SINGAPORE — Guitarist Carlos Augusto Alves Santana has been called many things. A guitar god. A music legend. A pioneer. A hero.

But the Grammy Award-winning artiste said that all the wealth, fame and public adoration doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have heart.

“Learn to feel your heart first. It’s important to take a deep breath and be at the centre of your heart,” he said over the phone from Las Vegas, where he lives. “For me, life is not a business or mechanics, it’s a flow of energy that, once you tap into the centre of your heart, it becomes such that it’s almost like you don’t play the guitar, it’s almost like the guitar plays itself because the ‘you’ moves out of the way.

“Ego is about criticising and worrying, you know? Did I look good today? Am I in tune? This and that. But the heart doesn’t think like that. The heart just wants to share. Not compare or compete. It just wants to share and complement. So for those who want to play music, learn to crystalise your energy so that your mind and your heart are one and there’s no separation.”

That’s why the musician loves to continue making new music and sharing that music at his concerts, he said. And if his track record is anything to go by, Santana’s upcoming Singapore gig on March 4, in support of his latest album, Shape Shifter, will be one, long “almost spiritual” experience. Christopher Toh

You played for three hours at your last show here. And you don’t seem to want to slow down. How do you keep your energy up?

Carlos Santana: I like to think we cultivate a thinking where you can will yourself — it’s like pushing a switch in your brain, where you can be happy or inspiring or annoying or tired and I know that for myself, my choice is to click the right switch in my brain, so that when I wake up, I wake up not only to play music but to inspire people to be motivated to feel that you can make a difference in the world that you can bring equality and justice to the world without hurting anyone. The same thing that Bob Marley or John Lennon used to say. It’s the same energy that flows through my heart and this energy is very effervescent and very vibrant.

Is this energy something that you discovered at a very young age, or when you were starting out?

It’s something that you have to discover every day. It’s like golf. You’re not going to hit a hole-in-one every day. But sometimes you are. So you have to trust and believe in the mechanics of everything, but at the same time, become one with the whole. A lot of it has to do with trusting. Trust that you’re good enough to play the truth. When you play the truth, when you become a person who plays music outside of the times, it becomes more memorable, people remember it for the rest of their lives. With some music, as soon as it’s over, you forget it. But some music stays with you always.

So has everything turned out the way you wanted it to be?

Everything is more than what I wanted it to be. I just wanted to be like my dad, because everybody loved my dad. I wanted to be like him. He was very charismatic and everyone adored my father. I wasn’t concerned about becoming rich or anything like that, I just concentrated on being true to my feelings. Because feelings are the universal language. Music is second. But if I say to you (hums), “mmm mmm mmmm!”, you’ll understand what I’m saying. You don’t need to understand English or Spanish for that. You can understand it at a very basic level.

Your last album was called Shape Shifter. Why call it that? Is it because of this flow of energy you’re talking about?

I think Bruce Lee said, “Adapt yourself, change your perception”. You know, water becomes a lake, a cloud, an ice cube, a bath or a glass of water. So it’s important for humans to shape shift, adapt yourself. People who are patriotic are like rocks. It’s very difficult for a patriotic person to see the beauty in another country or another person. So being patriotic, while on the one hand is good, it can become a very negative element because you’ll start to feel superior to another country and only your country matters. I’m more “global family”. Bob Marley was global. Everybody that I love, they’re global citizens, planetary citizens. A patriotic person is not necessarily in harmony with another country, but only with their country. There’s a beauty in that, but it’s also a negative thing. I’d like for people to claim the perception of being one global family.

Speaking of going global, with technology, your music can go across to everybody all over the world. Is this something that you can use as a tool for being a global citizen?

I welcome it. I think it’s okay. A lot of people are very curious about what is the next big thing. So hopefully, (technology) is something that brings joy to people and helps stop the violence and war, massacres in schools and in shopping centres. Hopefully it can bring more compassion. In fact, let’s make compassion go viral.

In that case, what would you like your legacy to be?

Same thing as Bob Marley or John Lennon. To bring happiness and harmony unity. Thank you very much.

Carlos Santana performs on Mar 4, 8pm, Singapore Indoor Stadium. Tickets at S$252, S$202, S$152 and S$102 from Sistic.