Prince fan and musician explains his legacy and influence

Kevvy Maher never thought he'd be "that guy," crying over the death of a celebrity.

But when his musical idol, Prince, died on Thursday, Kevvy was, indeed, "that guy."

"We've lost a lot of legends lately and it's personal for everyone in different ways," he told On The Coast host Stephen Quinn. "The first music that I ever bought was Batdance by Prince on 12 inch … If you're a Prince fan you can recognize that I'm ripping him off a little bit."

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Maher's band, Fake Shark, even covered Kiss by Prince for a radio contest asking local artists to cover songs from the '70s or '80s. They ultimately won the contest.

"That's not even necessarily my favourite Prince song, but who doesn't love that song?" he said. "I thought we could win that contest and apparently I was right."

Maher knows he's not the only person to draw inspiration from Prince, and thinks it's because of his wide range of material.

"There's such a wide palette to pull from, and he was not afraid to blur lines between genres," he said.

Maher mentioned that 2016 has seen the deaths of several famous musicians — perhaps most notably, David Bowie.

In terms of Prince's legacy, Maher feels it will be regarded as similar to Bowie's.

"I think whenever any legend passes away, they get martyrized to a certain extent … but I don't feel that's an overexaggeration with Prince," he said.

"Obviously I'm biased because he's my favourite of all time, but I really do think the work speaks for itself. So I don't think it'll go anywhere. I think we'll hear more artists be influenced by it because maybe this is a reason for them to check it out in the first place."

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled: Musician and huge fan on how Prince shaped his music