March 2, 2026 • 61 mins
In this episode of Sacred Lessons, host Mike de la Rocha sits with Salvador Santana, musician, producer, and son of the legendary Carlos Santana, for a deeply personal conversation about fathers and sons. This isn’t about fame or Grammys. It’s about fatherhood, legacy, and the vulnerability it takes to love across generations. For the first time, Salvador speaks candidly about his own son and the pain of almost losing him, reflecting on how that experience reshaped his understanding of love, responsibility, and healing. Together, Mike and Salvador explore what it means to grow up with a larger-than-life father and the lifelong work of understanding, accepting, and redefining that relationship on your own terms.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What are the cycles fathers passed down that sons are.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Left to yield.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
What if being a man was holding it all together?
I've been learning how to let go. This is a
space where that speak truth to find the power to
heal and transform. I'm Mike Dela Rocha. Welcome to say
your lessons. Some stories are born before we are, Some
legacies are already singing when we arrive. Welcome to sacred lessons.
(00:31):
I'm Mike Dela Rocha. Today I'm sitting with a brother
whose life, like mine, has been shaped by sound, by legacy,
and by fathers who changed the world. Salvador Santana, musician, producer,
and the son of the legendary Carlos Santana. But what
moves me is not his fame, the Grammys, or the stages.
(00:55):
It's Salvador's heart, his warmth, his humility, and the way
he uses music to forge his own path while honoring
the one that he's inherited. As someone raised in a
movement household, myself with a father whose conviction shaped so
much of who I became. This conversation feels deeply personal
(01:17):
to me because when your father is larger than life,
you spend years figuring out where his sound ends and
where yours begins.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
My brother man, so grateful to be here. Thank you
for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
You reminded me when you walked in that it's been
a decade.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
That's wild.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
And then it hit me though, that we met when
my life was fully transformed and turned upside down because
it's been a decade since my dad had left me.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And I didn't even realize that until you said it.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So one, just first up before we jump in, I
want to say thank you for being on this podcast.
I want to say thank you for who you are.
I usually start with having the guests talk about who
you know who they are, but I actually want to
flip it because the way I met you was actually
(02:17):
through your mom, that's right. And your mom stopped me.
I was on a boat at Summit Series, that's and
she went and found me, said, you know what, you
remind me of my son? Would you mind if I
connected you? And I had no clue who she was,
you know, I was like, for sure, she just had
this expansive, beautiful heart. And I say in the book
(02:39):
Sacred Lessons, like no story is complete without talking about
your mom. And I'm a mama's boy. And so you know,
I just want to start with your mom and then
we'll get into you, but sure, tell us about your
incredible mom first, then we'll go in.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Oh my gosh, Man, almost caught me off guard with
that question. There, beautiful, that's a beautiful question. I mean,
my mom, she's she's my hero. She's everything to me. Man,
She she gave me life, you know, basically gave me
(03:14):
the first real understanding of love, investment, care, nurture and yeah,
everything like you just said, you know, she's uh, no
story is really complete until we've had an honor, had
an opportunity to honor our moms and our motherly like
figures in our lives, you know. And for her, man,
(03:37):
she's she's everything. Like like you said, my yeah, our
dad's and my father yeah, you know, yeah, people know him.
You know, some dude who play some guitar a little
bit here and there, and you know, some people know
him here and there. But man, my mom's she's uh,
you know, she's a she's a legend in herself. And
(03:57):
I'm just I'm just so grateful, and not just for
my mother too, of course, but for my grandmother's as well.
My mom's mom and me Abalita. So I want to
give thank you for presenting that that opening topic. You know,
I want to give my mom's flowers, my grandmother flowers,
me Ablita flowers. Man. The strong women in my life, man,
(04:20):
they definitely raised me, for sure, and that's why I'm
a Maybe I look kind of tough on the exterior,
but honestly, man, I'm just I'm just a you know,
like you said, I just try to have a big
heart with a lot of humility and just to be
as kind and respectful, uh, and to honor energy is
what my what my mom my, my my grandmother's and
(04:42):
a lot of especially the last one head us, A
lot of the strong women in my life, man, they
taught me how to be kind, be respectful, make the
world that much better wherever you go, and to also
just have love and care for yourself too, you know.
And that's not being selfish, you know, and especially for us,
it's not just the gender thing, but especially an older
(05:03):
generation of us dudes learning how to reprogram ourselves by
navigating how to I don't know, live in such a
tough but very sensitive world at the same time. So
I like finding like on a chessboard. I like being
right there in that center, those four squares, the centerpiece.
I like staying centered and I like being present. And
(05:25):
then the women in my life growing up, man, they
definitely taught me so much and how to raise me
to be the man that I am to this day.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, we were talking about the picture of me as
a little boy my dad on the cover, and we
were talking to Jerry Day and he was reminding us
about it really isn't about gender, because it is a construct.
It's about energy, like you said, and the four energies.
He was talking about the four elements, the four directions,
(05:56):
and that we can and do embody all of those energies.
And I guess this what is and what should be.
We should be able to be expansive in all of ourselves.
But the traditional definition of a man or manhood like
who and your family taught you those things? Or was society?
(06:17):
Was it both? What?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
That's a great question, man. You know. Definitely my father,
you know, he's very present in my life. It was
again challenging navigating and getting used to my father coming
home and you know, being there for the time to
be present and be with us and be in the
(06:40):
be with the family and everything, and then he would,
you know, go out and tour and be gone for
X amount of time. So, I mean, I remember being
maybe seven six seven years old, my dad was going
to go on tour, and I don't know if I
was prepared for this one or if he caught me
off guard, you know, just we're all learning, we're all
understanding things, and kind of caught me off guard. And
he's literally dropped me off at school like kindergarten or
(07:04):
Something's like all right, by, I'm gonna see you in
like six weeks, and I'm like, now, you tell me,
like what the you know. So the whole day, like
the teachers called home and said I was a wrack
just because emotionally I just hadn't prepared myself for that necessarily.
And then I just kind of started slowly getting more
used to that. And every time he would leave up
for those tours and for the times they had to
(07:24):
be gone, he would remind me that I'm the lion
of the house and that's my job to protect my mom,
my two sisters since I'm the oldest brother, my grandmothers,
and my aunts when they would come over, like I'm
I have other than the dog. I am surrounded by estrogen,
like I have no choice, you know. But at the
same time, it really strengthened me to be that much
(07:45):
more again solid, but a healthy form of sensitivity and
not hyper awareness, but just awareness around me and things
of that nature. So my dad definitely taught me how
to be you know, strong and how to be He
also reminded me too that, yeah, people are going to
try and test you. You know, you have to learn
how to like culiosis, our job is you got to
(08:07):
learn how to put them up and you know, just
only if you have to for self defense. So I,
you know, learn how to do that stuff really at
an early age. But also at the same time, my
dad reminded me too, He's like, yo, there's no home.
There's no harm in walking away from fights. You know,
you're not less of a man, You're not less of
a boy, You're not less of any head. People are
going to make fun of you and call you chicken
and all this stuff, but you know you're not You're
(08:27):
not any less. You know, life is precious. So I
think that those types of lessons are incredibly important because
it's you know, it's not just how you shape a
young boy or a girl and watching and helping them
grow up and assisting. But it's it's shaping a young soul,
you know, being able to exist in this life and
(08:47):
how to navigate and be as healthy and content and
comfortable with yourself as possible. Because for a long time, man,
I'll be honest with y'all. For a long time I
had I felt like for years I was just adjusting
into my into my own seat, you know. And then
once my son was born, I realized what my main
purpose other than playing music and participating in life was.
(09:11):
I'm here for him, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Point playing before we get into your son, because I
can't wait. Yeah, what were the lessons growing up in
a in a household predominant of women? He shared some
beautiful gifts your dad taught you. What did the women
and your mom and your aella and your sisters teach you?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Absolutely just as simple as being kind, being gentle, holding
the door open for you know, the elderly ladies maybe
with their grocery bags, you know, just helping somebody across
the street, just being kind, saying hello, you know, things
of that is just just being a custodian and a
(09:52):
and a an ambassador of our DNA and our lineage
and everything like that. And yeah, just to just to
be also mentally and spiritually stable, I think is a
big thing. And that wasn't necessarily like taught like this
is how you know mentally and spiritually you stay sable.
(10:14):
One oh one, and here we go like class is
in session. It's like, it wasn't really that. It was
more just like certain experiences, moments, opportunities that I found
myself and where I was like, Okay, I have a choice.
I could either be extra with it. But no, that's
not how I was raised. I wasn't raised to raise
my voice at ladies. I wasn't raised till like obviously
(10:35):
you know, nothing like that. I was raised. To be
respectful is a big thing, and that's what I'm teaching
my son as well too, to be kind, be respectful,
not just everyone else, but mostly also to yourself too.
You know, if you can respect yourself, you can respect
others and allow others to be respectful of you.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Two.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
So there were many things, but definitely respect that was
all the ladies, all the women in my life, especially
growing up, definitely definitely taught me and reminded me. There
were there were very few times where I was needed
to be reminded, but yeah, definitely it was a beautiful
reminder how to be respectful.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So then with your son, were there things you had
to unlearn to be a more I don't want to
say more to be a present loving father with him?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Oh? Man, Absolutely, so many things that we watched, our
parents and just the people that we grew up with
and that they when they were elders, we were growing up,
they were they were OG's and you know, we were
young YG's and now we now we all together type thing.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, so many different things man, really, uh honestly, the
main one that I've had to not only it's not
reprogram it's more like taking a deeper dive in patience
blasensia man, mass pa sensia. Have to have more patience
and just taking a be taking a breath again, being
(11:59):
present and the patience to be present. Yeah, man, because
especially in this this life, this world, just the pace
of everything, it's got to be instant with the phones,
with everything is instantaneous. We want it now, It's got
to happen right now. We expect immediate results and raising
everybody's different. But for me raising my kid man, he
(12:21):
reminds me to have the deepest amount of patience with him,
the calmness, being calm but assertive, almost like the dog
whisper Guy used to say, the kind of thing. But yeah,
like definitely for me, it's having to unlearn all the
stuff that I reminded myself didn't really work, you know,
(12:44):
when we were when we were kids and watching adults
raising us and then realizing, Okay, now I have an
opportunity to do that as opposed to oh well it
worked then, so that was done then, so therefore it
must work now. Let's be let's be doctical, let's be
stubborn about it. And I'm just like, nah, we have opportunity,
and otherwise we become our own obstacles, you know, we
get on our own way. And for me, raising my son,
(13:08):
just me being here for him, that's that's out of
all the things that I do in this life, that's
the one that I take the most serious. And I'm
just have so much. There's so much joy that and
and knowledge that comes with those experiences, and I wouldn't
trade it for anything. So love you, Stevie, Love your son,
love you, Stevie.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
On the on the Love You your relation with your dad,
did you have one where you would say I love
you to each other?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
It's a very beautiful question. Absolutely, my dad made it
a consistent flow. I want to say, a habit, like
a very consistent flow to say I love you to
me growing up, and I do it with Stevie all
the time. It's not even just because we're Latino and
we're very affectionate by default. But yeah, he reminded me
(14:00):
that he I remember him. Actually we were driving across
the Golden Gate Bridge and he just not like in
a weird way or anything. You just he grab my
hand just like this, you know, and he looked at
me and just said, Son, I love you. And I
was like, okay, love you too, Dad. Kind of weird, okay,
But he then took the time to remind me. He's like,
I'm telling you this, son, because my dad. I Belito Josse,
(14:25):
even though I knew he did. He never once told
me that he loved me, Like, he never said those words.
But he would like pinch my cheek, He would like
wink at me. He would grab my hand and kind
of squeeze it. Like there's again generational ways of saying
I love you, and us men in particular have especially
in the in the past. Not so much now, thank goodness,
(14:45):
you don't hear about as much, but definitely in the
past we had to grow up being like not don't
say I love you, that that type of stuff is
for woosies, and don't show affection, don't show emotions. That's
you know, which bottle on it and be hard this
and this and that. You know, men we don't say
I love you to each other and stuff like that.
I'm like, bro, there's there's so many dudes that I
said I love you, bro, Like you know, like when
we walked in and had seen each other and was
(15:07):
like forever man, I was like, oh, I love you man,
so good scene. You know, all that stuff like this,
there's nothing wrong with that. That's healthy. So I think
it's all about just I love being in an opportunity
to be able to help rearrange narratives and change scripts
and things, because not everything is uh. There's maybe a
few things, but none that come to mind for me
except the love that I have for not only God
(15:28):
but for my son. There's not too many things that
last forever. So let's let's let's keep an open mind
about how we can just be that much better than
we were you know yesterday, you know today.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And then you know, they say in my spiritual tradition
that our children choose their parents, and they choose their
fathers because they come into this world knowing what lessons
we still have left to learn. Like you said, you're
learning the gift of patience with your son. Are there
(15:59):
other guess your son is currently teaching you, man?
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, to appreciate life every moment, every day. Appreciate life. Yeah.
I didn't plan on getting too detailed into it, and
I won't cause I'm still personally working through it. But
you know, there was a my son definitely he's a fighter.
He is a warrior, And that's one of the reasons
why I wore this though this shirt today because it
(16:26):
just felt like he's got that warrior get oto like energy. Man,
he's a fighter, he wants to be here. There was
definitely a couple of times early on in his I mean, shoot,
just the day he was born, there was a couple
of times where life definitely presented the challenge and the
possibilities of him not possibly being here and no parent
(16:49):
should ever have to experience a taste of that, let
alone the full experience of that. And so he taught
me resiliency that there's certain lives and souls and beings
that they are fighting to be here to live this life,
you know. And you hear about so many other people
(17:09):
that are on the other side, they're you know, contemplating
checking out, and I'm just like, yo, like, man, me personally,
I'm just like, I just can never imagine life being
that bad to the point where that's the best option,
you know. And my heart goes out to everybody and
anybody that's that's seeking, you know, better days and a
(17:30):
better you know, there's there's opportunities, there's people to talk
to and things of that nature. Don't hesitate And man,
I almost felt like I almost was one of those
people on the other side. Uh, if something else were
to have transpired with my son. But thank god, thank goodness,
he is the He literally is the sacred prayers and
(17:56):
culmination of the best of our family DNA and legacy,
and the fact that he is here, that to me
is everything. So he's taught me just how to appreciate life,
how to appreciate each moment. He never really knows, So
let's just enjoy this one, you know, and let's be
here for it. Don't worry about yesterday. I don't trip
(18:17):
about tomorrow. We can plan ahead and we can remember,
but let's also be here right now. So he Stevie's
definitely taught.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Me that, given what you just shared and the blessings,
I want to be here and I want to I
want to give gratitude to Stevie for fighting to be here. Yeah,
because in that fighting, you're here and I never I
(18:47):
didn't know this, and I want you to know not
just the love, but the I that I love you
and I this world would have been less loving with
your physical presence not here. And I want to honor
(19:07):
that and say that because a lot of folks right
now feel like they don't belong, they feel like they're alone,
they feel like is it even worth living. It's a
real thing, and a lot of these conversations have been
medicine for me because they've been reminding us of like
(19:28):
we need each other, like a part of me would
no longer be present if you weren't breathing. Obviously, you're
always going to be with us and with me spiritually,
but the physical is a different thing. So I just
want to say thank you for holding on absolutely. And
(19:51):
I also know like art and specifically music has always
been a part of our lives, and like even Sacred
Lessons was my love letters to my dad, but it
was also my way to tell him things I didn't
say when he was physically alive for whatever reasons, some
(20:14):
of his time had passed. Some of it is like
our relationship didn't wasn't able to get to that point
when he was alive where I could grab his hand
like your father grabbed yours. And I think about it.
The only time I think my dad and I grabbed
each other hands when we would go camping like in
(20:35):
the book. And then the last time was actually when
I was holding his hand going into the operating room
and he didn't die right after the operation, but I
remembered feeling like it was uncomfortable because I wasn't taught
to hold my dad's hand, even though like I come
from my dad. And I remember just instinctively saying, overcome
(20:58):
that mental block. What your dad needs is your physical
touch right now. And so I guess my question is
through your music, are there things you're telling your dad
or your son that you aren't able to say, like
just in relation, but you can say through the music.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Oh man, that is such a cool question. That's beautiful,
and thank you for that beautiful backstory to lead up
to that. That's awesome, Mike. Yeah, you know it's interesting
you say that. As I've I don't want to say,
as I've gotten older, yes, but as I progress through life,
I'm learning to become that much more courageous and like
(21:36):
you were saying a second ago, or not to not hesitate.
If you want to say something to somebody, say it,
text them, email them, send smoke signals, whatever you got
to do, man, communication is everything, you know. And yeah,
maybe I think, if anything, more of the songs and
(21:57):
the music I create are for the live and the
souls that I haven't gotten the opportunity to meet or
touch quite yet or like just you know, interact with yet.
But the music is there to remind others that I
hear you, I feel you, and if you're going through
something or whatever experiences in life you're going through, or
you know, having here's something for you, you know, to
(22:19):
either enjoy help you get through, like you were saying
a second, go know that you're not alone. And sometimes
the music, especially for me, like writing songs that are
more instrumental, like less lyrics and things of that nature.
You know. Music for me is what emotions sound like.
(22:40):
And yeah, if anything, it's more just like more than
what I didn't get to say. It's all, hey, here's
that warm hug that ever that I forgot to give
you or that I wanted to give you. I'm over
in New York doing this gig, and my kids out
out here in Cali and maybe my dad's in Vegas
or or some tour and doing something, you know, because
(23:02):
Pops is still going. Man, he won't quit. There's no
quit in him. He's gonna cut. That's in all of
our DNA. When we find something that we love to do,
we don't look at it as work, man, it's our passion.
We we we wake up ready to feed the people,
you know, creatively. So yeah, if anything, my music is
just for anyone and everybody that's down to check it
out and just enjoy have a great time, and for
(23:25):
me also at the same time. So I want to
leave some thoughtful lyrics and concepts and ideas and everything
one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite poets, artists,
Maya Angelou. She said, people are not going to remember
you by what you said or even what you did.
(23:48):
They're going to remember you by how you made them feel, right,
you know, And so in short, yeah, man, that's uh,
that's how that's if anything, that's what I try to
do with my music is to remind people how to feel,
like you said, how to be, how to be not
only how to be present, but like you said, to
remind them of their inner light and their worthiness of
being here. So yeah, I'm just that's what I learned
(24:09):
from my father. That's what he learned from his father. Actually,
quick thing. Both my grandfathers are also musicians. Yeah, so
it wasn't just like it's not just my dad over here.
He's a mariachi musician, violinist, singer. I mean, man, he
(24:30):
was just the way he would sing best on my mucho,
he would just serenade. I mean, he was just he was.
He was that dude. He was that dude. And my dad,
he'll tell anybody in any interview he's like, man, all
my dad wanted to do was just grow up to
be like his dad. That's really all he did. And
for me, it's not that I wanted to grow up
and be exactly like my dad. I wanted to I
wanted to grow up and in a way make him
(24:52):
and the family proud of who I am and who
I'm destined to be. And again, my son reminds me
of that as well too. Oh and my mom's uh,
my mom's dad, Saundra's King. Also my other grandfather blues
blues guitarist and musician. Yeah. So one was a mariachi violinist,
(25:14):
the other was a blues guitarist and jazz guitarist who
inspired so many like BB King and uh peers like
Billie Holliday and T bone Walker. So our musical legacy
it runs deep, man, It's it's in our DNA. It's
in our it's in us and it has to come out.
We gotta we gotta release it. It's and and and
share it and offer it with others. So yeah, for me,
(25:38):
I can't I can't sit still. I gotta musically creatively,
I gotta be doing something And and I see my
son doing it as well too. He'll sit and play
the drums, he'll uh, he'll dance when some music comes
on and everything, I'm like, bro, the DNA, it's it's
in him, It's it's there. So we just we just
want to encourage that with him. And yeah, my music's
for everybody and anybody that wants to check it out.
(25:59):
I'm just it and grateful anybody that that it resonates with.
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
So growing up having such a beautiful tapestry of different
sounds and cultures and backgrounds, was it tough for you
or was it just normalized because this is just who
you were, you know.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I'm sure there were many challenges, maybe trying to pick
The one challenge I definitely had growing up was there
were so many instruments that were being offered to me
at the same at at the same time, which is great.
My dad wanted me to learn drums first. He felt
(26:47):
that it was very important because the musicians that taught
him as well too. Rhythm is extremely important, you know,
being a live musician, even if you're an E D, M,
DJ or whatever, still have to learn how to be
able to make a crowd move and get up and
dance and like feel themselves and just like in the
be in the moment, be present, and so one of
(27:10):
the one of the first UH. My dad would call
it a babysitter. My first babysitter was on Beta Max.
Was a video of the African UH Nigerian drummer, drummer
by the name of Baba Olatunji and his drums of
Passion and it was a performance I believe it was
(27:32):
New Year's nineteen eighty something, eighteen eighty six or whatever,
opening up for the Grateful Dead in the Bay Area
and just it was like it's like an hour and
change of just nothing but drumming, dancing, singing, you know,
just raw energy, no electronics or anything like that. It's
just taking it back to the dawn of time with
(27:54):
his song and dance. And I would sit there on
these little drums and my dad wanted me to learn
how to just get the timing and everything. Yeah, feel
the beat, feel the rhythm, get the timing of everything.
And I was like, I'm like two three years old,
so I can't even reach the bass pedal and the
high hat. So he's he's controlling the feet and I'm
(28:14):
up here with the sticks and everything like that. But
you know, it's very important for and I'm doing that
with my son now. I want him to learn how
to If you can, you can go to Juilliard and
you can learn how to create these incredible orchestra sonatas,
all these incredible arrangements, harmony, pitch chords, progression melodies, blah
blah blah. We can do all that all day at
the end of the day if you're a live musician,
(28:36):
and it's difficult for one to just get a crowd
to get up and move and dance and feel themselves
and forget about the worries of what was going on
in their lives and they can just let their everything
down and just enjoy with all respect. You're not one
hundred percent doing your job as a musician, you know.
And that's how I was, That's how I was raised.
So the biggest challenge was okay, drums, and then of
(28:56):
course my dad introduced guitar to me, and time I
was only five six year olds, I six years old.
I hated it. I hated it. I hated the guitar.
When I was younger. It was just a lot harder
for me to like pluck the strings just hurt my finger. Oh,
and then violin. I was also taken violin also at
the same time I'd made that thing sound like a
(29:16):
dead cat. Every time I played that thing, man, it
was it so turned me off, you know. So I
just kind of stuck towards the drums. But my folks
really didn't want or like, he's got the rhythm, now
we need to get him into more like chords and pitch.
So they introduced me to piano and the keyboards, and man,
from day one, it just someone once told me, it's
(29:36):
like an orchestra at your fingertips. It's right there. You
got the piccolos, you got the high strings, you got
the viola's, the violins, viola's, cello's, you got everything. It's
all right here. And I don't know, it just made
so it just made so much more sense seeing things
on more of a horizon, horizontal like on a horizon,
and more linear rather than I guess this way. It
(29:58):
just made a lot more sense. So, yeah, piano's my
main gig, my main acts. Drums will always be my
first love. And now I play a little big guitar, bass,
more bass, and I just try to learn a little
bit of everything, you know. But yeah, that was probably
the biggest challenge, was trying to figure out my voice,
(30:19):
my sound, my mission, control, my comfort zone, you know,
just the thing that spoke to me. And I love
what you said a second ago, Mike about how kids
before they're born they select their parents and everything. I
also feel like the same thing with art and music
in particular, like I didn't choose this life. It chows
(30:39):
me being a musician, and the only choice was really, okay,
how do you want to express yourself? Which instrument or
what instruments do you want to choose to express yourself?
And piano made the most sense to me? And what
am I forty somethings? So yeah, I've been playing piano
for almost forty years now? Wow?
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah, what is piano touch about life?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Those chords? Oh, you know, pianos taught me again so
much how to just respect, be available, enjoy even the
challenges of learning these incredibly difficult and crazy like classical
or jazz pieces or things like that. But also too,
(31:20):
my music saved my life in so many ways. It
kept me out of trouble. I didn't thank goodness, Like
I didn't grow up in any like crazy neighborhoods or
anything like that. The Bay Areas is a trip, man,
It's a beautiful place to grow up. Like anything, there's
pockets and stuff. But definitely when I got to high
school and when I went to San Francisco School of
the Arts and into the city, in the city proper
(31:44):
and everything like that, there were some there were some
kids that are incredibly talented, but you know, they were
still coming from like Hunter's Point, and they were still
coming from like the Mission, and they were still coming
from like Oakland and like you know, some real rough
areas and stuff. So even though they would have a
beautiful full break from that environment and come and we
can all, I guess in a neutral zone just get
(32:06):
along and learn about each other's artistic you know, uniqueness
and qualities and everything like that. There was a couple
times where a couple of friends of mine would you know,
invite me back to some of their areas and everything,
and I thought it would be like an artistic like
jam or things like that. But you hear about Oh Snoopy,
(32:26):
You heard about Snoopy? Now what happened to Snoopy? Man?
He got caught up and hitting on the So we
were sitting on the corner and that party you were
going to go to Salvador. Yeah, he was on the
corner and some dudes just rolled up on him and
took him out, and I was like, dang, that's I
just saw Snoopy like on Friday and it's Monday. He's like, yeah, well,
and so I just thinking about moments like that where
it doesn't seem like a big deal. It was impactful
(32:46):
for me as a fifteen to seventeen year old in
high school, learning like, oh this, this stuff is real
and even though I'm a teenager and I feel immortal,
I'm not Superman. And so I need to really buckle
down and just stay focused on this music thing, on
this journey and on this stay on this path because
I know I'll be I know'm this is this is safe,
(33:08):
This is not only healthy, this is what I'm this
is what I'm destined to do. So yeah, in a way,
music saved my life.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Man.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
The piano taught me how to just not only stay
out of trouble, but just enjoy what you have rather
than going out trying to, you know, seek for more
that you don't necessarily need.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Has Has the music taught you anything around masculine into
your manhood in particular?
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, in some ways, just being
on stage. You know, when I'm a band leader, okay,
I'm leading in that regard, everybody else respectfully is therefore following.
Just like in a dance, there's a leader and then
there's a follow there's a lead and a follower in
a way, usually like you know, for the men, they're
(33:57):
the ones that are looking good and everything like that's
and then that's the ladies that are just dazzling, just
spinning around, just making all these incredible amazing moves, especially
in like flamenco or like tango, like different dances. And yeah,
so there's a time when to lead, and then there's
a time to accompany, you know, and to assist. And
so being a band leader and a band member on
stage different roles. Being a lead role as an actor,
(34:21):
if I was to do that and to be a
supporting role, it's it's understanding what our roles are and
what our jobs are and how to just do them
as best as we can so that we can, however
many people are involved in the project or in the experience,
we can all be on a path towards being set
up for success in that regard. And then again yeah,
also too, I think just well I mean, yeah, sure,
(34:46):
there's like there's I've had a band where I've had
all dudes. I've had. I've had a couple of bands
where I've had a female, a lady's vocalist, and a
lady keyboardist as well too, So I I've it's it's
it's beautiful to have a collection and a variety of
different energies. Again, it's not just about gender, but just energies.
(35:09):
And it's taught me to remind myself, Okay, there's things
that we can we can say and what have you,
and then there's things it's like, okay, it's not appropriate
to say. Again, Like what the strong, beautiful ladies taught
me in my life growing up, Just be respectful. Just
be respectful. So yeah, if anything, is just a continuation
(35:32):
of being conscious and mindful of how to just make
the experience that much more enjoyable and comfortable for everybody involved,
including including oneself, including me. So yeah, just being just
being gentle and aware.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
I'm thinking about that two year old that couldn't do
the kick on the drugs, and then the four year
old that was introduced to the guitar, Well would that too,
what would the two four year old Salvador tell the
Salvador today.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Oh man, the two year old would probably say, this
is a lot of fun. You know, this is so
much fun. I'm having a blast. I think the four
year old would be crying and be like, please don't
make me do this anymore, Please make it stop. You know,
it's so interesting you say that, because lately I've been
(36:25):
having a lot of conversations with my inner child a
lot lately, And again, maybe it's just being around my
son that much more and watching him grow up now
that he's seven. I'm literally and the fact that he
from what everyone tells me, he's literally like a what
does he say, He's like a mini twin twining. We're
(36:45):
twinning over here. So it's like when I see him,
I'm literally looking at a little version of me. And
I literally see my seven year old self when I'm
looking right at him. So, if anything, I just get
a chance to a heal that much more. And and
I love how you dive into that, not only in
(37:06):
your book, but in this awesome series that And congratulations
again Mike for you know, inviting me first and foremost.
I'm so honored to be a part of it. And
congratulations for just this. This is so cool man, what
a cool experience. And yeah, so if anything, I'm learning
how to just heal that much more and heal that
(37:27):
inner child and and be and to do that in
order to be the best version of myself on the
rag for my son, you know, I want him. He
deserves to have that constantly, and so for me, that's
to answer your earlier question. Yeah, that's probably what the
two year old and the four year old version would say.
You know, this is fun and I'll make it stop.
(37:48):
But the seven year old version would definitely be like,
you know, thank you for these opportunities and thank you
for introducing me to the piano. This was a g
This is a game changer, you know. So it's it's
more about gratitude and healing. I feel like you are
the main motifs and themes so far of this this conversation,
and I love it on the.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Healing tip, Yeah, because I have a mini me too.
He's twelve though, Oh.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
I wish no, I don't wish anything. I miss sure
him being seven because that's a magical number.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Two, it's powerful number.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
But when you're looking at him, and you're looking at yourself.
And I always say, like, I know what my son's
going to do before he does it, because that's exactly
what I want to have done. And you're talking about
healing and the inner child. Is there something that you
need to say to your son to tell yourself in
(38:42):
your own healing?
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Absolutely? Absolutely, every day it's a beautiful question, Thank you, Mike.
Every day before we whether before we go out, you know,
and he goes to school, or before we just go
out into the day or whatever. And even if just
when he gets out of bed, we have this, I
guess it's an affirmation more or less, and it's really just, so,
(39:07):
what are we going to do today, Stevie. We're going
to be kind to ourselves. That's right, son, We're going
to be kind to ourselves. How are we going to
do that? Keep our hands to ourselves, keep our feet
to ourselves. We always promise to love ourselves and protect
our head.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
So protect your head.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yeah. The main reason, honestly is because of his medical
history and his fragility. A lot of what had happened
earlier on in his beginnings had to do with his
lack ivess within his head, and so I'm still healing
from it, and honestly, this is the most I've been
(39:43):
able to talk about it in the last six seven years.
But basically, he's had four head surgeries before the age
of six. And you know, the people over it, everybody,
just the doctors, the nurses, everybody over there at CCHLA,
(40:04):
the medical teams. They've just been exceptional, just outstanding, just incredible.
And without them too, you know, it could be a
whole different conversation and everything. So I've just come from
a place of again gratitude and healing and so yeah,
that's why we always say keep our hands feet. Yeah,
(40:24):
promise to love ourselves, because that's huge. Promise to love yourself.
You know, if you love yourself, you're vain, or you're selfish,
or you're conceited. It's like, no, not necessarily, not necessarily true.
In fact, actually it's the opposite. I think vulnerability is
a superpower, and having respect and love for oneself in
a healthy way, I think that should be normalized. Let's
(40:48):
talk about that more and make that more of a thing.
So yeah, and doing so, I'm reminding myself to keep
my hands to myself unless you know, somebody wants to
try me, then we'll see what happens. You know who there,
Sister Travis, keep my hands feet, Promise to love myself,
be respectful, don't let anybody else disrespect you to you know,
choose our opportunities, say saying pick my battles. I choose
(41:09):
my opportunities. There's a time to Okay, this person's trying me.
Let's see what are the options where I can stand
up for myself. And there are times we're like, you
know what ain't worth it? It's all about energy. It ain't
worth it. I got way too many important things going
on today. You ain't worth my worth, my time or energy.
So it's about being selective and reminding again my son,
(41:30):
and reminding myself. We all have choices and opportunities on
the day, on the daily, and as long as we
are present, aware and have that love and healthy love
and appreciation for ourselves and therefore for others, I think
it's gonna be all Gucci man, it's gonna be a
good day.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
I want to share something that is really coming through
loud and clear for me right now to share with you, please,
because when I asked about the head. First off, thank
you for being so vulnerable and sharing because I know
it's hard, this navigating private public life very hard, especially
(42:18):
in this day of age. And when we said the head,
not knowing that in the EFA tradition, you're o e,
which is your purpose is in your head. So when
we say protect your head, it's because you have to
protect your ache, your purpose, your gift of what you're
(42:41):
bringing into the world beautiful. And that's why in the
morning I always put cool water on the top of
my head to keep me cool from not reacting to
what life has it. But your son, you saying to Stevie,
the last thing you're saying is protect your head. When
(43:03):
you're saying is obviously protect your physically, but I'm hearing
it protect your spirit, protect your purpose, protect your life.
And so Stevie is reminding all of us by his
mere existence and presence, that we all have a divine
purpose here. Yes, and our are our roles as fathers
and community, as friends is to protect that spirit, that purpose.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
That love provide and protect. That's that's what it is.
I love that. That is so cool. I unconsciously I
didn't even know that, but that is so cool. Yeah,
you're right, it's more than just the literal physical protecting
your head. It's like, not protect you, your being, your soul,
your spirit, you're just everything. Protect you. There's we're all
(43:49):
one of ones, right, you know, so let's protect that.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Before we go into We always am with this thing
called the Sacred five, you know, you know we're spiritual
beings in a physical body.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
And you you got to see all sides of an
extension of yourself, potentially navigating multiple sides. What it sounds
(44:25):
like nothing's been left said, But what would you like
ten years from now your son is listening to this podcast,
what do you want to tell him?
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Oh my god, how proud I am of him, how
much I love him, and you know, everything I do
is for him, And just how proud I am of him,
and how much he's again I felt it sound like
a broken record, but how much he's taught me to
be just only a better father and a better man,
but just a better human being, you know, every day,
(44:54):
you know, just be better. He did great yesterday, yeah,
but still not good enough. I want to be better,
you know, And just how much he's loved, Like you
were saying a second about how much he inspires so
many and how we all have that capability to be
able to choose to be an inspiration for for multiple
for others, for so many. Yeah, just to know how
(45:17):
much he's loved, how proud, how proud his dad is
of him, and man, just he's he's already a force now.
I mean, he's going to be a force leaves, just
like your son. I would imagine too. All these kids, man,
this generation, it's it's a thing. They all have this individual,
(45:39):
you know, conviction about them. They know who they are.
Like I, we all knew who we were to a degree,
but we still had an opportunity to kind of search
a little bit more and discover. Man. I feel like
the majority of these kids they know exactly who they
are from the jump, and I'm not mad at that.
I love it. And so if anything, it's more about
just Okay, if you know who you are, then not
(46:02):
only own that, but also let's leave some room to
discover more as well to and expand rather than limit,
you know, based off of others and things of you know, opinions,
which doesn't really matter at the end of the day anyway.
So yeah, man, I just want him to know how
proud I am of him how much he's loved and
(46:23):
he's he already is, and how much he's going to
be a force when he does listen to this conversation
in ten years, and hopefully he'll still think his dad
is cool in ten years from now, because he'll be seventeen.
So more times than he'll be like, oh, Dad, you're
embarrassing me, I'll be like, I know, but you know,
that's what I'm here for.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
And do you feel like your dad feels the same
way about you?
Speaker 2 (46:41):
Per one hundred percent? And you know, my dad, I'm
a grown ass dude in my forties. My dad's you know,
is uh, he's he's he's in his later years and
everything like that. He's still doesn't hesitate to figure out
ways to embarrass me, not necessarily on purpose, he just
he just does it. So it's like, you're just never
too old for that. But yeah, man, we're my biggest goal.
(47:05):
I'll leave it at this, because man, my, my, the
rush you get when you're on stage performing as you know, Mike,
or just being in you know, any atmosphere that we
get to create, that rush is just is everything. So
I can't wait for Stevie to experience that and then
my biggest goal in life is to have myself, my
(47:26):
father in no particular ard, myself, my father, and Stevie
all on stage at the same time performing together, because
there's not too many people that can say we got
three generations on stage performing at the same time. So
that's my big goal and we're going to make that
happen very very soon. But hopefully hopefully you're there with
us that I got you, I got you, my gee,
(47:46):
I got well.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Last question before five you. I want to end with
this because it was so powerful. You said vulnerability is
a superpower. Elaborate on that before we close.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
You got it. You know what I mean by that is,
you know, it gets the concept of being tough and
being hard and all that stuff. It Yes, that's a
choice and everything like that, but me personally, man, that
gets exhausting after a while. It really really does. And
(48:23):
just walking around with all this armor and all this
luggage and all this feeling like I'm in the I
don't know, in the Marines and I'm doing that one
of those hardcore trainings type thing. You know, Okay, cool,
you did that, but it's like you do that every
single day for years. After a while brother, it becomes exhausting,
and I had to learn how to not be liked.
(48:46):
I had to learn how to be tough emotionally and
physically and also therefore mentally. But also I had to
be very acceptive, goal radically acceptive of my son's journey
in the beginning of his medical history and fragility very
(49:08):
early on in that journey. I mean having professional doctors
and medical people literally coming up to you a lot
saying that you know, he might not make it, and
things of that nature. It put me in a place
where I had to be tough, but also at the
same time, I had to be in my fields. I
had to feel these feelings of the possibilities of all
(49:30):
that stuff. And then it got to a point, Mike, honestly,
my dude, where I was like, there's certain things I
can accept, and then there's certain things I refuse to accept.
Absolutely not. I know that God has a purpose for
all of us. God has a purpose specifically for my son,
and my son wants to be here. I know God
will guide the doctor's hands. I know God will listen
(49:51):
to all of our prayers. And as long as I'm there, present,
doing my job, waiting willing and available for my son
if you need and if anybody needs me, I'm there,
I'm present. And so then that's when I found out
how vulnerability can be that superpower, being vulnerable, not being
(50:11):
not being afraid to be like, oh wow, this this
is a reality. But also at the same time, it's
like you still have choice. One still has choices within
those realities, and my choices were you can still be
here for him, and you can still be present, and
you're not less of a man, You're not less of
a person by showing those vulnerabilities, oh and being strong
(50:32):
and stoke for others that they need a break, you know,
they need a break. Some of my other family members
that knew about what was going on too, they they
had to tap out. It was too much for them,
and I get it, you know, But for me, I
was like, that's my kid. It's never too much for me.
I'm here. So that's specifically what I meant for vulnerability
(50:52):
as a superpower, but it could be anything me being
on stage, you know, and I met and I make
a flub, you know, it's like my solo and you
know or whatever, and it's just like, oh, I just
shrug my shoulders and then I do another riff and
people like, Oh, that's so cool. It's just it's how
you play it off, man, It's just how you do.
How you move is basically what you're communicating to everybody
(51:14):
else who you truly are, and how you react or
don't react under pressure. Right. So yeah, the vulnerability is
a superpower. My vulnerability is a superpower. Yeah, man, absolutely, Well.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
The Sacred five is how we end. I ask five questions,
you answer in a word or a sentence, and it's
like practical takeaways for folks that are watching or listening.
So the first question, name three things that make you
feel safe, connected and whole.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
Oh I mean I feel like I just mentioned them. God, family,
and music.
Speaker 1 (51:59):
What song, book or prayer brings you back home to yourself? Oh?
Speaker 2 (52:05):
Man, wow, that's a great question. Man. You know what,
there's this beautiful song called piece Piece by Bill Evans,
the composer pianist, did a lot of arrangements for Miles Davis,
and it's called p e acee piece Piece like a
(52:27):
piece of cake or something like that, and it's just
a piano acoustic piano solo of his for about six
or seven minutes and it's just such a beautiful journey.
I put it on for if life gets a little
stressful and everything like that, I need a palate cleanser.
I just put that song on and I'm immediately centered
and right back into it. So Piece Piece by Bill Evans.
Speaker 1 (52:50):
Beautiful, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
I can't yeah, check that one out. Man, Let me
know what you think.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
What's one daily ritual or practice that grounds you?
Speaker 2 (52:59):
Oh? Man? And I have so many, I think, honestly.
Now it's there's so many that I there's so many
I could choose from. But I think the one that
I touched on earlier, the little one that I do
with my son, you know, I really think that one
has become more prominent and it's become more of a
(53:22):
part of just the daily flow again, like you said,
a ritual and part of a habit. So just honoring
our inner child and our inner selves, you know, to
be that much more present, kind and respectful of everything
else and everyone else. So keep in hands, feet to ourselves,
love ourselves, protect our head or what was the our
(53:43):
auDA or or or there it is.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
That's funny. You said it for him, but it's saying
it for both of you.
Speaker 2 (53:50):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, So yeah, that's that's probably the one.
All right.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
What's one small action that listeners can take today on
their healing journey?
Speaker 2 (54:01):
Oh man, whatever that, whatever that ritual like you described
that that centers somebody or whatever brings you back and
makes you whole. To the individuals and everyone listening and watching,
streaming interacting with us, you do that for yourselves, you know,
(54:23):
whatever that is, as long as it's obviously not harming
or doing anything like that anybody else or anything like that.
You know, if it's if it's sacred and it's meaningful
and it's beneficial, it's nutritious spiritually and energetically. I say,
do that, man, There's there's never enough of that. So
to each their own and whatever that is, to that
individual and to those folks, y'all do that.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Man.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
For me, I'm just gonna go and hang out with
my son and record some music and get into that
creative flow and creative tip.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
So last questions, star, share a one line blessing or
quote that is inspires you. Oh man, I mean you
shed one earlier, But which one was that angel one?
Speaker 2 (55:06):
Oh dang, that was a good one. I should have
I should have saved that. Ah man, you know what,
So it's funny I have these uh. I have these
lyrics in one of my songs called Fantasy Reality, and
one of the lyrics is on there is a great
(55:27):
achievement sometimes takes a great risk. But I'm on a
hot streak and with luck I never miss. And so
for me, the way I look those the way I
just dissect those lyrics is basically, nothing amazing or impactful
or unbelievable gets done that often when we hang out
(55:50):
in our comfort zones, we got to expand, we gotta
be a little uncomfortable in order to make some noise
in order to make something amazing happen sometimes, So great
achievement sometimes takes a a great risk. But I'm on
a hot streak. And what that means is I'm on
the spiritual wind streak and with God, with luck. I
(56:10):
use the word I use luck because you know, I
just want to be respectful and everything. But with God,
with love, that spiritual connection, we can't miss, you know.
So it just reminds me just just trust the process
spiritually and energetically speaking, and yeah, great, great achievement takes
a great risk. I'm on a hot streak. With luck.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
I never miss there. It is appreciate that mine. Thank you,
thank you so much. We could probably talk and we'll
talk for hours.
Speaker 2 (56:43):
First to many many more.
Speaker 1 (56:45):
I usually add by sharing a couple of things that
really stood out.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
Please.
Speaker 1 (56:53):
The three things that are percolating is one the shout
out to the women, to the mom's, the sisters, the grandmothers,
that walitas that really are our first teachers of love.
We always say that without there's no order to life.
(57:13):
It's all copasetic, and we need all energies. But the
primary energy that my elders have taught me has always
been the feminine.
Speaker 2 (57:21):
Absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1 (57:24):
What comes before as a chicken or the egg, you know,
and we are not here without the women and the
feminine spirits. So it's funny that we started that way.
That wasn't the plan, but it was the plan. So
number one, that's what came up. The second thing is
that you said something so profound around rewriting narratives and
(57:48):
that it's so beautiful to hear your story, unfolding story
with your grandfathers, with your father and now being a father,
and how from day one, even though the dominant society
may want us not to express our love for our children,
specifically fathers to sons, that you have shared a profound
(58:12):
story of fathers and sons physically holding each other and
not just saying I love you, but contextualizing it. I
am saying this because my father didn't tell me this,
or because whatever happens to me, I want you never
to not know, but I want you to feel that
(58:34):
your father loves you. And then the last thing that
I take away in the deepest part of my soul
is the profound joy that is found in the darkest
of places, and the teacher that is known as grief,
(59:00):
and the teacher that is known as death. And the
Buddhists say that you have to lean into to death
in order to enjoy life, because then you appreciate every second,
every moment, every breath, and that someone that has known
(59:25):
you for a decade but not known how close to
the other side two people came, your son and you.
And then to be able to sit here and express
(59:45):
to yourself, to your inner child, and to your son,
and to your partner and to your family that we
have each other and that no matter what the doctor
just say, Creator has plans. Things may be written, things
may not be. But what I do know for a
(01:00:08):
fact is that that relationship and that near death experience
with your son has made you even more of a
loving human being. You've always been loving, bro, But today,
in this moment, Stevie is the heartbeat of not just you,
(01:00:28):
but of all of us. Thank you, and so thank
you for the situation, Thank you for everything. And to Stevie,
you are a light that no words could describe you are.
There's not even a sound that can get close to
(01:00:51):
how godlike you are. And so and now I'm only
able to say that confidently because I know you so.
Thank you so much. Hi, thank you for being here.
I have to be invited to that show with your dad,
your son and you.
Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Oh it's mandatory if we're not doing it unless you're there, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
And I surely am so grateful for you being so
open and honest today.
Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Thank you for making it a beautiful, safe, strong, but
vulnerable place to safe place to share. That's everything, man,
Thank you so much. Thank you all for listening, thanks
for checking it out all right, Thank you, blessings man,
Thank you, Mike.
Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
Sacred Lessons is a production of My Heart's Michael through
It our podcast network Sacred Lessons Media, and the Prince Group.
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
What are the cycles fathers passed down that sons are.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Left to yield.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
What if being a man was holding it all together?
I've been learning how to let go. This is a
space where that speak truth to find the power to
heal and transform. I'm Mike Dela Rocha. Welcome to say
your lessons. Some stories are born before we are, Some
legacies are already singing when we arrive. Welcome to sacred lessons.
(00:31):
I'm Mike Dela Rocha. Today I'm sitting with a brother
whose life, like mine, has been shaped by sound, by legacy,
and by fathers who changed the world. Salvador Santana, musician, producer,
and the son of the legendary Carlos Santana. But what
moves me is not his fame, the Grammys, or the stages.
(00:55):
It's Salvador's heart, his warmth, his humility, and the way
he uses music to forge his own path while honoring
the one that he's inherited. As someone raised in a
movement household, myself with a father whose conviction shaped so
much of who I became. This conversation feels deeply personal
(01:17):
to me because when your father is larger than life,
you spend years figuring out where his sound ends and
where yours begins.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
My brother man, so grateful to be here. Thank you
for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
You reminded me when you walked in that it's been
a decade.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
That's wild.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
And then it hit me though, that we met when
my life was fully transformed and turned upside down because
it's been a decade since my dad had left me.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And I didn't even realize that until you said it.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So one, just first up before we jump in, I
want to say thank you for being on this podcast.
I want to say thank you for who you are.
I usually start with having the guests talk about who
you know who they are, but I actually want to
flip it because the way I met you was actually
(02:17):
through your mom, that's right. And your mom stopped me.
I was on a boat at Summit Series, that's and
she went and found me, said, you know what, you
remind me of my son? Would you mind if I
connected you? And I had no clue who she was,
you know, I was like, for sure, she just had
this expansive, beautiful heart. And I say in the book
(02:39):
Sacred Lessons, like no story is complete without talking about
your mom. And I'm a mama's boy. And so you know,
I just want to start with your mom and then
we'll get into you, but sure, tell us about your
incredible mom first, then we'll go in.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Oh my gosh, Man, almost caught me off guard with
that question. There, beautiful, that's a beautiful question. I mean,
my mom, she's she's my hero. She's everything to me. Man,
She she gave me life, you know, basically gave me
(03:14):
the first real understanding of love, investment, care, nurture and yeah,
everything like you just said, you know, she's uh, no
story is really complete until we've had an honor, had
an opportunity to honor our moms and our motherly like
figures in our lives, you know. And for her, man,
(03:37):
she's she's everything. Like like you said, my yeah, our
dad's and my father yeah, you know, yeah, people know him.
You know, some dude who play some guitar a little
bit here and there, and you know, some people know
him here and there. But man, my mom's she's uh,
you know, she's a she's a legend in herself. And
(03:57):
I'm just I'm just so grateful, and not just for
my mother too, of course, but for my grandmother's as well.
My mom's mom and me Abalita. So I want to
give thank you for presenting that that opening topic. You know,
I want to give my mom's flowers, my grandmother flowers,
me Ablita flowers. Man. The strong women in my life, man,
(04:20):
they definitely raised me, for sure, and that's why I'm
a Maybe I look kind of tough on the exterior,
but honestly, man, I'm just I'm just a you know,
like you said, I just try to have a big
heart with a lot of humility and just to be
as kind and respectful, uh, and to honor energy is
what my what my mom my, my my grandmother's and
(04:42):
a lot of especially the last one head us, A
lot of the strong women in my life, man, they
taught me how to be kind, be respectful, make the
world that much better wherever you go, and to also
just have love and care for yourself too, you know.
And that's not being selfish, you know, and especially for us,
it's not just the gender thing, but especially an older
(05:03):
generation of us dudes learning how to reprogram ourselves by
navigating how to I don't know, live in such a
tough but very sensitive world at the same time. So
I like finding like on a chessboard. I like being
right there in that center, those four squares, the centerpiece.
I like staying centered and I like being present. And
(05:25):
then the women in my life growing up, man, they
definitely taught me so much and how to raise me
to be the man that I am to this day.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Yeah, we were talking about the picture of me as
a little boy my dad on the cover, and we
were talking to Jerry Day and he was reminding us
about it really isn't about gender, because it is a construct.
It's about energy, like you said, and the four energies.
He was talking about the four elements, the four directions,
(05:56):
and that we can and do embody all of those energies.
And I guess this what is and what should be.
We should be able to be expansive in all of ourselves.
But the traditional definition of a man or manhood like
who and your family taught you those things? Or was society?
(06:17):
Was it both? What?
Speaker 2 (06:20):
That's a great question, man. You know. Definitely my father,
you know, he's very present in my life. It was
again challenging navigating and getting used to my father coming
home and you know, being there for the time to
be present and be with us and be in the
(06:40):
be with the family and everything, and then he would,
you know, go out and tour and be gone for
X amount of time. So, I mean, I remember being
maybe seven six seven years old, my dad was going
to go on tour, and I don't know if I
was prepared for this one or if he caught me
off guard, you know, just we're all learning, we're all
understanding things, and kind of caught me off guard. And
he's literally dropped me off at school like kindergarten or
(07:04):
Something's like all right, by, I'm gonna see you in
like six weeks, and I'm like, now, you tell me,
like what the you know. So the whole day, like
the teachers called home and said I was a wrack
just because emotionally I just hadn't prepared myself for that necessarily.
And then I just kind of started slowly getting more
used to that. And every time he would leave up
for those tours and for the times they had to
(07:24):
be gone, he would remind me that I'm the lion
of the house and that's my job to protect my mom,
my two sisters since I'm the oldest brother, my grandmothers,
and my aunts when they would come over, like I'm
I have other than the dog. I am surrounded by estrogen,
like I have no choice, you know. But at the
same time, it really strengthened me to be that much
(07:45):
more again solid, but a healthy form of sensitivity and
not hyper awareness, but just awareness around me and things
of that nature. So my dad definitely taught me how
to be you know, strong and how to be He
also reminded me too that, yeah, people are going to
try and test you. You know, you have to learn
how to like culiosis, our job is you got to
(08:07):
learn how to put them up and you know, just
only if you have to for self defense. So I,
you know, learn how to do that stuff really at
an early age. But also at the same time, my
dad reminded me too, He's like, yo, there's no home.
There's no harm in walking away from fights. You know,
you're not less of a man, You're not less of
a boy, You're not less of any head. People are
going to make fun of you and call you chicken
and all this stuff, but you know you're not You're
(08:27):
not any less. You know, life is precious. So I
think that those types of lessons are incredibly important because
it's you know, it's not just how you shape a
young boy or a girl and watching and helping them
grow up and assisting. But it's it's shaping a young soul,
you know, being able to exist in this life and
(08:47):
how to navigate and be as healthy and content and
comfortable with yourself as possible. Because for a long time, man,
I'll be honest with y'all. For a long time I
had I felt like for years I was just adjusting
into my into my own seat, you know. And then
once my son was born, I realized what my main
purpose other than playing music and participating in life was.
(09:11):
I'm here for him, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Point playing before we get into your son, because I
can't wait. Yeah, what were the lessons growing up in
a in a household predominant of women? He shared some
beautiful gifts your dad taught you. What did the women
and your mom and your aella and your sisters teach you?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Absolutely just as simple as being kind, being gentle, holding
the door open for you know, the elderly ladies maybe
with their grocery bags, you know, just helping somebody across
the street, just being kind, saying hello, you know, things
of that is just just being a custodian and a
(09:52):
and a an ambassador of our DNA and our lineage
and everything like that. And yeah, just to just to
be also mentally and spiritually stable, I think is a
big thing. And that wasn't necessarily like taught like this
is how you know mentally and spiritually you stay sable.
(10:14):
One oh one, and here we go like class is
in session. It's like, it wasn't really that. It was
more just like certain experiences, moments, opportunities that I found
myself and where I was like, Okay, I have a choice.
I could either be extra with it. But no, that's
not how I was raised. I wasn't raised to raise
my voice at ladies. I wasn't raised till like obviously
(10:35):
you know, nothing like that. I was raised. To be
respectful is a big thing, and that's what I'm teaching
my son as well too, to be kind, be respectful,
not just everyone else, but mostly also to yourself too.
You know, if you can respect yourself, you can respect
others and allow others to be respectful of you.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Two.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
So there were many things, but definitely respect that was
all the ladies, all the women in my life, especially
growing up, definitely definitely taught me and reminded me. There
were there were very few times where I was needed
to be reminded, but yeah, definitely it was a beautiful
reminder how to be respectful.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
So then with your son, were there things you had
to unlearn to be a more I don't want to
say more to be a present loving father with him?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Oh? Man, Absolutely, so many things that we watched, our
parents and just the people that we grew up with
and that they when they were elders, we were growing up,
they were they were OG's and you know, we were
young YG's and now we now we all together type thing.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
You know.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah, so many different things man, really, uh honestly, the
main one that I've had to not only it's not
reprogram it's more like taking a deeper dive in patience
blasensia man, mass pa sensia. Have to have more patience
and just taking a be taking a breath again, being
(11:59):
present and the patience to be present. Yeah, man, because
especially in this this life, this world, just the pace
of everything, it's got to be instant with the phones,
with everything is instantaneous. We want it now, It's got
to happen right now. We expect immediate results and raising
everybody's different. But for me raising my kid man, he
(12:21):
reminds me to have the deepest amount of patience with him,
the calmness, being calm but assertive, almost like the dog
whisper Guy used to say, the kind of thing. But yeah,
like definitely for me, it's having to unlearn all the
stuff that I reminded myself didn't really work, you know,
(12:44):
when we were when we were kids and watching adults
raising us and then realizing, Okay, now I have an
opportunity to do that as opposed to oh well it
worked then, so that was done then, so therefore it
must work now. Let's be let's be doctical, let's be
stubborn about it. And I'm just like, nah, we have opportunity,
and otherwise we become our own obstacles, you know, we
get on our own way. And for me, raising my son,
(13:08):
just me being here for him, that's that's out of
all the things that I do in this life, that's
the one that I take the most serious. And I'm
just have so much. There's so much joy that and
and knowledge that comes with those experiences, and I wouldn't
trade it for anything. So love you, Stevie, Love your son,
love you, Stevie.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
On the on the Love You your relation with your dad,
did you have one where you would say I love
you to each other?
Speaker 2 (13:36):
It's a very beautiful question. Absolutely, my dad made it
a consistent flow. I want to say, a habit, like
a very consistent flow to say I love you to
me growing up, and I do it with Stevie all
the time. It's not even just because we're Latino and
we're very affectionate by default. But yeah, he reminded me
(14:00):
that he I remember him. Actually we were driving across
the Golden Gate Bridge and he just not like in
a weird way or anything. You just he grab my
hand just like this, you know, and he looked at
me and just said, Son, I love you. And I
was like, okay, love you too, Dad. Kind of weird, okay,
But he then took the time to remind me. He's like,
I'm telling you this, son, because my dad. I Belito Josse,
(14:25):
even though I knew he did. He never once told
me that he loved me, Like, he never said those words.
But he would like pinch my cheek, He would like
wink at me. He would grab my hand and kind
of squeeze it. Like there's again generational ways of saying
I love you, and us men in particular have especially
in the in the past. Not so much now, thank goodness,
(14:45):
you don't hear about as much, but definitely in the
past we had to grow up being like not don't
say I love you, that that type of stuff is
for woosies, and don't show affection, don't show emotions. That's
you know, which bottle on it and be hard this
and this and that. You know, men we don't say
I love you to each other and stuff like that.
I'm like, bro, there's there's so many dudes that I
said I love you, bro, Like you know, like when
we walked in and had seen each other and was
(15:07):
like forever man, I was like, oh, I love you man,
so good scene. You know, all that stuff like this,
there's nothing wrong with that. That's healthy. So I think
it's all about just I love being in an opportunity
to be able to help rearrange narratives and change scripts
and things, because not everything is uh. There's maybe a
few things, but none that come to mind for me
except the love that I have for not only God
(15:28):
but for my son. There's not too many things that
last forever. So let's let's let's keep an open mind
about how we can just be that much better than
we were you know yesterday, you know today.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And then you know, they say in my spiritual tradition
that our children choose their parents, and they choose their
fathers because they come into this world knowing what lessons
we still have left to learn. Like you said, you're
learning the gift of patience with your son. Are there
(15:59):
other guess your son is currently teaching you, man?
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, to appreciate life every moment, every day. Appreciate life. Yeah.
I didn't plan on getting too detailed into it, and
I won't cause I'm still personally working through it. But
you know, there was a my son definitely he's a fighter.
He is a warrior, And that's one of the reasons
why I wore this though this shirt today because it
(16:26):
just felt like he's got that warrior get oto like energy. Man,
he's a fighter, he wants to be here. There was
definitely a couple of times early on in his I mean, shoot,
just the day he was born, there was a couple
of times where life definitely presented the challenge and the
possibilities of him not possibly being here and no parent
(16:49):
should ever have to experience a taste of that, let
alone the full experience of that. And so he taught
me resiliency that there's certain lives and souls and beings
that they are fighting to be here to live this life,
you know. And you hear about so many other people
(17:09):
that are on the other side, they're you know, contemplating
checking out, and I'm just like, yo, like, man, me personally,
I'm just like, I just can never imagine life being
that bad to the point where that's the best option,
you know. And my heart goes out to everybody and
anybody that's that's seeking, you know, better days and a
(17:30):
better you know, there's there's opportunities, there's people to talk
to and things of that nature. Don't hesitate And man,
I almost felt like I almost was one of those
people on the other side. Uh, if something else were
to have transpired with my son. But thank god, thank goodness,
he is the He literally is the sacred prayers and
(17:56):
culmination of the best of our family DNA and legacy,
and the fact that he is here, that to me
is everything. So he's taught me just how to appreciate life,
how to appreciate each moment. He never really knows, So
let's just enjoy this one, you know, and let's be
here for it. Don't worry about yesterday. I don't trip
(18:17):
about tomorrow. We can plan ahead and we can remember,
but let's also be here right now. So he Stevie's
definitely taught.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Me that, given what you just shared and the blessings,
I want to be here and I want to I
want to give gratitude to Stevie for fighting to be here. Yeah,
because in that fighting, you're here and I never I
(18:47):
didn't know this, and I want you to know not
just the love, but the I that I love you
and I this world would have been less loving with
your physical presence not here. And I want to honor
(19:07):
that and say that because a lot of folks right
now feel like they don't belong, they feel like they're alone,
they feel like is it even worth living. It's a
real thing, and a lot of these conversations have been
medicine for me because they've been reminding us of like
(19:28):
we need each other, like a part of me would
no longer be present if you weren't breathing. Obviously, you're
always going to be with us and with me spiritually,
but the physical is a different thing. So I just
want to say thank you for holding on absolutely. And
(19:51):
I also know like art and specifically music has always
been a part of our lives, and like even Sacred
Lessons was my love letters to my dad, but it
was also my way to tell him things I didn't
say when he was physically alive for whatever reasons, some
(20:14):
of his time had passed. Some of it is like
our relationship didn't wasn't able to get to that point
when he was alive where I could grab his hand
like your father grabbed yours. And I think about it.
The only time I think my dad and I grabbed
each other hands when we would go camping like in
(20:35):
the book. And then the last time was actually when
I was holding his hand going into the operating room
and he didn't die right after the operation, but I
remembered feeling like it was uncomfortable because I wasn't taught
to hold my dad's hand, even though like I come
from my dad. And I remember just instinctively saying, overcome
(20:58):
that mental block. What your dad needs is your physical
touch right now. And so I guess my question is
through your music, are there things you're telling your dad
or your son that you aren't able to say, like
just in relation, but you can say through the music.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Oh man, that is such a cool question. That's beautiful,
and thank you for that beautiful backstory to lead up
to that. That's awesome, Mike. Yeah, you know it's interesting
you say that. As I've I don't want to say,
as I've gotten older, yes, but as I progress through life,
I'm learning to become that much more courageous and like
(21:36):
you were saying a second ago, or not to not hesitate.
If you want to say something to somebody, say it,
text them, email them, send smoke signals, whatever you got
to do, man, communication is everything, you know. And yeah,
maybe I think, if anything, more of the songs and
(21:57):
the music I create are for the live and the
souls that I haven't gotten the opportunity to meet or
touch quite yet or like just you know, interact with yet.
But the music is there to remind others that I
hear you, I feel you, and if you're going through
something or whatever experiences in life you're going through, or
you know, having here's something for you, you know, to
(22:19):
either enjoy help you get through, like you were saying
a second, go know that you're not alone. And sometimes
the music, especially for me, like writing songs that are
more instrumental, like less lyrics and things of that nature.
You know. Music for me is what emotions sound like.
(22:40):
And yeah, if anything, it's more just like more than
what I didn't get to say. It's all, hey, here's
that warm hug that ever that I forgot to give
you or that I wanted to give you. I'm over
in New York doing this gig, and my kids out
out here in Cali and maybe my dad's in Vegas
or or some tour and doing something, you know, because
(23:02):
Pops is still going. Man, he won't quit. There's no
quit in him. He's gonna cut. That's in all of
our DNA. When we find something that we love to do,
we don't look at it as work, man, it's our passion.
We we we wake up ready to feed the people,
you know, creatively. So yeah, if anything, my music is
just for anyone and everybody that's down to check it
out and just enjoy have a great time, and for
(23:25):
me also at the same time. So I want to
leave some thoughtful lyrics and concepts and ideas and everything
one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite poets, artists,
Maya Angelou. She said, people are not going to remember
you by what you said or even what you did.
(23:48):
They're going to remember you by how you made them feel, right,
you know, And so in short, yeah, man, that's uh,
that's how that's if anything, that's what I try to
do with my music is to remind people how to feel,
like you said, how to be, how to be not
only how to be present, but like you said, to
remind them of their inner light and their worthiness of
being here. So yeah, I'm just that's what I learned
(24:09):
from my father. That's what he learned from his father. Actually,
quick thing. Both my grandfathers are also musicians. Yeah, so
it wasn't just like it's not just my dad over here.
He's a mariachi musician, violinist, singer. I mean, man, he
(24:30):
was just the way he would sing best on my mucho,
he would just serenade. I mean, he was just he was.
He was that dude. He was that dude. And my dad,
he'll tell anybody in any interview he's like, man, all
my dad wanted to do was just grow up to
be like his dad. That's really all he did. And
for me, it's not that I wanted to grow up
and be exactly like my dad. I wanted to I
wanted to grow up and in a way make him
(24:52):
and the family proud of who I am and who
I'm destined to be. And again, my son reminds me
of that as well too. Oh and my mom's uh,
my mom's dad, Saundra's King. Also my other grandfather blues
blues guitarist and musician. Yeah. So one was a mariachi violinist,
(25:14):
the other was a blues guitarist and jazz guitarist who
inspired so many like BB King and uh peers like
Billie Holliday and T bone Walker. So our musical legacy
it runs deep, man, It's it's in our DNA. It's
in our it's in us and it has to come out.
We gotta we gotta release it. It's and and and
share it and offer it with others. So yeah, for me,
(25:38):
I can't I can't sit still. I gotta musically creatively,
I gotta be doing something And and I see my
son doing it as well too. He'll sit and play
the drums, he'll uh, he'll dance when some music comes
on and everything, I'm like, bro, the DNA, it's it's
in him, It's it's there. So we just we just
want to encourage that with him. And yeah, my music's
for everybody and anybody that wants to check it out.
(25:59):
I'm just it and grateful anybody that that it resonates with.
You know.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
So growing up having such a beautiful tapestry of different
sounds and cultures and backgrounds, was it tough for you
or was it just normalized because this is just who
you were, you know.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
I'm sure there were many challenges, maybe trying to pick
The one challenge I definitely had growing up was there
were so many instruments that were being offered to me
at the same at at the same time, which is great.
My dad wanted me to learn drums first. He felt
(26:47):
that it was very important because the musicians that taught
him as well too. Rhythm is extremely important, you know,
being a live musician, even if you're an E D, M,
DJ or whatever, still have to learn how to be
able to make a crowd move and get up and
dance and like feel themselves and just like in the
be in the moment, be present, and so one of
(27:10):
the one of the first UH. My dad would call
it a babysitter. My first babysitter was on Beta Max.
Was a video of the African UH Nigerian drummer, drummer
by the name of Baba Olatunji and his drums of
Passion and it was a performance I believe it was
(27:32):
New Year's nineteen eighty something, eighteen eighty six or whatever,
opening up for the Grateful Dead in the Bay Area
and just it was like it's like an hour and
change of just nothing but drumming, dancing, singing, you know,
just raw energy, no electronics or anything like that. It's
just taking it back to the dawn of time with
(27:54):
his song and dance. And I would sit there on
these little drums and my dad wanted me to learn
how to just get the timing and everything. Yeah, feel
the beat, feel the rhythm, get the timing of everything.
And I was like, I'm like two three years old,
so I can't even reach the bass pedal and the
high hat. So he's he's controlling the feet and I'm
(28:14):
up here with the sticks and everything like that. But
you know, it's very important for and I'm doing that
with my son now. I want him to learn how
to If you can, you can go to Juilliard and
you can learn how to create these incredible orchestra sonatas,
all these incredible arrangements, harmony, pitch chords, progression melodies, blah
blah blah. We can do all that all day at
the end of the day if you're a live musician,
(28:36):
and it's difficult for one to just get a crowd
to get up and move and dance and feel themselves
and forget about the worries of what was going on
in their lives and they can just let their everything
down and just enjoy with all respect. You're not one
hundred percent doing your job as a musician, you know.
And that's how I was, That's how I was raised.
So the biggest challenge was okay, drums, and then of
(28:56):
course my dad introduced guitar to me, and time I
was only five six year olds, I six years old.
I hated it. I hated it. I hated the guitar.
When I was younger. It was just a lot harder
for me to like pluck the strings just hurt my finger. Oh,
and then violin. I was also taken violin also at
the same time I'd made that thing sound like a
(29:16):
dead cat. Every time I played that thing, man, it
was it so turned me off, you know. So I
just kind of stuck towards the drums. But my folks
really didn't want or like, he's got the rhythm, now
we need to get him into more like chords and pitch.
So they introduced me to piano and the keyboards, and man,
from day one, it just someone once told me, it's
(29:36):
like an orchestra at your fingertips. It's right there. You
got the piccolos, you got the high strings, you got
the viola's, the violins, viola's, cello's, you got everything. It's
all right here. And I don't know, it just made
so it just made so much more sense seeing things
on more of a horizon, horizontal like on a horizon,
and more linear rather than I guess this way. It
(29:58):
just made a lot more sense. So, yeah, piano's my
main gig, my main acts. Drums will always be my
first love. And now I play a little big guitar, bass,
more bass, and I just try to learn a little
bit of everything, you know. But yeah, that was probably
the biggest challenge, was trying to figure out my voice,
(30:19):
my sound, my mission, control, my comfort zone, you know,
just the thing that spoke to me. And I love
what you said a second ago, Mike about how kids
before they're born they select their parents and everything. I
also feel like the same thing with art and music
in particular, like I didn't choose this life. It chows
(30:39):
me being a musician, and the only choice was really, okay,
how do you want to express yourself? Which instrument or
what instruments do you want to choose to express yourself?
And piano made the most sense to me? And what
am I forty somethings? So yeah, I've been playing piano
for almost forty years now? Wow?
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Yeah, what is piano touch about life?
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Those chords? Oh, you know, pianos taught me again so
much how to just respect, be available, enjoy even the
challenges of learning these incredibly difficult and crazy like classical
or jazz pieces or things like that. But also too,
(31:20):
my music saved my life in so many ways. It
kept me out of trouble. I didn't thank goodness, Like
I didn't grow up in any like crazy neighborhoods or
anything like that. The Bay Areas is a trip, man,
It's a beautiful place to grow up. Like anything, there's
pockets and stuff. But definitely when I got to high
school and when I went to San Francisco School of
the Arts and into the city, in the city proper
(31:44):
and everything like that, there were some there were some
kids that are incredibly talented, but you know, they were
still coming from like Hunter's Point, and they were still
coming from like the Mission, and they were still coming
from like Oakland and like you know, some real rough
areas and stuff. So even though they would have a
beautiful full break from that environment and come and we
can all, I guess in a neutral zone just get
(32:06):
along and learn about each other's artistic you know, uniqueness
and qualities and everything like that. There was a couple
times where a couple of friends of mine would you know,
invite me back to some of their areas and everything,
and I thought it would be like an artistic like
jam or things like that. But you hear about Oh Snoopy,
(32:26):
You heard about Snoopy? Now what happened to Snoopy? Man?
He got caught up and hitting on the So we
were sitting on the corner and that party you were
going to go to Salvador. Yeah, he was on the
corner and some dudes just rolled up on him and
took him out, and I was like, dang, that's I
just saw Snoopy like on Friday and it's Monday. He's like, yeah, well,
and so I just thinking about moments like that where
it doesn't seem like a big deal. It was impactful
(32:46):
for me as a fifteen to seventeen year old in
high school, learning like, oh this, this stuff is real
and even though I'm a teenager and I feel immortal,
I'm not Superman. And so I need to really buckle
down and just stay focused on this music thing, on
this journey and on this stay on this path because
I know I'll be I know'm this is this is safe,
(33:08):
This is not only healthy, this is what I'm this
is what I'm destined to do. So yeah, in a way,
music saved my life.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Man.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
The piano taught me how to just not only stay
out of trouble, but just enjoy what you have rather
than going out trying to, you know, seek for more
that you don't necessarily need.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Has Has the music taught you anything around masculine into
your manhood in particular?
Speaker 2 (33:33):
Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, in some ways, just being
on stage. You know, when I'm a band leader, okay,
I'm leading in that regard, everybody else respectfully is therefore following.
Just like in a dance, there's a leader and then
there's a follow there's a lead and a follower in
a way, usually like you know, for the men, they're
(33:57):
the ones that are looking good and everything like that's
and then that's the ladies that are just dazzling, just
spinning around, just making all these incredible amazing moves, especially
in like flamenco or like tango, like different dances. And yeah,
so there's a time when to lead, and then there's
a time to accompany, you know, and to assist. And
so being a band leader and a band member on
stage different roles. Being a lead role as an actor,
(34:21):
if I was to do that and to be a
supporting role, it's it's understanding what our roles are and
what our jobs are and how to just do them
as best as we can so that we can, however
many people are involved in the project or in the experience,
we can all be on a path towards being set
up for success in that regard. And then again yeah,
also too, I think just well I mean, yeah, sure,
(34:46):
there's like there's I've had a band where I've had
all dudes. I've had. I've had a couple of bands
where I've had a female, a lady's vocalist, and a
lady keyboardist as well too, So I I've it's it's
it's beautiful to have a collection and a variety of
different energies. Again, it's not just about gender, but just energies.
(35:09):
And it's taught me to remind myself, Okay, there's things
that we can we can say and what have you,
and then there's things it's like, okay, it's not appropriate
to say. Again, Like what the strong, beautiful ladies taught
me in my life growing up, Just be respectful. Just
be respectful. So yeah, if anything, is just a continuation
(35:32):
of being conscious and mindful of how to just make
the experience that much more enjoyable and comfortable for everybody involved,
including including oneself, including me. So yeah, just being just
being gentle and aware.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
I'm thinking about that two year old that couldn't do
the kick on the drugs, and then the four year
old that was introduced to the guitar, Well would that too,
what would the two four year old Salvador tell the
Salvador today.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Oh man, the two year old would probably say, this
is a lot of fun. You know, this is so
much fun. I'm having a blast. I think the four
year old would be crying and be like, please don't
make me do this anymore, Please make it stop. You know,
it's so interesting you say that, because lately I've been
(36:25):
having a lot of conversations with my inner child a
lot lately, And again, maybe it's just being around my
son that much more and watching him grow up now
that he's seven. I'm literally and the fact that he
from what everyone tells me, he's literally like a what
does he say, He's like a mini twin twining. We're
(36:45):
twinning over here. So it's like when I see him,
I'm literally looking at a little version of me. And
I literally see my seven year old self when I'm
looking right at him. So, if anything, I just get
a chance to a heal that much more. And and
I love how you dive into that, not only in
(37:06):
your book, but in this awesome series that And congratulations
again Mike for you know, inviting me first and foremost.
I'm so honored to be a part of it. And
congratulations for just this. This is so cool man, what
a cool experience. And yeah, so if anything, I'm learning
how to just heal that much more and heal that
(37:27):
inner child and and be and to do that in
order to be the best version of myself on the
rag for my son, you know, I want him. He
deserves to have that constantly, and so for me, that's
to answer your earlier question. Yeah, that's probably what the
two year old and the four year old version would say.
You know, this is fun and I'll make it stop.
(37:48):
But the seven year old version would definitely be like,
you know, thank you for these opportunities and thank you
for introducing me to the piano. This was a g
This is a game changer, you know. So it's it's
more about gratitude and healing. I feel like you are
the main motifs and themes so far of this this conversation,
and I love it on the.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Healing tip, Yeah, because I have a mini me too.
He's twelve though, Oh.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
That's right, that's right.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
I wish no, I don't wish anything. I miss sure
him being seven because that's a magical number.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
Two, it's powerful number.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
But when you're looking at him, and you're looking at yourself.
And I always say, like, I know what my son's
going to do before he does it, because that's exactly
what I want to have done. And you're talking about
healing and the inner child. Is there something that you
need to say to your son to tell yourself in
(38:42):
your own healing?
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Absolutely? Absolutely, every day it's a beautiful question, Thank you, Mike.
Every day before we whether before we go out, you know,
and he goes to school, or before we just go
out into the day or whatever. And even if just
when he gets out of bed, we have this, I
guess it's an affirmation more or less, and it's really just, so,
(39:07):
what are we going to do today, Stevie. We're going
to be kind to ourselves. That's right, son, We're going
to be kind to ourselves. How are we going to
do that? Keep our hands to ourselves, keep our feet
to ourselves. We always promise to love ourselves and protect
our head.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
So protect your head.
Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yeah. The main reason, honestly is because of his medical
history and his fragility. A lot of what had happened
earlier on in his beginnings had to do with his
lack ivess within his head, and so I'm still healing
from it, and honestly, this is the most I've been
(39:43):
able to talk about it in the last six seven years.
But basically, he's had four head surgeries before the age
of six. And you know, the people over it, everybody,
just the doctors, the nurses, everybody over there at CCHLA,
(40:04):
the medical teams. They've just been exceptional, just outstanding, just incredible.
And without them too, you know, it could be a
whole different conversation and everything. So I've just come from
a place of again gratitude and healing and so yeah,
that's why we always say keep our hands feet. Yeah,
(40:24):
promise to love ourselves, because that's huge. Promise to love yourself.
You know, if you love yourself, you're vain, or you're selfish,
or you're conceited. It's like, no, not necessarily, not necessarily true.
In fact, actually it's the opposite. I think vulnerability is
a superpower, and having respect and love for oneself in
a healthy way, I think that should be normalized. Let's
(40:48):
talk about that more and make that more of a thing.
So yeah, and doing so, I'm reminding myself to keep
my hands to myself unless you know, somebody wants to
try me, then we'll see what happens. You know who there,
Sister Travis, keep my hands feet, Promise to love myself,
be respectful, don't let anybody else disrespect you to you know,
choose our opportunities, say saying pick my battles. I choose
(41:09):
my opportunities. There's a time to Okay, this person's trying me.
Let's see what are the options where I can stand
up for myself. And there are times we're like, you
know what ain't worth it? It's all about energy. It ain't
worth it. I got way too many important things going
on today. You ain't worth my worth, my time or energy.
So it's about being selective and reminding again my son,
(41:30):
and reminding myself. We all have choices and opportunities on
the day, on the daily, and as long as we
are present, aware and have that love and healthy love
and appreciation for ourselves and therefore for others, I think
it's gonna be all Gucci man, it's gonna be a
good day.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
I want to share something that is really coming through
loud and clear for me right now to share with you, please,
because when I asked about the head. First off, thank
you for being so vulnerable and sharing because I know
it's hard, this navigating private public life very hard, especially
(42:18):
in this day of age. And when we said the head,
not knowing that in the EFA tradition, you're o e,
which is your purpose is in your head. So when
we say protect your head, it's because you have to
protect your ache, your purpose, your gift of what you're
(42:41):
bringing into the world beautiful. And that's why in the
morning I always put cool water on the top of
my head to keep me cool from not reacting to
what life has it. But your son, you saying to Stevie,
the last thing you're saying is protect your head. When
(43:03):
you're saying is obviously protect your physically, but I'm hearing
it protect your spirit, protect your purpose, protect your life.
And so Stevie is reminding all of us by his
mere existence and presence, that we all have a divine
purpose here. Yes, and our are our roles as fathers
and community, as friends is to protect that spirit, that purpose.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
That love provide and protect. That's that's what it is.
I love that. That is so cool. I unconsciously I
didn't even know that, but that is so cool. Yeah,
you're right, it's more than just the literal physical protecting
your head. It's like, not protect you, your being, your soul,
your spirit, you're just everything. Protect you. There's we're all
(43:49):
one of ones, right, you know, so let's protect that.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Before we go into We always am with this thing
called the Sacred five, you know, you know we're spiritual
beings in a physical body.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
And you you got to see all sides of an
extension of yourself, potentially navigating multiple sides. What it sounds
(44:25):
like nothing's been left said, But what would you like
ten years from now your son is listening to this podcast,
what do you want to tell him?
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Oh my god, how proud I am of him, how
much I love him, and you know, everything I do
is for him, And just how proud I am of him,
and how much he's again I felt it sound like
a broken record, but how much he's taught me to
be just only a better father and a better man,
but just a better human being, you know, every day,
(44:54):
you know, just be better. He did great yesterday, yeah,
but still not good enough. I want to be better,
you know, And just how much he's loved, Like you
were saying a second about how much he inspires so
many and how we all have that capability to be
able to choose to be an inspiration for for multiple
for others, for so many. Yeah, just to know how
(45:17):
much he's loved, how proud, how proud his dad is
of him, and man, just he's he's already a force now.
I mean, he's going to be a force leaves, just
like your son. I would imagine too. All these kids, man,
this generation, it's it's a thing. They all have this individual,
(45:39):
you know, conviction about them. They know who they are.
Like I, we all knew who we were to a degree,
but we still had an opportunity to kind of search
a little bit more and discover. Man. I feel like
the majority of these kids they know exactly who they
are from the jump, and I'm not mad at that.
I love it. And so if anything, it's more about
just Okay, if you know who you are, then not
(46:02):
only own that, but also let's leave some room to
discover more as well to and expand rather than limit,
you know, based off of others and things of you know, opinions,
which doesn't really matter at the end of the day anyway.
So yeah, man, I just want him to know how
proud I am of him how much he's loved and
(46:23):
he's he already is, and how much he's going to
be a force when he does listen to this conversation
in ten years, and hopefully he'll still think his dad
is cool in ten years from now, because he'll be seventeen.
So more times than he'll be like, oh, Dad, you're
embarrassing me, I'll be like, I know, but you know,
that's what I'm here for.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
And do you feel like your dad feels the same
way about you?
Speaker 2 (46:41):
Per one hundred percent? And you know, my dad, I'm
a grown ass dude in my forties. My dad's you know,
is uh, he's he's he's in his later years and
everything like that. He's still doesn't hesitate to figure out
ways to embarrass me, not necessarily on purpose, he just
he just does it. So it's like, you're just never
too old for that. But yeah, man, we're my biggest goal.
(47:05):
I'll leave it at this, because man, my, my, the
rush you get when you're on stage performing as you know, Mike,
or just being in you know, any atmosphere that we
get to create, that rush is just is everything. So
I can't wait for Stevie to experience that and then
my biggest goal in life is to have myself, my
(47:26):
father in no particular ard, myself, my father, and Stevie
all on stage at the same time performing together, because
there's not too many people that can say we got
three generations on stage performing at the same time. So
that's my big goal and we're going to make that
happen very very soon. But hopefully hopefully you're there with
us that I got you, I got you, my gee,
(47:46):
I got well.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Last question before five you. I want to end with
this because it was so powerful. You said vulnerability is
a superpower. Elaborate on that before we close.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
You got it. You know what I mean by that is,
you know, it gets the concept of being tough and
being hard and all that stuff. It Yes, that's a
choice and everything like that, but me personally, man, that
gets exhausting after a while. It really really does. And
(48:23):
just walking around with all this armor and all this
luggage and all this feeling like I'm in the I
don't know, in the Marines and I'm doing that one
of those hardcore trainings type thing. You know, Okay, cool,
you did that, but it's like you do that every
single day for years. After a while brother, it becomes exhausting,
and I had to learn how to not be liked.
(48:46):
I had to learn how to be tough emotionally and
physically and also therefore mentally. But also I had to
be very acceptive, goal radically acceptive of my son's journey
in the beginning of his medical history and fragility very
(49:08):
early on in that journey. I mean having professional doctors
and medical people literally coming up to you a lot
saying that you know, he might not make it, and
things of that nature. It put me in a place
where I had to be tough, but also at the
same time, I had to be in my fields. I
had to feel these feelings of the possibilities of all
(49:30):
that stuff. And then it got to a point, Mike, honestly,
my dude, where I was like, there's certain things I
can accept, and then there's certain things I refuse to accept.
Absolutely not. I know that God has a purpose for
all of us. God has a purpose specifically for my son,
and my son wants to be here. I know God
will guide the doctor's hands. I know God will listen
(49:51):
to all of our prayers. And as long as I'm there, present,
doing my job, waiting willing and available for my son
if you need and if anybody needs me, I'm there,
I'm present. And so then that's when I found out
how vulnerability can be that superpower, being vulnerable, not being
(50:11):
not being afraid to be like, oh wow, this this
is a reality. But also at the same time, it's
like you still have choice. One still has choices within
those realities, and my choices were you can still be
here for him, and you can still be present, and
you're not less of a man, You're not less of
a person by showing those vulnerabilities, oh and being strong
(50:32):
and stoke for others that they need a break, you know,
they need a break. Some of my other family members
that knew about what was going on too, they they
had to tap out. It was too much for them,
and I get it, you know, But for me, I
was like, that's my kid. It's never too much for me.
I'm here. So that's specifically what I meant for vulnerability
(50:52):
as a superpower, but it could be anything me being
on stage, you know, and I met and I make
a flub, you know, it's like my solo and you
know or whatever, and it's just like, oh, I just
shrug my shoulders and then I do another riff and
people like, Oh, that's so cool. It's just it's how
you play it off, man, It's just how you do.
How you move is basically what you're communicating to everybody
(51:14):
else who you truly are, and how you react or
don't react under pressure. Right. So yeah, the vulnerability is
a superpower. My vulnerability is a superpower. Yeah, man, absolutely, Well.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
The Sacred five is how we end. I ask five questions,
you answer in a word or a sentence, and it's
like practical takeaways for folks that are watching or listening.
So the first question, name three things that make you
feel safe, connected and whole.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
Oh I mean I feel like I just mentioned them. God, family,
and music.
Speaker 1 (51:59):
What song, book or prayer brings you back home to yourself? Oh?
Speaker 2 (52:05):
Man, wow, that's a great question. Man. You know what,
there's this beautiful song called piece Piece by Bill Evans,
the composer pianist, did a lot of arrangements for Miles Davis,
and it's called p e acee piece Piece like a
(52:27):
piece of cake or something like that, and it's just
a piano acoustic piano solo of his for about six
or seven minutes and it's just such a beautiful journey.
I put it on for if life gets a little
stressful and everything like that, I need a palate cleanser.
I just put that song on and I'm immediately centered
and right back into it. So Piece Piece by Bill Evans.
Speaker 1 (52:50):
Beautiful, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (52:51):
I can't yeah, check that one out. Man, Let me
know what you think.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
What's one daily ritual or practice that grounds you?
Speaker 2 (52:59):
Oh? Man? And I have so many, I think, honestly.
Now it's there's so many that I there's so many
I could choose from. But I think the one that
I touched on earlier, the little one that I do
with my son, you know, I really think that one
has become more prominent and it's become more of a
(53:22):
part of just the daily flow again, like you said,
a ritual and part of a habit. So just honoring
our inner child and our inner selves, you know, to
be that much more present, kind and respectful of everything
else and everyone else. So keep in hands, feet to ourselves,
love ourselves, protect our head or what was the our
(53:43):
auDA or or or there it is.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
That's funny. You said it for him, but it's saying
it for both of you.
Speaker 2 (53:50):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, So yeah, that's that's probably the one.
All right.
Speaker 1 (53:55):
What's one small action that listeners can take today on
their healing journey?
Speaker 2 (54:01):
Oh man, whatever that, whatever that ritual like you described
that that centers somebody or whatever brings you back and
makes you whole. To the individuals and everyone listening and watching,
streaming interacting with us, you do that for yourselves, you know,
(54:23):
whatever that is, as long as it's obviously not harming
or doing anything like that anybody else or anything like that.
You know, if it's if it's sacred and it's meaningful
and it's beneficial, it's nutritious spiritually and energetically. I say,
do that, man, There's there's never enough of that. So
to each their own and whatever that is, to that
individual and to those folks, y'all do that.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
Man.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
For me, I'm just gonna go and hang out with
my son and record some music and get into that
creative flow and creative tip.
Speaker 1 (54:53):
So last questions, star, share a one line blessing or
quote that is inspires you. Oh man, I mean you
shed one earlier, But which one was that angel one?
Speaker 2 (55:06):
Oh dang, that was a good one. I should have
I should have saved that. Ah man, you know what,
So it's funny I have these uh. I have these
lyrics in one of my songs called Fantasy Reality, and
one of the lyrics is on there is a great
(55:27):
achievement sometimes takes a great risk. But I'm on a
hot streak and with luck I never miss. And so
for me, the way I look those the way I
just dissect those lyrics is basically, nothing amazing or impactful
or unbelievable gets done that often when we hang out
(55:50):
in our comfort zones, we got to expand, we gotta
be a little uncomfortable in order to make some noise
in order to make something amazing happen sometimes, So great
achievement sometimes takes a a great risk. But I'm on
a hot streak. And what that means is I'm on
the spiritual wind streak and with God, with luck. I
(56:10):
use the word I use luck because you know, I
just want to be respectful and everything. But with God,
with love, that spiritual connection, we can't miss, you know.
So it just reminds me just just trust the process
spiritually and energetically speaking, and yeah, great, great achievement takes
a great risk. I'm on a hot streak. With luck.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
I never miss there. It is appreciate that mine. Thank you,
thank you so much. We could probably talk and we'll
talk for hours.
Speaker 2 (56:43):
First to many many more.
Speaker 1 (56:45):
I usually add by sharing a couple of things that
really stood out.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
Please.
Speaker 1 (56:53):
The three things that are percolating is one the shout
out to the women, to the mom's, the sisters, the grandmothers,
that walitas that really are our first teachers of love.
We always say that without there's no order to life.
(57:13):
It's all copasetic, and we need all energies. But the
primary energy that my elders have taught me has always
been the feminine.
Speaker 2 (57:21):
Absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1 (57:24):
What comes before as a chicken or the egg, you know,
and we are not here without the women and the
feminine spirits. So it's funny that we started that way.
That wasn't the plan, but it was the plan. So
number one, that's what came up. The second thing is
that you said something so profound around rewriting narratives and
(57:48):
that it's so beautiful to hear your story, unfolding story
with your grandfathers, with your father and now being a father,
and how from day one, even though the dominant society
may want us not to express our love for our children,
specifically fathers to sons, that you have shared a profound
(58:12):
story of fathers and sons physically holding each other and
not just saying I love you, but contextualizing it. I
am saying this because my father didn't tell me this,
or because whatever happens to me, I want you never
to not know, but I want you to feel that
(58:34):
your father loves you. And then the last thing that
I take away in the deepest part of my soul
is the profound joy that is found in the darkest
of places, and the teacher that is known as grief,
(59:00):
and the teacher that is known as death. And the
Buddhists say that you have to lean into to death
in order to enjoy life, because then you appreciate every second,
every moment, every breath, and that someone that has known
(59:25):
you for a decade but not known how close to
the other side two people came, your son and you.
And then to be able to sit here and express
(59:45):
to yourself, to your inner child, and to your son,
and to your partner and to your family that we
have each other and that no matter what the doctor
just say, Creator has plans. Things may be written, things
may not be. But what I do know for a
(01:00:08):
fact is that that relationship and that near death experience
with your son has made you even more of a
loving human being. You've always been loving, bro, But today,
in this moment, Stevie is the heartbeat of not just you,
(01:00:28):
but of all of us. Thank you, and so thank
you for the situation, Thank you for everything. And to Stevie,
you are a light that no words could describe you are.
There's not even a sound that can get close to
(01:00:51):
how godlike you are. And so and now I'm only
able to say that confidently because I know you so.
Thank you so much. Hi, thank you for being here.
I have to be invited to that show with your dad,
your son and you.
Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Oh it's mandatory if we're not doing it unless you're there, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
And I surely am so grateful for you being so
open and honest today.
Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Thank you for making it a beautiful, safe, strong, but
vulnerable place to safe place to share. That's everything, man,
Thank you so much. Thank you all for listening, thanks
for checking it out all right, Thank you, blessings man,
Thank you, Mike.
Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
Sacred Lessons is a production of My Heart's Michael through
It our podcast network Sacred Lessons Media, and the Prince Group.
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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