Neal Schon On Rejoining Santana
By Brian Ives
(RADIO.COM) – On Friday, the early '70s lineup of Santana released their first album together in four decades, Santana IV. Included in that lineup is guitarist Neal Schon, who joined the band when he was just a teenager, and who would go on to form a rather famous band of his own, Journey.
The "Santana IV" lineup also got together to play three shows, co-headlining with Journey. Radio.com spoke with the rather busy guitarist about reuniting with his former mentor, and about doing double duty in concert.
You guys just have three shows lined up; could you do a full Journey/Santana tour, or would that be too much?
I got my first taste of trying to do two sets when Journey toured Canada. The support act that management had picked, pulled at the last minute. My solo album, Vortex, had just come out; Omar Hakim was the drummer. My manager called and asked if I would be the opening act, and I said, "For Journey?" That's a completely different audience, and I didn't know if I wanted to do that. I said, "Well, it's a good opportunity"; we hadn't played in front of anyone yet. We played a 40 minute set, and I was dripping wet with sweat after my that, more than I ever had after a Journey set, because it was very demanding music. But I got my taste of what it's like to play all night, and it actually was very good for me. I came back and I was really in shape, and I felt younger. If we did more shows like this, I'd rise to the occasion. The music takes you to another place. You don't feel tired. It's kind of like, mind over matter. A lot of people don't understand that: I do.
Journey is your band; you founded it, you're the boss. Does it take adjusting to rejoining Santana? We know who's band that is.
Not at all. I have done a lot with Journey throughout the years, and I'll pat myself on the back here: I do feel that if I had not been co-managing the band, with all the changes in the band, that we would not be doing as well as we are now. But I don't have a problem with [not being in charge]. If I really want to do that, that's what my solo album is for. Carlos gave me the name 'Vortex,' that's like my middle name now. I'm still doing Vortex with Omar and his wife Rachel Z. and Jerry Brooks. I got a lot of stuff going on.
Carlos has always been such a mentor to me, I'm happy to sit next to him, or play next to him, and not worry about how much I'm gonna play. Because he's such a joy to be around, he's an enlightening person. He's very spiritual, and I just love that. It takes me to a really great, peaceful place and he really brings the best out of me. And it's not anything that we ever have to work on.
When we first split up in the end of '72, before Journey started, everyone kind didn't talk for a long time. We rekindled [our relationships] very, very slowly. I mean, really slowly. Like, within the last ten years. It was a natural occurrence. I grew up a lot, that had a lot to do with it. My sobriety [helped]. I've been sober, like, nine years. I got rid of some of the demons before that, but not the alcohol. But then I did mind over matter. I didn't go to AA or anything. And then, things started really going uphill for me, as far as making better choices, not forgetting what I wanted to go for, and not forgetting my heart. When you're numbing yourself, you're not really in touch with that.
Carlos Santana and Neal Schon (credit: Maryanne Bilham)
Carlos mentioned that you originally approached him with the idea of doing a "guitar record" together, which he didn't want to do, but that led to this reunion. What would that record have been like?
I really just wanted to do anything with Carlos. And after I told him that about a hundred times, he went, "OK, what do you have in mind?" I had the name "Guitar Zoo," and my idea was for us to grab our favorite guitar players from different genres and just have a guitar zoo, or festival. It's still a cool idea! Mix the music up, all different genres, use one big backing band. Then I thought, "If we really want to turn everybody's head around, if we went back to the original band…" he thought about it and said, "Let's do it!"
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