Rock legend didn’t want a Las Vegas residency, until he heard ‘a voice’

Carlos Santana faced what we’ll call “The Broccoli Conundrum” when first contemplating a Las Vegas residency.

“When you say you don’t like something, all of a sudden it’s going to be coming out of your ears, right?” the “Soul Sacrifice” rock legend says during a recent chat in his Las Vegas headquarters. “If I say to God, ‘I hate broccoli,’ all of a sudden, it’s going to be coming out of my ears.”

Similarly, some 17 years ago Santana resisted something that would be good for him at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel.

“I said, ‘You know, I could never do that thing in Las Vegas, because I can’t see myself doing the same thing every night in the same place,’” Santana says. “And then a voice said to me, ‘Shut up.’”

And play, if you want to finish the sentence.

Ordering off the veggie menu, Santana would go on to headline more shows at Hard Rock Hotel (today’s Virgin Hotel) than anyone, 116 covering 2009-2011. He’s the champion at House of Blues, too, having surpassed 300 and still counting. Santana resumed his spiritual rock excursion Wednesday night, continuing Thursday, Friday Saturday, Sunday and May 21-25.

At 77, Santana looks decades younger, ready to rock with his gold-gold-flaked PRS guitar. But he’s suffered dehydration that cost him two shows in Texas last month. He broke his left pinkie in January, which cost him his Jan. 22- Feb. 2 dates.

But the rock star was nimble with the digits as he noodled on the PRS while wearing multicolored Jimi Hendrix T-shirt and beige fedora from his own hat line. An able collaborator, Santana is buoyed by his latest album, “Sentient,” which features some long-ago collabs with Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, Paolo Rustichelli, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, Cindy Blackman Santana and Smokey Robinson. (The tune with Robinson is an alternative take of 2009s “Please Don’t Take Your Love.” The song was included long before Robinson’s recent sexual-assault allegations from four former housekeepers, which Robinson’s attorney has strongly denied.)

Santana’s shows touch on many of his classics, “Oy Cómo Va,” “Soul Sacrifice,” “Jin-go-lo-ba,” “Evil Ways” and “Black Magic Woman.” Anchored by Santana’s restlessly fierce drumming spouse, Blackman Santana, the band remains intact, with co-vocalists Ray Green and Andy Vargas out front.

“What I love is the energy and consciousness. Those are the two words that when you say ‘Santana,’ you are going to get,” the icon says. “When you go to the Grateful Dead or the Eagles, you know what to expect.” That’s what you get when you come to Santana, high energy and high consciousness.

The band’s musical forays keep every performance fresh, avoiding the duplicity Santana was wary of some 16 years ago. But the hits and videos dating too Woodstock are all there, buffered by Santana’s ongoing spiritual monologue between songs.

“I see humanity, a family in Las Vegas,” says Santana, who shares a home with Blackman Santana here. “It’s more than just what they call it, a Disneyland for grown-ups. Las Vegas is beautiful, it’s expanding, and at my shows I love how humans are interacting with one another. It’s very harmonious. That’s what my show is.”

Great Moments in Social Media

Kenny Chesney and his band have posed in front of an iconic Las Vegas landmark. See where on Chesney’s Instagram page.

The leader of No Shoes Nation is the one with the backward hat. This ensemble opens next week at Sphere.

Tease this …

A legend is coming into another legend’s show this weekend. Follow yours truly (meaning, online) for updates.

Don’t count on this …

A 5 p.m. headliner replacing “iLuminate” at The Strat. There’s a time and place to bring in a 5 p.m. show, and now ain’t it.

Power up

Assembled around the VIP booth at The Pinky Ring at Bellagio on Wednesday: Bandleader, trumpet player and music director Brian Newman; rocker, vocalizer, socializer, and DJ hypnotizer Tommy London, with Vixen guitarist Britt Lightning; Barry Manilow keyboardist and busy composer Joey Melotti; and Vegas cabaret standouts Celena Sasso (who just joined the Mayfair Supper Club cast) and Cheyenne Adams (catch her at The Mob Museum or anywhere else). Newman is adding two more singers and another couple of band lineups as proprietor Bruno Mars returns to Dolby Live (and the club, we forecast) next week.

Cool Hang Alert

Charles McNeal doesn’t toot his own horn, metaphorically. But he can wail on the sax, whether with Jonathan Karrant this week in an amazing Johnny Mercer show at Myron’s, or on occasion with David Perrico and the Raiders House Band, or from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday at the Las Vegas Jazz Society event at Bootlegger Bistro.

Dave Siegel on keys, Steve Flora (whom I pocket-dialed last week) on bass and Y.L. Douglas on drums. A $25 ticket, or $20 for members. Cool artist. Fine photographer, too. Go to LVJS.org for intel.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.