At NYC press event, Carlos Santana & Rob Thomas discuss new song, look ahead to all-star concert Saturday

Carlos Santana & Rob Thomas in 2007; Kevin Mazur/WireImage

On Wednesday, Carlos Santana released his new collaborative single with Matchbox Twenty‘s Rob Thomas, “Move,” which will appear on Santana‘s upcoming studio album, Blessings and Miracles.

“Move” arrives 22 years after Santana and Thomas teamed up for the massively successful hit “Smooth,” and at a New York City press event Wednesday, Rob explained via Zoom that the reason it took so long for Carlos and him to reunite for a follow-up tune was that it “had to happen naturally,” like “Smooth” did.

Thomas revealed that “Move” came about while he was working on material with the New York-based rock group American Authors, who also contributed to the track.

“[A]t the tail end of that session, [they sent] me a track and [said]…’See if you can do something with this,'” Rob recalled. “And…it just hit me immediately. The chorus came out, I sent it to Carlos immediately…Carlos is like, ‘Oh, this is beautiful. I want to do this. This sounds great.'”

Carlos, who attended the press gathering in person, shared that “Move” “has the two components that I love, being in a physical body — spirituality and sensuality.”

He added, “I feel very grateful and very confident that…Rob and I [get to] reach the four corners of the world again and make a lot of families happy.”

Santana and Thomas also will reach lots of people when they hit the stage together Saturday in New York City’s Central Park at the star-studded We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert.

Musing about the show and its theme, celebrating New York’s revival in the COVID pandemic’s wake, Carlos said, “I feel that New Yorkers need…a spiritual boost. Like a dog shakes water…we have to ward off and shake off fear and darkness and…anger.”

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