Prince's Close Friend Tá...nce to Me'

BY MELODY CHIU

@chiumelo

04/22/2016 AT 05:15 PM EDT

Támar Davis has been on Prince's radar since 1994. A decade later, she finally met the late icon and even sang with him on his Grammy-nominated song "Beautiful, Loved and Blessed," whilst building a close friendship.

"It still hasn't hit me yet that he's passed," Davis tells PEOPLE exclusively. "It's just mind-blowing. It's one of those things you never thought in a million years [would happen].

When Davis was starring in Motown the Musical, she stopped by Prince's Paisley Park estate, where "we talked for maybe 30 minutes," she recalls. "The conversation was basically about me and how my family was and he was proud of what was going on."

The star was also close with Davis mother, who worked on his costumes. "He was like Uncle Prince to me," says Davis. "He was the respectful, professional Uncle Prince, and then he would tell me things like 'You're my muse,' or he would be like 'Támar, keep performing. That's where your gift is going to shine the most.'"

Shocked by his sudden death ("He looked well to me. He was laughing, he was joking like he always did," says Davis), the singer is leaning on others in Prince's circle.

"The family is a family," she says. "This passing of him has given me the confidence to sing like never before ... to trust in God-given gifts and everything that he saw in me."

Prince was found unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park estate and died Thursday morning.