Carlos Santana says he never got into music wanting to be popular.

That didn’t stop the veteran from becoming one of the most popular artists in music last year with a new album and industry recognition that has provided a stunning career resurgence.

With multi-millions of his radio friendly new album "Supernatural" being sold, winning a broad new fan base, and a mind-boggling nine Grammy Awards bestowed on him last February — record, album and song of the year among them – Carlos Santana is hot – at an age that some of his peers might be considered dinosaurs.

Santana says he certainly is grateful for that attention, but implies it’s just a byproduct of a career in which he has held true to his original intent – touching people.

"Ever since I was a child and saw my father (Jose, an accomplished mariachi violinist and experienced musician), I saw that music was a real force that truly drives people away from their misery and doldrums and sickness and evil," he says.

It takes you to another plateau where you don’t have to judge or fear or doubt, he says. "It takes you away from that. There is only one absolute truth, and that is we all are one. We’re inner connected. Once we find that centerness we have complete and total synchronicity with incredible possibilities."

Long before the music industry invented a category for it, Carlos Santana, who long ago found that centerness, already was playing it.

His passionate, soulful, art reached straight from his heart to ours, transcending geographic boundaries and making us all citizens of his musical world.

Cynics who think that it is merely a cliché to suggest that music is a universal language need only look at the ability that Santana’s special sound has in speaking to listeners worldwide.

Long before there was "world" music, there was Carlos Santana.

And that infectious, uplifting – and for some, spiritual – beat plays on.

He comes full circle with "Supernatural," marking his debut on Arista and his re-association with Clive Davis, the industry executive who signed him to his first record contract in 1968 while at CBS.

Davis and Carlos are executive producers of "Supernatural," recorded in several locations, including New York and San Francisco. It features a stellar list of guest artists including Dave Matthews, Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20, Eagle Eye Cherry and The Dust Brothers, among others.

"I feel this CD is necessary and important. The principles of every person who participated on this CD are the same," Santana says. "We want to give young people a sense of self worth and a sense of beauty and compassion. So many people are not happy unless they are miserable and then they become destructive. Their frustration and depression breed homicide, suicide or genocide."

When you listen to really good music, no matter who you are, you get goose bumps, he adds. "You dance and laugh and cry at the same time. It gives you a sense of healing – real, timeless music touches you to the inner core.

"I’ve known for a long time that John Coltrane and Bob Marley re-arrange your molecular structure. I wanted to be part of that. I said to Mr. Clive Davis before I signed the contract that I want to help unify the molecules with the light.’ He said, ‘How do you want to do that?’ ’’

Santana says there are a lot of times where he feels quite incidental to the creative process. "I walk in and things are happening already. As Miles (Davis) used to say, ‘Sometimes all it requires is to squeeze the lemon on the fish to bring the flavor of it out.’ Blues players do that.

"A lot of times it feels like I’m on a Paris street and I feel connected to every person: Miles Davis, Eric Clapton, Lauryn Hill and others. I call them, or vice versa, and they say, ‘You’ve been in my dreams.’ Or if I go into a restaurant and hear their music, I know something is up. Sometimes I feel incidental and at other times I feel like part of a certain whole thing."

He says he feels as if he has been going to school a long time learning from Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock and John Lee Hooker and Bill Graham and "everybody."

"Now I feel like I’m getting my degrees as far as constructing a bridge that is connected to the new generation. For example, the gentleman who built or designed the Golden Gate Bridge, he had a vision too. It cost a lot of money and took a long time, but there it is – you can drive over it and cross it, you know it’s a work of art that fulfills a lot of people’s needs. I feel like that particular concept with this CD. We constructed a bridge together.

"Most people are either very passionate or intense about the new vibrations or vision for this new Millennium, or they are very cynical or arrogant.

"I’m one of those who is extremely passionate, knowing in my heart that music was given to us to invite the multitudes, especially people going to junior high and high school and universities, to present them some new menus. I don’t want them to necessarily feel or think like me, but I want them to understand that the spirit empowers, there are tremendous powers and opportunities and they must learn to validate that."

Asked to rank this album in his body of work, the artist replies, "It is like a door, not even a house, but a big door that opens up and people can find their own room.

"For me, my instructions were to be patient, gracious and grateful and bring the best out of a situation. There are control freaks and wet noodles. My instructions were ‘Don’t be neither. Don’t let people control you and don’t control anybody. Bring the best out of a situation – from producers and songwriters and engineers and companies and even the guy who brings the hamburgers."

In classic understatement, he says. "I feel like we’ve done a pretty good job."

"Everybody was really gracious. I learned so much from each one. Each one of them is supremely comfortable in their own skin."

Santana says time will tell whether "Supernatural" is viewed as one of his best albums.

"I know ‘Caravanserai’ and ‘Abraxas’ were extremely important. I feel this one is supremely important. It is a sign to reach younger people through the medium of radio. This is built for radio."

He found it a joy working with Clive Davis again.

"I do tremendously enjoy working with him. He told me he never stopped listening to my music. He felt that together we could create a win-win situation and give people our very best," he says.

You still need a song that people can relate to, Santana says.

"That’s the same with Barbara Streisand or Whitney Houston. It’s a matter of acknowledging the grace God has given you and hoping that he will turn you to the right people who will have another piece of the puzzle, and you get the right textures. You just have to be able to trust you are not going in there shooting arrows at the moon in the dark."

He still very much enjoys the live concert experience.

"Tremendously. When you see a windy day and go to a meadow or valley and see the wind moving all the grass and trees, and they all move like waves, it’s like that when you play – from first row to last row. They all move like that and you’re not being a cheerleader; they all just move.

"It’s extremely fulfilling. It’s soul fulfilling. You know the sounds are coming out of the heart and fingers and wires and making them feel a sense of spiritual orgasm."

There is much that he still wants to do artistically.

"I still want to be able to go to Africa, Cuba and China some day, and spread a spiritual virus," he explains. "And I want to make an all-women album with Aretha and Whitney Houston and Patti LaBelle and others. And I want to make an album of Wayne Shorter and Coltrane.

"There are a lot of things to do still for the right reasons. It’s a matter of patience and asking God for the right circumstances for it to be so. I look forward to retiring two or three years at a time too."

He says he is proudest of his mother, children and his wife. "The women have been extremely important in my life as far as teaching me everything," he explains. "Musicians learn from women: in their rhythms and intuition and clarity. It’s important to dance with all the energy and make a bouquet and present it to the world – use all your energy the same as you would a car, use it to help transport people for the highest good."

Santana says he finds himself at an interesting point in his career and his life.

"I am becoming those people I love, like Harry Belafonte and Arthur Ashe, all those people I love. I say that with a lot of respect and humility. These are people who transcend generations. It’s because of the persons they are. I believe in synchronicity."

He insists there is no separation between his creativity and his spirituality.

"They really are one. I’m working a lot, infusing more of a discipline and longer hours of meditation. I do read a lot.

"I always pray, ‘Please help me to stay in tune and time, make me honest and true and stay sincere; help me not to offend anybody.’ My only religion is to die without shame when I see God. If there is any religion, that should be the one, where you don’t have to be ashamed.

"If we teach children soulfully and tenderly, children of all ages, that they must be accountable for their thoughts and words and deeds, then truly you don’t have to ask Jesus to change the remote control channel."

As a father, what does he hope his children learn from him?

"That with all the contradictions, and all my passions, I am consistent with bringing equality, liberty and justice to this planet and hopefully by example and with kindness and tenderness," he answers. "That’s the holy trinity for this planet: quality, liberty and justice."