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Santana - Supernatural Live (1999)

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Santana: Supernatural Live

An all-star evening of concert magic as Santana and special guests play songs from the multi-platinum and Grammy winning "Supernatural" album along with a few old favorites. Filmed before a ... Read all An all-star evening of concert magic as Santana and special guests play songs from the multi-platinum and Grammy winning "Supernatural" album along with a few old favorites. Filmed before a live audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. An all-star evening of concert magic as Santana and special guests play songs from the multi-platinum and Grammy winning "Supernatural" album along with a few old favorites. Filmed before a live audience at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

• Carlos Santana
• Carter Beauford
• CeeLo Green
• 2 User reviews

• (as Cee-Lo)

• (as Everlast)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia This was a Fox TV concert taped on 4/8/2000 and released on DVD later that year.

Carlos Santana : You know, all through life and history many philosophers, women and men, have given us a lot of wonderful words, wisdom. But to me the most important thing that we can offer to one another is to be kind to one another. Treat each other with respect and dignity. Make somebody happy.

User reviews 2

• shmulik-cohen
• Oct 23, 2003
• September 12, 2000 (United States)
• United States
• A Supernatural Evening with Santana
• Pasadena Civic Auditorium - 300 E. Green Street, Pasadena, California, USA
• Angotti Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

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• Runtime 1 hour 28 minutes
• Dolby Stereo

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Santana’s Supernatural was 1999’s most surprisingly successful album

In We’re No. 1 , Steven Hyden examines an album that went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts to get to the heart of what it means to be popular in pop music, and how that concept has changed over the years. In this installment, he covers Santana ’s Supernatural, which went to No. 1 on October 30, 1999, where it stayed for three weeks, on January 22, 2000, where it stayed for three weeks, and February 26, 2000, where it stayed for six weeks.

It’s a given that transience is a major component of popularity in pop music. This is not only perfectly okay, but it’s pretty much how it’s supposed to work. Part of the fun of a hit song is that it’s designed to be enjoyed right now , instantly, so that it might come to define the moment. Whether “Gangnam Style” is a great song is beside the point; years from now, when we look back on 2012, that will be the song that people use in movies and commercials to signify this specific point in time. Nothing changes faster than pop music and hairstyles, which is why they both work equally well as shorthand for eras. “Gangnam Style” exists in a realm outside of good and bad; it’s historical .

Albums are supposed to be different, in that they generally are a little most lasting. Then there’s Santana’s Supernatural , perhaps the most popular LP of the ’90s that absolutely nobody cares about today. When Supernatural was released in the summer of 1999, the record industry was in midst of its “raging bacchanal before the fall of Rome” period. It was impossible to fall out of bed and not sell at least 500,000 records. Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Limp Bizkit, Dixie Chicks, and Creed set the pace for huge multi-platinum sales. Ricky Martin had a No. 1 album in 1999. So did Silkk The Shocker. The specter of Napster was looming, but in the waning days of “paying for music” still being a workable, non-debatable concept, the getting was incredibly good in the record business right up until the bitter end.

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The year’s most surprising success story was undeniably Supernatural. Carlos Santana hadn’t been a viable commercial entity since the early ’70s. The guitarist hadn’t even recorded a new album in seven years, and there didn’t appear to be much demand for one. When Santana approached Clive Davis, the legendary record mogul who had signed him to Columbia Records in 1968, about helping him piece together a collection of songs that would appeal to contemporary pop audiences, Supernatural seemed destined to become one of those mediocre prestige projects that wins an obligatory Grammy and is ignored by the rest of the world.

But Davis—a marketing genius who’s helped to shape the careers of Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Aerosmith, Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, and Kelly Clarkson, among many others—had a simple but clever idea to make Supernatural a hit. Half the record would more or less resemble a typical late-period, lightly jazzy, and predictably polyrhythmic Santana album. The other half would relegate Carlos Santana to guest status on his own record, with a bevy of superstars taking the spotlight and essentially forcing radio to pay attention to Supernatural . So when Dave Matthews appeared on “Love Of My Life,” it could be sold as a Dave Matthews song with Santana occasionally laying down his distinctive guitar licks. Same with “Do You Like The Way,” which featured Lauryn Hill and Cee-Lo Green (who at the time was known only as a member of the cultish rap group Goodie Mob), or the songs with Everlast and Eagle-Eye Cherry, since those were once people that other people were familiar with.

Davis’ idea worked even better than he or Santana could’ve reasonably hoped for: Supernatural went platinum a staggering 15 times in the U.S. and sold 30 million records worldwide. This was due almost entirely to two songs that truly made Supernatural a phenomenon: The Wyclef Jean -assisted “Maria Maria,” which held the No. 1 spot on the singles chart for 10 weeks, and one of the most popular pop songs ever , “Smooth,” with Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas .

Supernatural did two things for Santana’s career, the first of which had an obviously lucrative short-term effect; the other had an equally obvious detrimental long-term effect on how Santana would be subsequently perceived. One, Supernatural made Santana a boatload of money, at a time when he obviously needed it. As he told Rolling Stone in 2000, Santana faced dire financial straits in the early ’90s, and relied on the business assistance of his wife Deborah to get his house in working order. (“I’d probably be a hobo if not for her,” he said.) Supernatural not only remade his career, it made him even more successful than he had been in his early-’70s heyday. Even now, it must be considered the greatest comeback in pop-music history.

But Supernatural did something else as well: It cut Santana off from the rest of his career. If you cared about Santana before Supernatural , you were precisely the audience that Supernatural was intended not to reach. In fact, if you cared about Santana before Supernatural , you probably hated Supernatural. It was Santana’s “Kokomo.” (Which makes Rob Thomas his John Stamos.)

Davis’ intention was to turn Santana into a late-’90s pop-rock artist with a record that epitomized every mainstream pop trend of the moment. And Supernatural achieved that smashingly well. But it also tied Santana—who made legitimately great records in the late ’60s and ’70s—to one of least auspicious periods in pop music ever. Supernatural is truly an unusual beast: A comeback record made by a defining artist of the Woodstock generation that functions as the ultimate mixtape of Clinton-era pop-rock awfulness.

And, truly, it doesn’t get any more awful than “Maria Maria” and “Smooth.” Actually, I’d listen to “Maria Maria” 1,000 times in a row while having my teeth drilled by The Product G&B if it meant never having to hear “Smooth” ever again. My distaste for “Maria Maria” comes from hearing it every 15 minutes in the spring of 2000, when it became one of the biggest songs of the year and then the ’00s, eventually appearing at No. 14 on Billboard ’s Hot 100 Songs Of The Decade list. But the popularity of “Maria Maria” was dwarfed by “Smooth,” a song you can still hear every 15 minutes, mostly on whatever radio station in your town is affixed with the incongruous adjective “cool.” All those millions of copies of Supernatural sold in 1999 and 2000 have long since taken up residence in our nation’s dwindling used-CD stores, but the fun-time, bossanova-cum-heartland rock Muzak of “Smooth” has a carbon half-life of approximately 20,000 years.

“Smooth” was pivotal in the selling of Supernatural and the establishment of Rob Thomas as an inescapable pop-radio chucklehead. At the time Matchbox Twenty was known by the far less distinguished moniker Matchbox 20, and had just one record, 1996’s Yourself Or Someone Like You , to its credit. Singles like “Push” and “3 A.M.” were sizable hits, but nothing on the order of “Smooth,” which Thomas co-wrote (with producer Itaal Shur), stayed at No. 1 for 12 weeks, and later garnered Grammys for Song and Record Of The Year. “Smooth” took Matchbox Twenty’s nice-guy post-grunge and tweaked it just enough with Latin flavor to make it crossover to multiple radio formats. And, sweet Jesus, did this song crossover. When Billboard compiled its list of the most popular songs from its 50-year history earlier this year, “Smooth” was ranked as the No. 1 rock song , just ahead of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude.” On the overall songs list , it was No. 2, right behind Chubby Checker’s “The Twist,” which is the Citizen Kane of lists like this.

Does this mean that “Smooth” is a deathless classic that towers over the most overplayed oldies? Or does this placement underline that “Smooth,” like Supernatural , is a product of the steroids era of pop, when inflated sales statistics skewed the actual reach of the music being made at the time? While Supernatural sold far more copies than any other Santana record, it’s probably the last album that anybody will reach for if they decide to investigate his back catalog. Supernatural was made for a 1999 audience, and that audience can keep it.

Coming up: Jimmy Buffett’s License To Chill

Supernatural by Santana

Album Reviews 1999 Albums , American Artists , California Artists , Santana 0

Buy Supernatural

By the time of Supernatural ‘s production, Santana already had a career that spanned over thirty years, commencing in the mid sixties with spurts of innovation, commercial success, experimentation, decline and hiatus. In 1991, Santana’s record deal with Columbia Records came to an end and subsequent albums on the Polydor/Island labels did not fare well commercially. However, Carlos Santana’s involvement in a 1995 documentary about executive and Arista Records founder Clive Davis (who was at Columbia when Santana was first signed in 1969), led to a deal with Arista .

Supernatural was forged with a desire to produce more radio friendly songs and its sound is a blend of elements that combine “vintage Santana” with contemporary influences from several genres. Along with the plethora of guest performing artists, the twelve original album tracks were put together by a total of thirteen co-producers.

The opener “(Da Le) Yaleo” is a Spanish language song that delves right in with the Carlos Santana signature guitar lead over the fine Latin percussion, with “Love of My Life” instantly changing direction. This second track is driven by the drums of Carter Beauford and topped by a smooth, jazzy arrangement with long, serene keys and good vocals by co-writer and lead vocalist Dave Matthews . The acoustic ballad “Put Your Lights On” slowly builds in arrangement with lyrics of existentialism by Everlast , ultimately making this a minor hit single. “Africa Bamba” follows and features acoustic and electric lead guitars for nice atmosphere.

By far the most popular single from Supernatural was “Smooth”, co-written by Itaal Shur and Rob Thomas and featuring Thomas on lead vocals. The track opens with a definitive Santana lead but eases into a groove of fine rhythms, proficient horn accents, enhanced vocals and overall great production. “Smooth” topped the pop charts (having the distinction of being the number one song when the century ended) and, ultimately, won three Grammy Awards. The next couple tracks have a definitive R&B vibe, Lauryn Hill ‘s hip hop leaning “Do You Like the Way” and “Maria Maria”, another chart-topping and Grammy winning tune produced by Wyclef Jean and Jerry Duplessis .

The album’s second half, while still entertaining, features more repetitive and less groundbreaking songs. “Corazón Espinado” is almost like a Spanish language counterpart to “Smooth”, highlighted by Karl Perazzo on timbales, as “Wishing It Was” is another jazzy Latin ballad, featuring Eagle-Eye Cherry on vocals. The instrumental “El Farol” has plenty of atmosphere to tease out the beauty of Santana’s lead guitar, while “Primavera” is a standard Latin pop track. A highlight of this section of the album is “Migra”, driven by a strong drum beat and wild electric lead throughout, finding space between each vocal track, along with an excellent accordion by K.C. Porter and harmonized trumpets and trombones. “The Calling” is the original album closer, featuring Eric Clapton and starting with a long, Miles Davis like improvised section with Clapton and Santana trading guitar licks before the song proper of electronic drums backing a Gospel-like rendition with vocals by Tony Lindsay and Jeanie Tracy . Hidden within the track is “Day of Celebration”, a shuffle rhythmically, but it maintains a similar Gospel feel of uplift.

At nearly 75 minutes in length, the 1999 original version was a monster-size listening experience in of itself. However, the 2010 Legacy Edition added a second disc of outtakes, remixes and covers, clocking in at over two hours in total length of music. Supernatural went on to win nine Grammy Awards as an album and it sustained its popularity to the degree that it was the the ninth best-selling album of the decade of 2000s, despite being officially released in the 1990s. The album also gave Santana a unique entry into the Guinness book of World Records, as his previous number one album was Santana III in 1971, making the 28 year gap between number one albums for an artist the longest in history.

Part of Classic Rock Review’s celebration of 1999 albums.

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• Song played from tape Woodstock Intro Play Video
• Soul Sacrifice Play Video
• Jin-go-lo-ba ( Babatunde Olatunji  cover) Play Video
• Evil Ways / A Love Supreme Play Video
• (Da le) Yaleo Play Video
• Put Your Lights On Play Video
• She's Not There ( The Zombies  cover) Play Video
• Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen Play Video
• Oye cómo va ( Tito Puente  cover) Play Video
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• Total Destruction to Your Mind ( Swamp Dogg  cover) Play Video
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• Toussaint L'Ouverture Play Video
• Foo Foo Play Video
• Corazón espinado Play Video
• Are You Ready ( The Chambers Brothers  cover) Play Video
• Song played from tape Sentient Sphere Play Video
• Smooth Play Video
• Love, Peace and Happiness ( The Chambers Brothers  cover) Play Video

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Santana's Timeless Rock Hits: A Look Back at the Legendary Guitarist

Dive into the iconic career of santana, from classics to collaborations..

Santana's track featuring Rob Thomas turns 25 this week. Why is it still a rock blockbuster? The enduring popularity of Santana's collaboration with Rob Thomas on "Smooth" can be attributed to its infectious melody, soulful guitar riffs, and timeless appeal. The song's fusion of rock, pop, and Latin influences resonated with audiences around the world, earning it multiple Grammy Awards and a permanent place in music history.

Glee was one of the most groundbreaking TV shows of all time and changed the way media portrays gay characters and the way American... Santana's music was featured on the hit TV show "Glee," introducing a new generation to the band's classic hits and showcasing their enduring appeal. Santana's signature guitar sound and Latin-infused rock melodies added a unique flavor to the show's soundtrack, further solidifying their status as music legends.

'I like to make women happy. I don't play for guys': That time Carlos Santana made an album of classic rock covers including songs by AC/DC and... Carlos Santana's bold decision to release an album of classic rock covers, including songs by iconic bands like AC/DC, showcased his versatility as a musician and his willingness to experiment with different genres. The album's success proved that Santana's music transcends boundaries and continues to captivate audiences of all ages.

Juelz Santana, veteran Harlem, New York rapper is back with his first single in a while with 'Score', which just got a new music video. Juelz Santana's return to the music scene with his latest single "Score" demonstrates his enduring talent and creativity as a rapper. The new music video showcases Santana's unique style and lyrical prowess, reaffirming his status as a veteran artist in the hip-hop industry.

Santana will return to the road this summer with Counting Crows on the Oneness Tour. The shows start on June 14 in Hollywood, Florida, marking Santana's highly anticipated return to live performances after a hiatus. The Oneness Tour promises to be a memorable experience for fans, featuring a lineup of iconic songs and electrifying performances from Santana and Counting Crows.

When Santana released their 1999 album Supernatural, the band had not had a Top-40 hit or a Gold or Platinum album in 17 years. Santana's groundbreaking album "Supernatural" marked a career resurgence for the band, propelling them back into the spotlight with a string of chart-topping hits and Grammy Awards. The album's commercial success and critical acclaim solidified Santana's status as one of the greatest rock bands of all time.

Tim McGraw named a spicy Santana song from 1970 that his uncle introduced him to as his 'special song' with wife Faith Hill. Tim McGraw's personal connection to Santana's music highlights the universal appeal and emotional resonance of the band's songs. Santana's music has the power to bring people together and create lasting memories, as evidenced by McGraw's special song with his wife Faith Hill.

The Aztec deity of rain doesn't appear on Santana's new album 'Blessings & Miracles' for nothing: Carlos Santana believes we can be happy, healed and... Santana's latest album "Blessings & Miracles" reflects his spiritual beliefs and positive message of healing and happiness. The album's themes of gratitude, resilience, and hope resonate with listeners, offering a sense of comfort and inspiration in challenging times.

GRAMMY-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist Carlos Santana alongside GRAMMY and Academy Award-nominated rock band Counting Crows... The collaboration between Carlos Santana and Counting Crows highlights the power of music to transcend genres and bring together diverse musical talents. Santana's legendary guitar skills combined with Counting Crows' soulful melodies create a dynamic and unforgettable musical experience for fans of both artists.

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The Tao of ‘Smooth,’ Rock’s Enduring, Inescapable Earworm

Santana’s track featuring Rob Thomas turns 25 this week. Why is it still a rock blockbuster?

By Rob Tannenbaum

“To really appreciate ‘Smooth,’ you have to embrace how cheesy ‘Smooth’ is,” Rob Thomas said. “It’s right in your face.”

The singer’s voice dropped into a silky baritone, as if he were channeling an infomercial announcer, or a late-night radio D.J. “Man, it’s a hot one,” he crooned, dramatically reciting the song’s opening lyric.

“Smooth” was a centerpiece of “Supernatural ,” the 1999 comeback album by Santana and its leader, Carlos Santana. The Mexico-born guitarist’s band had been revered as an innovative force in music since its 1969 debut and had several rock radio standards in its repertoire, including “Evil Ways,” “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Como Va.” But Santana hadn’t placed a single in the Top 40 since 1982, and with Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and Christina Aguilera dominating the charts, there didn’t seem to be much demand for a 51-year-old guitar hero.

The Arista Records head Clive Davis plotted “Supernatural” for maximum commercial effect, and paired the band with younger artists, including Lauryn Hill, Dave Matthews and Thomas, whose pop-rock band, Matchbox Twenty, had just scored a remarkable four smash singles on its first album, “Yourself or Someone Like You .”

Davis’s machinations worked: “Smooth” hit No. 1 in October and held the position for 12 weeks, into 2000. But the track’s zombie afterlife is what most distinguishes “Smooth.” It spawned an inexplicably funny meme via T-shirts that read, in full, “I’d Rather Be Listening to the Grammy Award-Winning 1999 Hit Smooth by Santana Feat. Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty off the Multi-platinum Album Supernatural . ” Through the end of last month, it had been played 1.8 million times on U.S. radio, translating to an audience reach of 13.2 billion, according to data from Luminate. On a recent week alone, it was heard on the airwaves by 5.2 million people.

You can buy Thomas and Santana action figures on Etsy or find a video of “Smooth” sung in the style of the B-52’s. When the sun explodes and human life expires, only cockroaches will remain, and those roaches will build a radio station and keep “Smooth” in heavy rotation.

“We recorded it in one take,” Santana remembered, “and in the middle of the take, time stopped and I entered into a vortex. I was like, ‘Uh-oh. This is big.’”

Billboard has named it the third most popular song since 1958, as measured by weighted chart positions. It trails “Blinding Lights,” a pop-R&B track by the Weeknd, and Chubby Checker’s “The Twist,” which (sorry, Mr. Checker) is a novelty song. In other words, “Smooth” is the most successful rock song. Of. All. Time.

“The subject forever hangs outside of time — it’s the lover and the beloved,” Santana said in a phone interview from Las Vegas, where he has a long-running residency at House of Blues. “Love is something we need a lot on the radio. Everywhere you turn, there’s more Exorcist movies, more Satan, more Lucifer.”

The bioengineered song was written by a onetime acid jazz musician named Itaal Shur, but Santana didn’t like the lyrics, so Thomas “got a little high,” he said, and wrote new words and melodies. Then he and Shur reworked it, layering hook upon hook. Thomas has always said he wrote “Smooth” about Marisol Maldonado, a Queens-born model of Puerto Rican descent to whom he’s been married since 1999.

“There’s something magical about our relationship,” Thomas said of his wife during a lively video interview from his home in Westchester County. “We think of ourselves as a great love story.”

But, Thomas revealed, he began the lyrics by writing not about Maldonado, but about Carlos Santana. Much of the chorus — “You’re so smooth,” and “It’s just like the ocean under the moon” — were inspired by how he viewed the guitarist. “That was all about Carlos. But I didn’t want a song where I’m singing to him, so I reframed it. ‘Smooth’ was written to put up a banner saying, ‘This is the love that I have.’”

Nearly every song on “Supernatural” was a guajira, an Afro-Cuban rhythm “put together to make lovers get it on,” Santana said. “There’s nothing more sensuous or delicious than a guajira. It drives women crazy.”

The arrangement of “Smooth” includes congas, timbales, a cowbell and a guiro, instruments widely associated with Latin music. But Santana scoffed at the suggestion that the song has a Latin feel: “‘Latin’ is a word that came from Hollywood, for Latin lovers like Fernando Lamas and Cesar Romero. It’s just African rhythms. My music is 90 percent African.”

While “Smooth” benefited from a tailwind created by the success of stars like Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, one of the reasons it’s been so durable is its centerpiece: the guitar.

The track almost immediately jumps into a snaking, distorted lick from Santana that sits high in the mix. “It’s structured around the star of the song, which is Carlos,” Thomas said. “The guitar is the main event.” Among other things, “Smooth” is one of the final vestiges of how songs were written in the rock era. “Twenty five years ago, song structure was so different than pop radio is now,” he added. “Songs are shorter, there aren’t a lot of bridges and there aren’t really any guitar solos.”

Thomas’s phrasing in the pre-chorus (“And if you said, ‘This life ain’t good enough’”) is slyly compelling because it’s nearly a run-on sentence. His unusual syncopation, which Thomas said is more like a horn line than a vocal, makes him sound breathless with excitement. The effect is ardent and earnest, rather than cool. “I am fueled by uncool,” he confirmed.

Santana and Thomas both benefited tremendously from “Smooth.” “Supernatural” has sold more than 15 million copies in the United States and won a record nine Grammys , surpassing even Michael Jackson’s “Thriller .” And, Thomas has said, people no longer stopped him on the street to ask, with confused looks on their faces, if he was the singer in the Goo Goo Dolls or Third Eye Blind.

The two collaborators, born 25 years apart, have very different personalities. Santana is a transcendentalist who speaks in poetic metaphors and says things like “God is my agent” and “Since I was born, I’ve been ordained and I’ve been anointed.”

“Everything Carlos says feels like a song lyric,” Thomas noted.

On the other hand, Thomas is a sentimentalist with a free spirit and a ready laugh that accompanies stories about singing “Smooth” at karaoke or with a wedding band. As rock stars go, he’s the Mick Jagger of making fun of himself, and he even has an anecdote about the time Jagger suggested he change out of an ugly blue shirt he was wearing, but Thomas didn’t immediately get the hint.

He and Santana stay in touch by phone and have discussed other collaborations. “We talk all the time about doing a tour together. There are at least five or six different albums he wants us to do together,” Thomas said. The next step would be for him to visit Santana in Hawaii and write.

“We can sit on the beach, drink tequila, smoke hashish and come up with mediocre pop songs that will last forever,” he said with a knowing laugh.

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Santana reflects on 'Smooth,' Bob Marley ties and career ahead of Ruoff show

In the days before my call with Carlos Santana , I spent a lot of time convincing myself I'd be totally cool.   

And I was! Really! Until Santana, the man whose Woodstock performance I watched dozens of times as a teenager, when ‘60s rock became my entire personality, greeted me with a cheery “Hi, hi.”

But I had a plan. I knew generally what I wanted to talk about ahead of the 76-year-old guitar god's June 23 stop at Ruoff Music Center : his upcoming tour and the 25 th anniversary of his smash album, “Supernatural.” Just work your plan, Holly, and it'll work for you.

So, after over-enthusiastically asking him how he was doing (“Grateful and happy”), I launched right into the important question: In the trajectory of your career, can you tell me about the significance of “Supernatural” and its lead single, “Smooth,” featuring Rob Thomas?

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

Palm, meet forehead.

Some context here: "Supernatural" was, in fact, magical for Santana's career. That album earned his band eight Grammys, plus Song of the Year for Thomas and his "Smooth" cowriter. And I'm a Young Millennial, the generation for whom that song eventually became a beloved meme . There's no denying the track slaps, but it belongs to the internet now. In 2013, The Onion satirically reported the song had swept the Grammys for 13 consecutive years. People were actually buying white T-shirts that said "I'd Rather Be Listening to the Grammy-Award Winning 1999 Hit Smooth By Santana Feat. Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty," in Times New Roman.

Hence my deep cringe as soon as the words left my mouth. You could've started with anything, Holly, but you started with "Smooth." Chill.

But, in very Santana fashion, he immediately launched into a metaphor about his career and the sun.

"Once in a while you see a flare up, which is (the 1970 album) ‘Abraxas,’ or Woodstock, or ‘Supernatural,’” he said. “And all of them have to do with just being grateful. Show up and be willing to complement whatever is in front of you.”

Leave it to Carlos Santana to remind me to pause for gratitude.

That’s what he’s trying to do for all of us with the Oneness Tour , a 29-show run that kicked off June 14 with support from ‘90s rockers Counting Crows .  

Dave Matthews, Creed and the New Kids: All the acts coming to Ruoff Music Center this summer

"I am aligned with the same principles and values as Bob Marley, you know, one love,” he said. “Whether we like it or not, we really are all one. So, when you come to a Santana concert, you actually feel totality and absoluteness and one note, and people start dancing, crying, laughing. It's kind of like a revival."

Next week marks the band's first return to the Noblesville amphitheater in two years. That show was derailed by a last-minute postponement , when the then-74-year-old artist called off the show minutes after supporting act Earth, Wind & Fire left the stage. The week before, he'd collapsed onstage in Michigan and had been hospitalized for heat exhaustion. He returned to a nearly sold-out crowd at Ruoff weeks later.

At his performances, Santana tries to cultivate an environment where people don’t feel ashamed or embarrassed of their desire for connection and love.

"Santana's music creates that atmosphere, that it's OK — it's actually more than OK, it's medicine — to validate your humanness,” he said.

With “Supernatural” turning 25, fans can expect to hear it featured heavily on the setlist, along with other favorites. This year also marks another milestone: 55 years since that iconic Woodstock performance.

It’s been a long career, but a happy one, he said.

"I always go to ground zero in my heart, which is gratitude, deep appreciation and thankfulness,” he said, “and then all of a sudden it just feels like the universe just opens up with an avalanche of abundance, and I receive more.”

Santana is still trying to remind us all that disconnection and divisiveness breed discontent: “The more you share, the more you receive.”

“I know it sounds very hippie to a lot of people,” Santana said, “but that's who I am."

Santana and Counting Crows at Ruoff Music Center

When: 7 p.m. June 23.

Where: Ruoff Music Center, 12880 E. 146th St. in Noblesville.

Tickets and more: livemu.sc/3yBL5Gh

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Contact IndyStar pop culture reporter Holly Hays at [email protected]. Follow her on X/Twitter: @hollyvhays.