Legendary Bay Area guitarist Carlos Santana addressed an open letter to the NFL on his Facebook page Tuesday, criticizing the organization for its decision to forgo local bands for the Super Bowl 50 halftime show, and opting to go with the British band Coldplay instead.
Santana, who is Mexican-American, formed his band in San Francisco in 1967:
Dear NFL/CBS….I would like to take this opportunity to thank you both for including me as a part of your Super Bowl entertainment. I do feel compelled to point out to you that the Halftime Show should have included some of the local iconic bands that the World would have loved to see perform. Bands like Metallica, Steve Miller, Journey and yours truly. We would have rocked the Half Time Show and done the SF Bay Area proud. This is just an invitation for you to consider iconic bands as part of your Half Time entertainment. Real live music, real live vocals, and give the audience real live chills.
According to the local CBS affiliate in the Bay Area, the band Journey shared Santana’s post and accompanied it with, “Thank You Carlos and yes we would have all Rocked it !”
The band Metallica, another local Bay Area favorite, had also expressed its disdain with being overlooked for the main show, exacting its revenge with an epic performance during a sold-out Saturday night show at AT&T park.
Santana’s post, which was delivered in both English and Spanish, has so far received over 60,000 shares and over 158,000 “likes.”
Santana was featured during the Super Bowl’s highlight reel and had performed at a Super Bowl pregame show in 2003. He has yet to headline a halftime show.
This last Super Bowl was particularly meaningful as it marked the 50th anniversary of the iconic games.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.
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