SANTANA sued for "faith testing" employees

[StoneMtn]

Rocker Santana Sued for Faith-Testing Workers

Religious discrimination meets the New Age in the case of a former personal assistant to Carlos Santana who claims the rock guitar legend judged employees on their closeness to God.

The "perception of Plaintiff's 'consciousness level' and 'closeness to God' were motivating factors in Defendants' decision to terminate Plaintiff's employment," Bruce Kuhlman alleges in a Marin County (Calif.) Superior Court complaint.

Santana, he says, had a "Dr. Dan" visit the office once a month to "calibrate" employees. "[T]hose whom Dr. Dan said were not of a higher consciousness were not as close to God and not as desirable as employees."

Kuhlman, who was fired in April 2004 after 16 years with Santana, seeks unspecified damages for wrongful termination and discrimination and an order enjoining his former employer from using Dr. Dan's services.

"It's illegal to have this kind of faith-based enlightenment testing" in the workplace, says plaintiff's attorney Stephen J. Duggan (Lanahan & Reilley, Santa Rosa, Calif.)

Dr. Dan allegedly described his "Neuro-Calibration Technique" to Kuhlman as a way "to help you become as enlightened as God desires you to become." Duggan could not provide the good doctor's full name.

4/25/05

Click here to see the full "Complaint" filed in Court in Marin County California

[CyberHippie]

Now that is funny!

I remember at an amazing Kingswood show (w/ rusted root opener), he got a little preachy at one point, and proclaimed that going to a Santana show was a bit like going to church.

"peace, love, life, (and something I can't remember, maybe hope?)"

Rusted Root joining Santana on stage for roughly a 30min Exodus is still one of my fondest concert memories. SICK!

[SaggyBalls]

you don't own your job - too bad for that guy and too bad for santana.

doesn't seem ideal to me...but if the guy was so good i wonder why santana didn't move him somewhere else...get him hooked up with somebody else.

[SaggyBalls]

i read the complaint and so far i side with the godless one...

except for one thing: he was an independant contractor, no?

so technically he's not an employee and labour laws might not cover that.

i think he's still due his back pay - and should really have had a contract that afforded him his due reward after termination...so he gets paid for his efforts and not the new contractors

but this is the entertainment biz. i'd totally do that job. 55 hours a week so what...$175K

i'd walk upstairs to take a crap. how hard is that??

all that time working on santana's liccnsing, he's for sure able to get a BETTER job somewhere else.

santana's a bit of a nutter. i can only imagine what kind of woman that guy would wind up with.

[StoneMtn]

Re: Beats' question about Plaintiff being an independent contractor and "technically" not an employee, according to the "Complaint":

Plaintiff was hired by Defendant Carlos Santana to work as Carlos Santana’s Personal Assistant on about January 1, 1988. When he was first employed, he was paid personally by Mr. Santana as an “independent contractor”. That continued until February 2001. From that time on, he was treated as an employee and paid by the New Santana Band until his termination.

As far as his "back pay" and other relief that Beats believes is due, I do not know California Labour and Employment Law, so I have no comment. If Beats, however, is well-versed in that area of California law, I defer to his opinion.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Weird story. It's an unfortunate sort of case, but pretty necessary, sorry Carlos, in order to keep all the other folks at bay who would like to get rid of all their gay, atheistic, Muslim, female, etc. employees on religious grounds. You'd hope he could see this. There's nothing worse than somebody all charged up on enlightenment with their head shoved up their ass.

[StoneMtn]

Well said, you evil rodent you. I love Carlos' music, but his flakiness gets a little bit irritating.

I was also at the show that CyberHippie mentioned, and the preachiness was a little hard to take. If not for Rusted Root's mind-blowing performance, and the half of Carlos' show that was really good (as opposed to the other half full of '80s crap) I could have walked away from that one really annoyed. (CyberHippie: I used to have tapes of that show, both Rusted Root and Carlos. If you're interested, and if I can find them, I'd be happy to send those to you if you wanted to digitize them and send me back a copy on disc. I think you are technologically savvy enough to do that; unlike me.)

... but back to the original discussion ... one would hope that as caring an individual as Carlos would be a little more sensitive to such equity issues. Presuming the allegations in the Complaint are true, I support the Plaintiff's position in this case (although, as I said, I can't comment on how this plays out under California Law).

[Silky Juice]

that canned beats sucker knows nothing

Edited April 29, 2005 by Guest

[Paan]

This level of godiness required to be associated with the band is also known as the "Santana Clause".

[timouse]

Well said, you evil rodent you. I love Carlos' music, but his flakiness gets a little bit irritating.

I was also at the show that CyberHippie mentioned, and the preachiness was a little hard to take. If not for Rusted Root's mind-blowing performance, and the half of Carlos' show that was really good (as opposed to the other half full of '80s crap) I could have walked away from that one really annoyed.

was that in toronto? i think dr and mrs evil and i went to that show, or one remarkably similar...and carlos can get preachy, but it seems a little over the top to can a guy on accounta not being godly enough.

i had a friend that worked at canada's wonderland and ended up as a backstage usher type for a summer. she's not much on music, and didn't recognize santana when he walked up to her and asked if she would hold his guitar for a moment. she said yes and watched him disappear into a limo with 2 very attractive young women.

someone came along and told her who that just was and asked if they could touch the guitar...she then pieced it together...

[StoneMtn]

Yep. That was probably the same show, at Kingswood (which was always a great venue, in my opinion).

[timouse]

Yep. That was probably the same show, at Kingswood (which was always a great venue, in my opinion).

so when did you split for whistler? it appears that we have been living a parallell concert experience, if this show and arlo at the horseshoe are any indication

[StoneMtn]

Born and raised in Toronto: '71-1990

Ottawa: until 1996

Toronto: '96-97

Kingston: '97-'98

Vancouver: '98-'03

Whistler: until now and counting...

[hamilton]

Yep. That was probably the same show, at Kingswood (which was always a great venue, in my opinion).

Huh - I was at that show, too (I think it was '97). I saw Santana three times there, and I think that was the last one.

I really miss Kingswood - I used to have a great time there. I would buy a season's pass to Wonderland, and then see a shitload of shows every summer. Of course, back then the tickets to the shows were $6 plus park admission (then they started climbing... $8, then $10, then $12... until the shows were full price, plus park admission, at which point the Molson Amphitheatre was built).

[timouse]

Yep. That was probably the same show' date=' at Kingswood (which was always a great venue, in my opinion).[/quote']

Huh - I was at that show, too (I think it was '97). I saw Santana three times there, and I think that was the last one.

I really miss Kingswood - I used to have a great time there. I would buy a season's pass to Wonderland, and then see a shitload of shows every summer. Of course, back then the tickets to the shows were $6 plus park admission (then they started climbing... $8, then $10, then $12... until the shows were full price, plus park admission, at which point the Molson Amphitheatre was built).

built over top of The Forum...if you really want to start pining for venues, that was the place....i remember seeing the neville brothers there, front row...

and now it's corporate venues just like everywhere else. corporate prices to match too!

bastards.

i guess that mr burns really must own ticketmaster

[Esau]

Kingswood hosted my first GD show in 84.

I saw Santana there in 1994 (07/22),can't recall who opened for em though.CSN was the next night there,which we also attended.

It was a fun venue thats for sure.

[Lazlo]

My last Kingswood show would've been P-funk and Cypress Hill, well Parliament and Cypress Hill were the only groups on the bill I cared about.

[hamilton]

I saw Santana there in 1994 (07/22),can't recall who opened for em though.CSN was the next night there,which we also attended.

Yeah, I was at both of those shows, too. I don't think anyone opened for Santana that year - they played for about three hours, IIRC. Fleetwood Mac opened for CSN, I remember that much.

Sometime between that show and the one where Rusted Root opened, I saw Santana at Kingswood again, with Jeff Beck opening.

[Esau]

Santana & Jeff Beck was august 16 95.

Santana/Rusted Root was july 7 97.

Wish I had caught the show with Beck.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I missed the Jeff Beck show, and kicked myself repeatedly over that. Do you know, btw, if he ever toured with Waters for Amused to Death?