Stars Who Can't Stand Carlos Santana

As the chief musical force and titular centerpiece presiding over the ever-evolving lineup of the band Santana, Carlos Santana is one of the most successful, enduring, and highly regarded figures in rock. His band played Woodstock, helped define and popularize psychedelic rock and Latin rock, sold millions of albums, was inducted into the historically controversial Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and enjoyed a millennial reinvention with an album featuring younger singers that yielded "Smooth," one of the biggest hit singles ever. First and foremost, Carlos Santana is a guitarist, and one of extreme gifts and abilities, lauded by critics and other musicians as one of the greatest to ever pick up the instrument.

But that's just not good enough for some people. The man with superhuman guitar prowess who recorded an album called "Supernatural" is but a regular human after all, and he's rubbed a number of notable people the wrong way over his 50-plus years as a rock icon. Musician feuds often get out of hand, and the seemingly unbothered, music-centered Carlos Santana has found himself embroiled in a few. Here are the most famous people, all fellow musicians, who just don't like Carlos Santana and his work.

Both the most recognizable and the least popular member of Kiss, fire-breathing, blood-spewing, makeup-wearing bassist Gene Simmons has made a lot of enemies in the music world. He's disparaged the likes of Axl Rose, Madonna, and N.W.A., but he's not the one who started a beef with Carlos Santana. Kiss concerts are a purposeful spectacle, with pyrotechnics, set pieces, and abundant theatricality. In 2005, Santana eviscerated Kiss' approach to performance, singling out Simmons in the process. "He's not a musician, he's an entertainer. Kiss is Las Vegas entertainment, so he wouldn't know what music is anyway. That's why he wears all that stuff," Santana said (via Far Out). "A musician doesn't need the mask or the mascara. There's a difference between an entertainer and a musician."

Four years later, Simmons delivered a full response to Santana's criticism during an interview about a concert tour with Fox 5, a station from the also-insulted Las Vegas. "It's time for us to go out and show the little boys how the big boys do it," Simmons said (via Blabbermouth). "I'm sick and tired of these bands like Carlos Santana looking at his shoes and thinking that's a rock concert. Get off the stage."

As the lead singer and primary instrumentalist for the dark, heavy, and experimental metal band Mastodon, Brent Hinds understands other guitarists, like Carlos Santana. He also has very specific tastes, and he isn't afraid to speak up about music industry figures he doesn't care for, even the seemingly untouchable ones. Hinds is among the few stars who can't stand Dave Grohl, and he's not a big fan of contemporary Santana either.

Hinds doesn't necessarily hate Santana, the band, or Carlos Santana, the person. "I loved Santana — loved Santana," Hinds told The AV Club, emphasizing the past tense verb. His ire and distaste for the musician sits solely with "Smooth," the pop collaboration from the 1999 album "Supernatural," with Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas providing a vocal counterpart to Santana's lyrical guitar. The song spent 12 weeks at No. 1 and won three Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year. "I don't hate Santana. I want to clarify that. I don't hate Santana at all. I just hate that he made this really horrible album," Hinds said about "Supernatural." As for "Smooth," Hinds won't mince words. "It's just like someone taking a carrot peeler and gouging it into your ears and skinning your ears," he said. "It's just — ech! Just talking about it, I'm cringing."

At the 2005 Academy Awards, "Al Otro Lado Del Rio" from "The Motorcycle Diaries" won the prize for Best Original Song. The South American road trip movie was based on the writings of revolutionary Che Guevara, and when Carlos Santana performed "Al Otro Lado Del Rio" at the Oscars ceremony, he did so while wearing a Guevara T-shirt as well as a crucifix necklace. Guevara was a prominent figure in the political movement that installed communism in Cuba in the late 1950s. The Cuban Revolution and its aftermath imprisoned thousands and killed as many as 141,000, including Christians whose religious beliefs didn't align with communism. 

Many Cubans hold Guevara responsible for the bloodshed, among them award-winning saxophonist and Latin jazz pioneer Paquito D'Rivera. Following the 2005 Oscars, D'Rivera published an open letter directed at Santana. "You showed your stupidity by appearing at the Oscar Awards proudly donning a large crucifix over a T-shirt with the stereotypical image of the Butcher of La Cabaña, which is how Che Guevara is known to Cubans who had to lamentably suffer under him at said prison," D'Rivera wrote (translated from Spanish, via Babalu Blog). "One of these Cubans was my cousin Bebo, incarcerated there precisely for being a Christian. The same one who always bitterly tells me how he could hear from his cell the firing squads at dawn." D'Rivera also likened Santana's performance to "a slap in the face to those young Cubans who in the '60s had to hide to be able to listen to your records."