Carlos Santana recently revealed to People that his career-launching performance at the Woodstock festival back in 1969 almost didn’t happen. Just before Santana and his band were ready to rock on stage, Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia offered him hallucinogens. Here’s what the guitarist had to say about the performance that could have gone terribly wrong:
“It was a real test, and the test was, ‘You are higher than an astronaut’s butt right now with whatever Jerry Garcia shared with me.’ When I came out onstage, I was like, ‘Oh my God, am I going to be able to play? I can’t even touch my nose.'”
Santana explained that as soon as he received what Garcia had given him, the guitarist began seeing colors and hallucinations and sought help from a higher power to get through the performance. Carlos added:
“It was like being inside a kaleidoscope, and then somebody told me, ‘Trust in God. Just ask him to keep you in time and in tune.’ So I said, ‘God, I really believe in you. If you help me right now, I won’t poo my pants in front of everybody.’ Next thing I knew, we hit the notes, and the people went, ‘Wooo!'”
Carlos and his band hadn’t even released their debut album ‘Santana’ when they were added to the festival line-up on the second day, so this performance did set the tone for his career after it was received well by the crowd.
This ‘acid trip’ was just one story from Carlos’ long-standing career; to give fans more insight into his life journey in the industry, the guitarist has a documentary coming out titled ‘Carlos’ that will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 17th.
You can read Carlos Santana’s interview with People here.
