Carlos Santana's Musical Journey

(This program originally aired Oct. 30, 2005)Whenever Carlos Santana picks up a guitar you can be sure something magical is about to happen.

At age 59, after more than 40 years in the spotlight, Santana is a rarity: a rock 'n' roll legend, who may just now be approaching his peak, CBS Sunday Morning contributor Russ Mitchell reports.

Mitchell: It seems like you're having so much fun. I mean, when I see you on stage, how much fun are you having right now?

Santana: The fun comes from being grateful, 'cause if you're not grateful, you're not gonna feel joy. For me to be a person who grew up in the '60s and still be center stage, I always take a deep breath and say I'm really grateful. So I'm happy.

Perhaps nowhere is he happier than inside "The electric church," a retreat of sorts, on the grounds of his home in northern California.

Mitchell: Any idea how many cassettes, CDs you have in this room alone?

Santana: No. It's like asking me how many times I breathe in and out since I've been born.

Let's just say he's got thousands and thousands of hours of video and countless instruments as well. He calls it a church because he doesn't study music here. He worships it.

Santana: I look for grooves and melodies, the elements to conjuring a trance. I'm in the business of putting people in a trance. Take them outside their doldrums existence where they can also dream and aspire to touch their own light.

Santana is a bit cosmic about all this: music, he believes, allows people to touch their own light.

Santana: When you touch your own light you listen to the voice in your heart, the real you. There's layers like an artichoke of who you are, you're black or being American, being this or being that. But when you strip yourself of all that, you're just this shining, radiant light. One positive thought creates millions of positive vibrations. Those are the languages of light.

And from the beginning for Carlos, "the languages of light" meant music.

He was born in 1947 in western Mexico, where his father played violin in a popular mariachi band. As a child, Santana followed in his father's musical footsteps.

Mitchell: Do you recall how old you were when picked up first guitar?

Santana: It was like '58 or '59, probably about 12, 13 something like that.

For a while he played both instruments under somewhat unusual circumstances.

Santana: I used to work on Sunday. I mean Sunday mornings, I play the violin at church and then at night I'd go to work at these strip joints, which were sort of like Broadway in Tijuana.

Mitchell: That's quite a day. Church in the morning and strip club at night. That's a busy Sunday.

Santana: That's a busy Sunday, but it's very complete. It's the whole package, you know, the halo and the horns, you know. It's all one. It's all how you utilize it.

When his family moved to San Francisco in the early 1960s,
Santana merged his Latin roots with the roots of rock 'n' roll.

He was slowly making a name for himself when in 1969, one riveting concert performance changed everything. The concert was Woodstock, a career-defining moment that made 22-year-old Carlos Santana an instant superstar.

His next three albums sold millions. His songs hit the airwaves and never left.

In 1973 Santana met and married Deborah King. They had three children and over the next 25 years while raising a family, Santana went on to record more than 20 albums.

But they were jazzier, more experimental and less commercial. One by one, the record companies stopped calling.

Mitchell: Did some in the music industry count you out?

Santana: Oh yeah. They said I was too old, that I was, it wasn't relevant. That was the word they kept using. 'You're not relevant anymore.' 'You're not part of what is happening today.'

Just when it seemed Santana would fade into the rock 'n' roll twilight, his wife Deborah made a suggestion: why not team up with an old friend and make a new album. The friend was record producer Clive Davis and the result was "Supernatural."

Released in 1999, "Supernatural" was a blockbuster. It won a record-tying eight Grammy Awards, including Best Record and Song of the Year. Thirty years after Woodstock at age 52, Santana had his first number one album.

Mitchell: Did you have any idea "Supernatural" was going to be as huge as it was? Did you see it coming?

Santana: No. No, never. I felt that maybe if we sell platinum, it would be something to celebrate.

Mitchell: That's a million copies.

Santana: That's a million copies.

Mitchell: And you sold how many?

Santana: They say it's 25-times platinum.

He followed up with another success, "Shaman" in 2002. The hit machine, it seemed, was in high gear.

But with renewed success came renewed stress on his marriage.

Santana: It became almost like something to be afraid of. The only stuff that scared me was losing Deborah and my kids through a divorce. When I saw Deborah's eyes, and saw that we were losing something, I was losing something, she was losing something. Stop!

Mitchell: And this was because you were so busy, there was so much going on?

Santana: Yeah. We were so busy, my kids are transitioning from high school to college. You know they're going through a difficult time. They needed to sit down with Deborah and I, but I couldn't do that if I was in Frankfurt playing a concert. So we just stopped for a year and a half. We stopped.

Mitchell: You stopped the…

Santana: Everything.

Mitchell: Everything. Stayed home?

Santana: You stay home. You know, and it was the best thing I ever done, because my family is twice as strong.

Mitchell: There's that phrase: beside every great man there's a great woman. Is that you?

Deborah Santana: Well, I really think we're partners. I don't look at it as beside him or behind him. We really just have walked this journey together.

During most of their 32-year marriage, Deborah held down the fort while Carlos chased his muse. Now, they both agreed it was her turn. Carlos would rededicate himself to the family and give Deborah the support she needed to follow her dream.

Earlier this year, Deborah saw her dream become a reality with the publication of her first book, a memoir, called "Space Between the Stars."

The book garnered excellent reviews and at packed book signings across the country, for a change Carlos got to bask in his wife's glow and nothing made him happier.

Carlos Santana: Deborah is my spiritual partner. I want men to be real men and move aside and cheer for your wife, sister, mother, daughter. For her to be like Deborah, a free spirit that can also blossom in her own light, not in my shadow.

After taking time off for his family, Carlos was ready to return to his other love.

Mitchell: Do you like this part of the process? The recording part?

Carlos Santana: Yeah. You get to the music, where nobody's heard it yet, and it's just unfolding. Very embryonic. It really has it's pulse.

This week, Carlos will release a new album, "All That I Am." Carlos teams up with singer Mary J. Blige for one of the tracks.

Mitchell: Carlos, what are you listening for when you hear the playback. What are you listening for that tells you, you got it?

Carlos Santana: It just all fits, her voice and my song. I'm feeling my way with what's there. Just a perfect blend of emotion and wisdom, simplicity, soulfulness, sincerity."

A perfect blend of emotion and wisdom, simplicity, soulfulness and sincerity: Carlos Santana's recipe for a good life.