The 74-year-old was about 20 minutes into his set at the Pine Knob Music Theater in Clarkson, an outdoor venue on the edge of Detroit, when he passed out, prompting medical staff to sprint on stage, cover him with a tarp and carry him off. “Medical personnel on scene. The crowd asked to pray for him because of a ‘serious medical’ problem,” Fox 2 Detroit’s Roop Raj reported. In a statement, a rep for Santana said he “suffered heat exhaustion and dehydration” during the show and was “taken to McLaren Clarkson’s emergency department for observation and is doing well.” Video recorded by a fan shows Santana waving to the crowd as he is wheeled away. In early February, Santana announced that he and his band members had contracted COVID-19, causing them to cancel some tour dates. And late last year, the 10-time Grammy winner and pioneering Mexican maestro canceled a series of dates at his Las Vegas residency due to his recovery from heart surgery. “I just wanted to share with you some clarity on exactly what’s going on with my physicality,” Santana said in an online video. “There have been rumors here and there about this and that. Well, I’m here to crystallize and clear it up. Last Saturday, I had an incident where I asked my wife, Cindy, to take me to the hospital because I had this thing going on in my chest.” Santana became known for combining rock and roll, blues and Latin jazz, having been influenced by guitarists BB King and Jimi Hendrix, as well as band leader Tito Puente. He began playing in the 1960s with Santana’s band, whose first appearance came at Woodstock – with a spirited rendition of the group’s song “Soul Sacrifice” featured in the famous 1970 documentary Woodstock. Santana’s 1970 second album, You snortfeaturing the singles “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Cómo Va”, it reached No. 1 on the US album charts and is considered one of the greatest LPs of all time. After a relatively dormant period, Santana returned to the top of the charts with the 1999 album Supernatural. The collaborative effort, including guest appearances on the mic from Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill and Rob Thomas (who sang on “Smooth,” which was a No. 1 Advertising sign charts for 12 consecutive weeks), sold 30 million copies and won nine Grammys, including Album of the Year. The previous year, he and his band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
