Carlos Santana’s Michael Jackson cover
Carlos Santana has dealt with health problems in 2025, but he is now back with a Michael Jackson cover. Santana has revealed that he loves being squirted in the face by music. However, it takes a certain skill to make a satisfying ‘squirt,’ as per the guitar legend when discussing his Michael Jackson tribute cover.
There are plenty of ways to describe the emotions caused by a particularly impactful song, and Carlos Santana has revealed many of them in a recent interview with Guitar World.
However, the one simile Santana used while speaking about his cover of Michael Jackson’s “Stranger in Moscow”, featured on the guitarist’s latest album “Sentinent”, just takes the cake. When asked about what he did to make his guitar sound almost like The King of Pop’s vocals, he said:
“I chose to play more relaxed and behind the beat, choosing my notes carefully. It’s like putting your fingers in water and sprinkling someone’s face with water, or if you take a spoon to a grapefruit and it squirts.”
Carlos Santana on squirting his best notes
Leaning fully into the visual imagery of squirting, Santana mentioned how it takes acumen to make squirting feel really satisfying:
“Those are the good notes. A lot of people don’t know how to squirt their best notes! I learned this stuff from Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Albert King and Freddie King. If you don’t know how to squirt, everything is contained, and it can get boring after a while.”
He added:
“I like being squirted in the face by music because it makes me feel alive. The goal of any guitar player, whatever the style may be – from funk and flamenco to heavy metal – is to make the listener feel alive. A good guitar solo should sound like an org*sm. I can hear it in Eddie Van Halen’s playing, and the same goes for Jimi Hendrix. I live for the juicy notes.”
Some of the strongest squirters, as per Santana, were technically impressive players and the 78-year-old guitarist doesn’t believe it to be the be-all and end-all of guitar playing. Santana has argueed that soulful phrasing is what really makes a piece stand out:
“I don’t care who you are, whether you are Al Di Meola or not, I’d recommend this to any guitar player. If you spend even one day learning how to play and phrase like those lady soul singers, you will become a better musician. This is the truth.”
Santana concluded, “The only thing people will remember about your music is how you made them feel. They are not going to remember all the fast scales and ‘Look at what I can do’ moments. But they will remember those three notes that made the hairs stand on the back of the neck and tears come out of their eyes, even if they don’t know why.”
Santana and Jackson’s 2001 Collaboration
While Santana’s new cover of “Stranger in Moscow” has grabbed attention, it isn’t the first time the legendary guitarist and the King of Pop have crossed musical paths. In 2001, Santana appeared on Jackson’s final studio album, Invincible, playing guitar on the track “Whatever Happens.” The song, which also featured guest vocals from R&B great Babyface, stood out as one of the record’s more experimental moments, blending Jackson’s signature vocal phrasing with Santana’s fluid, Latin-infused guitar lines. For fans of both artists, it offered pop and rock firepower fused together.
The partnership symbolized how Jackson consistently sought out genre-spanning talent, like Eddie Van Halen back in the 80’s, to Santana in 2001. Santana’s new cover is a fitting tribute.
