You were just awarded the Kennedy Center Honors. Did you get to talk to Obama at the ceremony?
Yes. We talked a little bit. I made a promise to everyone around me that I would behave myself and that I would take the war paint off. That’s because I did some concerts with the Black Panthers and so there’s a part of me that wants to question certain things with a lot of confidence. He’s the president because he promised, the first and second time he ran, that he would stop the war. He promised to spend more money on education than incarceration, which he has yet to do.
But everyone around me — my sisters, my wife, everybody — they said, very graciously, “This is like a hug from the nation to you. Behave yourself.” I was telling this to my brother and mentor Harry Belafonte. I said to him, “Everyone is telling me to take my war paint off.” He looked at me, closed his eyes and said, “Don’t take it all off.”
You can almost make a movie out of those three days in DC and what happened. I was talking to the President and the First Lady after the show. I said to them, “It felt so good when everyone got up when they played my music. You know why that happens? That’s because we play black music for white people.” They were like, “Oh lord, I hope we aren’t on TV.” But it does need to be said. That’s what we do, and it goes back to Elvis Presley coming out of Tupelo. We play black music for white people.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/carlos-santana-on-drugs-healing-and-his-message-for-obama-20140526#ixzz32vl8NW3s