Many people wake up and wish the dreams they had while asleep would come true in reality. Many kids wish to become a police officer, doctor, astronaut, or whatever their imagination will come up with. For Andy Vargas, the dream did become his reality when he woke up at the age of nineteen and became the lead singer for Santana.

The early years for Andy Vargas had the most impact on his future. He grew up in Watsonville, CA in Santa Cruz County. It was a small community mostly made up of Hispanic, middle class families, and small youth gangs. These were usually kids with a lot of time on their hands at night. The area is all agriculture: apples, lettuce, strawberries, apple cider, artichokes, and he claims the area is, “The Artichoke Capital of the World.” The town has been formed from families that mitigated from different areas to work in the fields, or people who came off the buses looking for work and never went back on the bus. Vargas remembers that his grandfather, who was born and lived in Mexico, went on the bus to work in the fields for money and would get back on the bus to go home. This happened when Vargas’ father was a child, before his father had any ideas to move out to the States.

The two strong forces in Andy’s life will always come down to his mother and father. His mother is still working hard as a bank teller, and his father, Javier Vargas, has his own Mariachi band. But before that, Javier was a music teacher and taught kids at the Penny Club. With the Franciscan Ministry, Andy’s father was studying to be a priest. There was one time Andy recalled his father telling him about a priest named Father Rojas who invited other brothers and priests to come to St. Francis Church, which was built under the money of the St. Francis Ministry. At this church, the clergymen gave their time and effort to teach kids music, art, dance, etc. all year long. There was even a summer program in which buses would go and pick up the kids. Vargas explained the whole program became a success due to the involvement of the entire community.

The love of music that fueled Andy’s interest branched from his father’s love for music. When Andy was a junior in high school, he was introduced and assigned to record producer Terry Melcher by his mother. Vargas started recording with Melcher and Bruce Johnston, member of the Beach Boys. Melcher and Johnston loved the fact that Andy would sing a wide variety from Stevie Wonder to Marvin Gaye and anything to do with Mariachi music. At age seven, Andy grew up singing for his dad’s Mariachi band. At age eighteen, Andy was negotiating a record contract with RCA BMG. The recording contract was signed by Ron Fair, who is now the President of Geffen Records.

However, with any business, change is always a flip of the coin to good and bad, and at BMG music production, Andy saw the difficulty of putting a record together. The changing of positions came within the label, and did not affect Andy as an artist. But his project did get affected, and that discouraged Vargas a bit as his love for music ran strong. He explained that part of his struggle was due to the fact that he wanted his record to have Spanish lyrics in his music. Andy recollects that the music industry had a trend established all the way back to the mid-nineties called a “Latin Wave.” Here is how the trend went, every year or two you see a Latin Wave with some big Spanish hit song that will climb the charts for a few months until it loses it’s magic. Nevertheless, Andy did not see it that way and felt his audience was open
to anything new and fresh.

At the time Andy was struggling with his record label, Carlos Santana just finished recording and releasing the Supernatural album. The single, Smooth, started soaring up on the music charts. Record producer Clive Davis, who worked with Santana on the Supernatural album, told Carlos that he needed to start looking for a new singer. Around the age of nineteen, Andy had already recorded some music that was similar to Carlos’ music, but Andy just gave it a beat. Those songs made its way to Clive Davis because a few of Davis’ employees mentioned about the young Vargas. Clive immediately liked what he heard and passed the idea to Carlos Santana. Andy had to audition for the band, just like everyone else. He had to learn a good amount of Carlos’ songs, including songs from the Supernatural album. The band was getting ready for a two week summer tour. When he auditioned, Davis and Carlos said he could join the tour for a few days, it would be a trial run. Andy was up against dozens and dozens of people who were auditioning for the same position. Still, after the first three shows of the tour, Carlos went in Andy’s dressing room and asked him to be a part of the band. At nineteen years old, Vargas was surprised and shocked that he just became the new singer for the band, Santana. Carlos did tell Andy that he will be the future of this band.

Andy has accomplished so much at a young age. He showed with great skill, determination, and knowing the right people anyone can have their dreams come true. He feels that hard work will pay off. Vargas did not become a member of Santana by just wishing for it, he auditioned and showed what talent he had that was different from a hundred other gifted individuals who auditioned. The passion of music went from one generation, Javier, and was a present of joy that Andy’s father gave to him. Andy Vargas continues to share his success with others in hopes that their dreams might come true.  

Article written by Richard Castillo