Carlos Santana Prepares to Move On After Music Career

MUSIC NEWS- Award-winning guitarist Carlos Santana , 61, recently said he's considering church ministry when he retires from music. Santana has told Rolling Stone magazine he would eventually like to start a church in Maui, Hawaii. He went on to described how his faith has helped him get through the difficult times in his life. "I'm going to stop playing when I'm 67 and work on what I really want to do, which is to be a minister, like Little Richard," (or Richie Furay ) he said. But despite his musical successes, Santana says he wants to move on and explore his other many skills.

"I'm not sick of what I do, but I find that God gave me the gift of communication even without my guitar and with the ability to get people unstuck with certain sections of the Bible having to do with guilt, shame, judgment and fear," he said. He also spoke about the pain of his recent divorce from his wife of 34 years and the way his faith helped him get through it; and battle thoughts of suicide. "The thing I learned is, you have to go through the darkest night of the soul to get to the brightest light of the day, and that's what I did last year," he added. The Latin/rock guitarist is one of the world's most respected musicians, winning multiple Grammys for his work, nine of which were awarded in 1999. A long ride from his national debut at Woodstock. In addition, Santana is involved in a wide range of ventures and charitable activities. He's set up a charity to help disadvantaged young people, has a line of women's shoes , a line of sparkling white wine and a partner in a chain of Mexican restaurants! Mr Santana is currently in the middle of his Live Your Light tour which ends on October 12 in Concord, California and about to release a two-disc album entitled Multi Dimensional Warrior (releases Oct 14 on Sony Legacy). "Warrior" will be his 38th album and is comprised of some of his lesser-known songs from his past releases .