Legendary rocker Carlos Santana performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” last night prior to Game 2 of the 2015 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers at Oakland’s Oracle Arena.
The longtime San Francisco Bay Area resident performed the national anthem on his signature PRS model guitar and was accompanied by wife and fellow bandmate, Cindy Blackman Santana, on drums.
As you can see in the video below, Carlos played a pretty much note-for-note version of the anthem, unlike his fellow Sixties legend Jimi Hendrix, who delivered the first and most famous rocked-out version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock in 1969, the festival at which Santana’s group had its breakthrough performance.
The addition of Cindy Blackman Santana’s march groove appears to have had some of the players, and presumably the crowd, moving along with the beat. A couple of pyrotechnic bursts added a nice bit of gasp-inducing drama as well.
Santana has played the national anthem on previous occasions. Last year he performed it for the San Francisco Giants during the World Series, accompanied by his son, Salvador, on keyboards.
San Francisco sports fans were also treated to a performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Metallica’s James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett on May 2 of this year at the Giants game against the Los Angeles Angels. You can see a video of that performance here.