A reporter finds a homeless man who claims to be Santana's friend when he is investigating illegal dumping and reconnects the two friends who have lost contact for decades.
- December 23, 2013
AceShowbiz -
Carlos Santana has met a former bandmate after being separated for years, thanks to a news reporter. The reporter, Stanley Roberts, was doing an investigation about illegal dumping for a San Francisco TV station when he interviewed a homeless man who claimed to be percussionist Marcus "The Magnificent" Malone.
According to KRON-TV, Malone told Robert that the Santana Blues Band was started in his mother's garage in 1960s. "At one time I was with the Santana band, the original Santana blues band. Now I'm homeless and on the streets," he said.
Malone explained that he and Santana lost contact after he was jailed in 1969. After being released, he had a hard time finding a job and ended up rummaging for valuables. Feeling skeptical about the story, Roberts checked the claim and confirmed it.
Malone finally met the legendary guitarist on Friday, December 20. "You don't know how afraid I am to let you see me," Malone said as they hugged. "We cherish you. It's an honor to be in your presence," the guitarist replied.
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Santana promised that he would help Malone. "I want to offer him a place to stay in an apartment, get him some clothes, and just get him out of the street," he revealed. Santana also said that he wanted to record songs with Malone.
"I want to offer my brother Marcus Malone an opportunity to record on the next album with the original band, with Greg Rolie. We wrote a song for him called 'Magnificent Marcus Malone'. We want him to play on it and we're going to start, Lord willing, in January or February. So I would like to get him some congas so he can get his hands hard again because he hasn't been playing the congas in a while," Santana explained.
