The 1975’s Matt Healy Explains Why Prince ‘Transcends Everything’

Matt Healy, singer for the Manchester rock band the 1975, has long been a proud and vocal Prince fan.

Prior to the release of his band's eponymously titled platinum-selling 2013 debut album, the future pop star told the Evening Standard that even as a young boy he felt a spiritual kinship with Prince and other unique music icons.

"I remember being about seven, watching a Michael Jackson video on my knees in front of the TV, and one of my dad's salt-of-the-earth mates saying, 'He's like an alien, isn't he?' I thought, 'I'm so much more like him than I am like you.' I get Bowie. I get Prince. I get Michael Jackson. I know how they feel and what they're trying to say."

Healy also lavished praise on Prince's ability to convey emotion through his music and his prodigious guitar skills. "It's his simplicity and minimalism and feel. He's all about the feel," he explained. "He's not going to do a 25-minute solo, but he'll make people want to have sex in four bars. When he wants to be, he is quite technical, and in the studio, he can go fucking crazy."

"He's amazing, but he transcends everything," Healy continued. "He's Prince, isn't he? 'I Wanna Be Your Lover,' that's a perfect example. He's playing under the strings, it's all he plays, but it's classic."

After Prince's death in April of 2016, The 1975 paid tribute to the legend at their Santa Barbara concert by using a photo of Prince as their backdrop for the evening. Healy later tweeted a photo of the stage set with the message "Prince Forever."

Then, while talking with On Demand Entertainment at the 2017 Brit Awards, Healy praised Prince and fellow music icons David Bowie and George Michael, who all passed in 2016, as more than simply entertaining pop stars. "They proved that you can do pop music that's social commentary, informative, and you can also reach millions of people, so there's no excuse, really, to not try to do what they did."

The 1975 will release their fifth album, Being Funny In A Foreign Language, on October 14.