Carlos Santana: ‘Very moved’ by outpouring of love after medical scare onstage at Pine Knob
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Carlos Santana said he gained some valuable perspective following an alarming mid-concert incident last July at Pine Knob Music Theatre.
The 75-year-old guitar star spent a night hospitalized at McLaren Clarkston after abruptly cutting short his concert and lying down onstage amid a dizzy spell — a moment that quickly went viral and had fans worldwide on edge for hours.
Santana, it turns out, was severely dehydrated following a bout with food poisoning, and he returned to the road two weeks later to finish his 2022 itinerary with no issues. Now, as he prepares to embark on another round of summer shows, including a June 29 Pine Knob return as part of his 1001 Rainbows Tour, the guitarist says he’s feeling strong and energized.
Still, Santana said he was “very moved” by the outpouring of public well-wishes last July, and with the recent deaths of friends Jeff Beck and Burt Bacharach, the moment at Pine Knob has refueled his sense of creative purpose.
“They transitioned to the next side. I'm still here and I'm very, very grateful. I have more energy than before,” he said. “I have more determination to go 150% with my boots on. We're not the kind of people that are gonna do rope-a-dope or coast. We're there to do one thing, and that's to invite people to accept that everyone is destined for greatness.”
Feeling revved up and ready to play, Santana said he refuses to buy into a victim mentality, quoting a line from Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”: “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.”
“Any institution that tries to program you that you're not worthy of God's grace and you're gonna go to hell forever and da-da-da-da-da?” he said. “Well, you know, I don't wanna be scared. I don't want to be scared into heaven, you know? I want to be loved into heaven.”
Santana cleared up some of the details about last summer’s onstage situation, pushing back on reports that contended he had dramatically collapsed onstage.
He said had arrived in Michigan drained from food poisoning the night prior in Chicago. He spent the day vomiting, unable to keep down food or drink, but even with temperatures in the upper 80s that evening in Clarkston, he was “stubborn” about keeping the gig.
“I was determined to go on stage and play,” he says. “And I was doing pretty good until I wasn't. I just ran out of energy.”
About a dozen songs into the set, Santana suddenly felt “very dizzy and empty.”
“I went onstage to play with the energy that I love to play with, but I just ran out of gas,” he recounted. “It was like: ‘You know, I think you better lay down.’ Because it's like anything else, when your car or your phone runs down to zero on the batteries.”
Santana said it was the only such incident he’s suffered during his lengthy onstage career — a journey that started at San Francisco’s Fillmore in the mid-‘60s, blossomed onstage at Woodstock, and has kept him a headlining fixture since for fans drawn to his warm, Latin-flavored licks and genre-fusing songs.
His 2023 schedule will kick off in May with shows in New Orleans, Dallas and Houston, while the 1001 Rainbows run will officially launch June 21 in Newark. His June 29 Pine Knob show will be his 30th at the venue, ranking him among the most prolific performers in the amphitheater’s half-century history.
Santana has long embraced a spiritual, conscious take on music, confident in the notion that humans are born to “create blessings and miracles.” Even as he approaches his 80s, he said he’s intent not to lapse into nostalgia onstage — but rather come out soaring and roaring with fresh energy.
“I am very cognizant that I am here and I am able to feel, sense, touch, smell, hug, all that kind of stuff. And I want to do it to the fullest, man,” he said. “I want to invite people to live your life with your destiny to greatness, you know? And that's pretty much it.”
Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Carlos Santana moved by public outpouring after Pine Knob health scare
