they are, they know who I am, and they trust me. When I come to Africa I can play with all of them because I am built to compliment, never to compete or compare, always to compliment. So, when I come to Africa I am not a tourist.
What motivates one of the most famous artists in the world to keep performing and recording after so many years:
Thank you for asking that. I have a yearning and I aspire and desire and I love to be a force like Bob Marley and John Lennon and Mandela and Desmond Tutu. I want to utilise music to bring unity, to bring hope and courage. To wake people up from their nightmare of being a wretched sinner or from the idea of not being worthy of God’s grace. Those things are what Bob Marley called mental slavery and when you’re liberated from mental slavery you cry, and you laugh at the same time. And you realise that you also are angelic, and you are a beam of light and you can create miracles and blessings; with effective, tangible results, this is not hocus pocus or mambo jumbo. You see those words were created by cynical, non-believers from England, there was actually a real king called 'Mambo Jumbo'. Yeah, so when people are sceptical they say, ‘oh it’s just mambo jumbo’ but he was as real as Bob Marley or John Lennon. He was a real person and a lot of people don’t know that, but I do. He was a doctor, he was a healer.
What Carlos takes on tour with him, around the world:
I bring candles, I bring incense, I bring Coltrane; I love Supreme. I bring music that reminds me that I was more than what I was programmed to believe when I was a child. You know before you were born and I was born something was given to you and as soon as you come out the womb they programme you to believe that you are limited and that you are a sinner and God who is really mighty, God doesn’t recognise sin, that’s an invention from a crooked, crooked mind to enslave people’s minds. It’s a very deceiving concept, when we tell our children, ‘we’re immutable, we’re impeccable’ and you can create miracles and blessings, that gives us the right frequency to teach our children. The concept of self-sacrifice and sin is very, very primitive and very, very non-productive. And that’s how John Lennon got in trouble along with Bob Marley and myself because a lot of people make a lot of money enslaving people and making them believe that they are less than. And then there you are, feeling sorry for yourself, thinking you have to go to them to get to heaven. When we play music we go to heaven immediately, you know because our music has a frequency of unity. I have learnt that music is a gift just like S-E-X. S-E-X is an incredible beautiful gift. Both S-E-X and music are incredible gifts from God so that we can feel. And that’s the key word, feel, in totality. And it’s not a dirty thing, it’s a beautiful, elegant thing. So, anyway, I look forward to coming to Africa because it’s a language that I need to constantly renew. 
What he thinks of DJ Khaled’s hit song, Wild Thoughts, which utilises his track, Maria, Maria:
Oh, he called me up and asked my permission, so I was very grateful, I am looking forward to working with him in the future. And it’s all good, it’s all really, really good. We look forward to co-creating something in the future.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR THAT SONG HERE:
