This is Marcus “The Magnificent” Malone.
He was an original member of the band Santana in the ’60s. Malone parted ways with Santana in 1969 due to personal problems just before the band played Woodstock and blew up. Malone lost contact with Santana and spent some time in San Quentin prison before ending up homeless on the Oakland, Calif., streets.
A local Bay Area news station interviewed Marcus randomly earlier in December while producing a segment on illegal dumping.
Malone, who was rummaging through the garbage, said he was a composer who at one time played percussion in the Santana band. This is one of the few images of Malone with the Santana band that was found by KRON.
After the report aired, Carlos Santana went looking for Malone in Oakland.
After numerous unsuccessful trips to the neighborhood Malone was spotted in, Santana contacted KRON via Facebook about Marcus.
After Santana verified that Malone was indeed his former percussionist, KRON located Marcus and reunited him with his former bandleader last week.
In a follow-up report by CNN, Santana said that he is setting up Malone with an apartment and has invited him to play on the band’s new album, which will feature a track titled “Marcus ‘The Magnificent’ Malone.”
Watch KRON’s report on how they orchestrated the reunion between Santana and Malone.
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