Carlos Santana Slams Super Bowl Halftime Show: There Should Have Been 'Real Live Music'
But...but...but...Beyoncé was there!
The Beyhive will certainly not be pleased about this: Carlos Santana, he of the 1999 hit song, "Smooth," has called out the Super Bowl 50 halftime show, featuring the "Formation" singer alongside Coldplay and Bruno Mars in an open letter to the NFL and CBS.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank you both for including me as a part of your Super Bowl entertainment," he wrote. "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."
Santana was featured in a highlights reel of past Super Bowl entertainment as Chris Martin sang "Fix You." The legendary rocker performed during a pre-game concert at Super Bowl XLVII...coincidentally the same year Beyoncé headlined the halftime show.
"Bands like Metallica, Steve Miller, Journey and yours truly. We would have rocked the Half Time Show and done the SF Bay Area proud," Santana continued. "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."
Dear NFL/CBS....I would like to take this opportunity to thank you both for including me as a part of your Super Bowl...
Posted by Carlos Santana on Tuesday, February 9, 2016
"Thank You Carlos," Journey later chimed in. "And yes we would have all Rocked it !"
While the halftime show has tended away from rock -- bands like
The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen -- towards pop -- Katy Perry and Madonna -- it's hardly fair to call a halftime show filled with GRAMMY winners not real music. And Metallica? At the Super Bowl?
Santana wasn't the only one to object to this year's show. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called it "outrageous," taking offense to Beyoncé’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement, in particular.
"You're talking to Middle America when you're at the Super Bowl," he said on Fox & Friends. "If you're going to have entertainment, let's have decent, wholesome entertainment, not use it as a platform to attack the people who put their lives at risk to save us."
Find out what else he had to say in the video below.