To read ‘part 1′ first… scroll down to ‘The Lotus Moment.’

One of the highlights of my tenure with WAR was the first time I met Carlos Santana backstage at the waterfront in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Our tour manager got me a backstage pass on the condition that I make it back in time for our own gig, and that turned out to be a tall order… I’d never seen Santana perform live, and I knew I was going to have to tear myself away in the middle of their set, fight the crowd and catch a taxi back to the venue before it was time for WAR to play. But it was worth a shot.

I met Carlos right before he was about to go on. He was kind of jogging on the spot, listening to Miles Davis’ Tutu really loud and burning incense. He had big sunglasses on, and a big smile when I told him I was playing with WAR. He said ‘That’s a good gig, man – did you know that in all these years, WAR and Santana have never played together?’

As it turns out, it wouldn’t be much longer. I was more than happy just to meet the man, but later that year we wound up playing with Santana for two huge arena shows in Annaheim and San Francisco, and he invited us on stage in the middle of their set to play ‘Exodus’ with them and jam a little. I thought it couldn’t get any better after that – singing a Bob Marley tune with Santana and WAR, I all but expected Stevie Wonder to walk on stage – but when we were finished, Carlos kept me on to play ‘dueling’ lead guitars on the Funkadelic classic ‘Maggot Brain.’ For those of you who don’t know, the original ‘Maggot Brain’ was considered a high point of post-Hendrix fuzz guitar, and Eddie Hazel’s performance on the track was legendary. That would have been intimidating enough I guess, but to play it with Santana was… Funkadelic.

He proceeded to handily mop the stage with me, but it was the best whooping I’ve ever received because about halfway through I managed to stop thinking and just ‘play crazy,’ a strategy that served well in many other Santana stage situations down the line. Carlos commented that Miles would have described the moment as a ‘musical orgasm.’ Not too far from the truth. The next gig was even better, because I was a little more mentally prepared to go toe-to-toe with my hero, plus it was New Year’s and the whole atmosphere was much more of a party than a ‘show.’ In photos of the gig, my hair looks like it’s exploding.

I spent a few days walking around San Fran in a strange electrified state. It was dawning on me that anything is possible in this life. I had proof: a guitar-obsessed kid from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan was rocking out with Carlos Santana on New Year’s Eve in San Francisco. Only a few years earlier I was listening to his records and imagining what it might be like to hang with him and get some of his mojo.

I had no idea – we were just getting started.

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