Gotye is in shock and denial at the death of Prince.
Prince was found unresponsive in an elevator on Thursday at his Paisley Park Studios compound in the Minneapolis suburb of Chanhassen. He was 57.
Gotye, real name Wally De Backer, cites Prince as one of his main musical influences, and it was the singer who handed him his Grammy Award for the song Somebody That I Used To Know.
"Wally is in New York at the moment and he's sort of in denial about the whole thing ... he's quite sort of in shock, when I was speaking to him this morning. He's saying he just can't believe it, he doesn't think it's real," his bandmate Kris Schroeder told AAP.
"I know for Wally, Prince was his number one idol. Getting his award from him was better than getting the award itself. That moment for him was the most significant part of it."
Prince has been particularly influential to De Backer as a solo artist, according to Schroeder, because he bucked a lot of trends and did his own thing.
The band and Gotye would "love" to do some sort of tribute to the late artist, but Schroeder isn't sure when or how that could happen.
