Guitar legend Carlos Santana shared that his faith in Jesus stopped him from committing suicide after a chain of depressing events. One of these events included when his wife Deborah left him after 34 years of marriage, and suicidal thoughts crossed Santana’s mind.
On October 19, 2007, Deborah Santana filed for divorce after 34 years, citing “irreconcilable differences.” In a Rolling Stone interview, Santana admitted that he attempted suicide seven times. However, it was only through God’s grace that his life was saved. He explained how going to a local church also helped him. Jesus’ voice gave him hope to live and brought him a revived joy that music never gave him.
Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 70s with his band, Santana, which established a fusion of Latin American music and rock. The band’s sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines against African and Latin rhythms featuring percussion instruments like congas and timbales, which weren’t usually heard in rock music. He kept working in these forms through the years, experiencing critical acclaim and a popularity resurgence in the late 1990s.
In 2003, Rolling Stone listed Santana at number 20 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He’s won three Latin Grammy Awards and 10 Grammys. Besides the breakdown of his marriage, Santana openly discussed growing up in a dysfunctional family where his father abandoned him. When he was 10, he was repeatedly molested by his father’s friend, who bribed him into silence. The friend’s actions instilled fear and guilt into the boy, and it took years for Santana to forgive his molester. The burden of his past was finally lifted with the help of God’s grace.
In an October 2008 interview with Rolling Stone, Santana said, “I was able to remove the anger by forgiving that man. Forgiveness, man, forgiveness is incredibly liberating. And I’m here to tell you, with all my heart and spirit, that it can be done. You can be freed.”
Santana came to a point where he realized that his life was in God’s hands, not his own. His unfortunate past helped him trust in God’s plan for his life. His father’s abandonment of their family, the family friend molesting him, and his rocky marriage made him realize that only through God’s grace can a man survive.
Santana planned to retire as a musician to become a pastor. He said he wanted to help people who are going through troubles in their life. He still doesn’t know how the plan will unfold, but he said, “God is not done with me yet.”