Carlos Santana
Marcus "The Magnificent" Malone
In December 2013, a television reporter in Oakland, California, was covering a routine story about illegal dumping.
Music wasn't even on the agenda. While interviewing people near the trash-strewn area, reporter Stanley Roberts met a soft-spoken man who introduced himself as Marcus Malone.
Then the man said something that Roberts found hard to believe, "At one time I was with the Santana band. The original Santana Blues Band." It was the sort of claim a reporter could easily dismiss.
Instead, Roberts did his job and started looking into it. The deeper he dug, the more remarkable the story became.
Marcus "The Magnificent" Malone really had been there from the beginning. In fact, in the late 1960s, the original Santana Blues Band rehearsed in Malone's mother's garage. His conga playing helped shape the band's distinctive Afro-Latin sound, and Carlos Santana later credited Malone as one of the musicians who influenced his own approach. Malone even played on Santana's debut album and received a co-writing credit on the instrumental classic "Soul Sacrifice."
Then life took a heartbreaking turn. In 1969, just before Santana's career exploded with its legendary Woodstock performance, Malone was sent to prison. By the time he was released years later, the band had become international stars while one of its founding members had quietly disappeared from the public eye.
For more than four decades, Carlos Santana had no idea what had become of his old friend. Now he was living in a camper on the streets of Oakland.
When Roberts arranged a surprise reunion, the moment was deeply emotional. Malone admitted he had been afraid for Carlos to see him in his current condition.
Santana didn't hesitate. He embraced his old bandmate and told him it was an honor to be in his presence.
True to his word, Santana didn't stop with the reunion. He publicly pledged to get Malone off the streets by helping him into an apartment, buying him new clothes, replacing his congas, and inviting him to rehearse with the reunited original Santana musicians. It was an extraordinary act of loyalty more than forty years after they had last played together.
Malone did rehearse with the group, but he ultimately did not appear on Santana IV. Carlos later explained that after so many years away from performing, Malone simply no longer had the stamina needed for the demanding sessions.
And it all happened because one reporter chose to ask one more question instead of walking away.
Sometimes the greatest rock-and-roll stories don't happen under spotlights in front of thousands of fans. Sometimes they begin beside a pile of illegally dumped trash... and end with an old friend making sure another old friend finally had a place to call home.
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