Carlos Santana Talks About the LSD That Jerry Garcia Gave Him Before Going Onstage at Woodstock

Several hours before going onstage at Woodstock in 1969, the great Carlos Santana was given a hit of LSD by none other than Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. According to Santana, his brain exploded into a new dimension, and before he knew it, it was time to play. Even though the effects of the drug hadn’t worn off, his performance was absolutely masterful.

So I went — and as soon as I took it, it was like poof. Everything became another dimension. You know? And then I see this face coming and saying if you don’t play now, you’re not going to play at all. You need to go on right now. I’m like oh, my god. Okay.

Luckily Santana trusted his talent and his faith to get past the effects of the drugs to put on the best performance of his life.

I trusted that my fingers knew where to go and what to do. What I was hauling up to make the connection was with my spirit in God, so that God would say okay, take a deep breath. Take a deep breath and i’m going to guide you, navigate through all this mind hallucination stuff because you know, and then i began to really like it.

Santana Playing ‘Soul Sacrifice’ at Woodstock