(Credits: Far Out / Apple Music)
Mon 17 November 2025 18:30, UK
Jimi Hendrix once told him, “I love your choice of notes”. Eric Clapton said, “He kept me on my toes”. And in a rare positive proclamation, Miles Davis declared, “You know how to pay it right”. But for the most part, Carlos Santana himself has been consumed not with seeking the praise of his peers, but rather finding a frequency that he thinks will heal the world.
The shredding, soulful guitarist is an alloyist of all sorts: psychedelia and traditional South American folk styles, heavy metal and hyperpop, Christianity, Hinduism, and a disembodied entity he calls Metatron. For Santana, by and large, spiritually and musically, if it feels good, then it works.
This philosophy took him from Woodstock to number one, comfortably straddling the rarified border between cult figure and commercial star. “My job in this life,” he says, “is to give people spiritual ecstasy through music. In my concerts, people cry, laugh, and dance. If they climaxed spiritually, I did my job. I did it decently and honestly.”
While that certainly heaps plenty of pressure on his next life, for now, he’s content being one part of rock ‘n’ roll’s spiritual machine, and he draws inspiration from all of his peers. In fact, he even humbly rattled off a list of the four greatest guitar solos of all time, and why he admires these mighty works. As someone who honours his inspirations in everything he plays, you can hear these remarkable riffs writ large across his wavering discography.
The four greatest guitar solos of all time, according to Carlos Santana:
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