John Allan Cameron, one of Canada's music pioneers who was born in Cape Breton, has died in Toronto after a lengthy battle with bone cancer. He was 67.

The entertainer influenced a generation of artists, and fans say he was Celtic when the genre wasn't cool.

Celtic entertainer John Allan Cameron, shown being presented with the Order of Canada by then Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson in 2003, has died.
(Johnathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Cameron, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in the 1980s and didn't perform for two years, died Wednesday morning. 

People in the music business say they will continue to affectionately refer to Cameron as the "godfather" of Celtic music in Canada.

During the 1960s and '70s, Cameron led the charge for traditional Scottish music. Gradually, he won the loyalty of thousands of music lovers from coast to coast.

His ability to play Scottish pipe and fiddle tunes on the guitar was a surefire crowd pleaser everywhere, even at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, where he appeared in 1972 as an unknown.

"I was more surprised than any of them," Cameron once said in an interview. "I knew the audience was with me, but I didn't expect the response, which was about two minutes of an ovation."

Born in Mabou, N.S., on Dec. 16, 1938, to a family of fiddlers, he started playing guitar in public at age 12.

John Allan Cameron was a surefire crowd pleaser on the stage.
(CBC)

He studied for the priesthood in Ottawa, but got a papal dispensation in 1964 and went on to study at St. Francis Xavier University.

Cameron began his career with the Don Messer Show and Singalong Jubilee on CBC, then became an opening act for Canadian songbird Anne Murray.

He made a name for himself playing reels and jigs on the guitar instead of the fiddle or bagpipe.

Cameron recognized by Canadians

The John Allan Cameron Show, which was on national television from 1975-76, made him a household name in Canada. The Montreal-based program also introduced Canadians to talented performers, including the legendary Stan Rogers.

On CBC, Cameron had his own half-hour show from Halifax in 1979-81.

He also sang at the Mariposa, Newport, Atlantic and Winnipeg folk festivals, and played in coffee shops across Canada.

Cameron also performed at and produced shows for Canadian military bases in Germany and the Middle East, and began his own Glencoe label, which recorded his Freeborn Man and Good Times albums.

Cameron was named to the Order of Canada in 2003.

His work is seen as the spark that lit the resurgence of the traditional art form in the past two decades. The Rankins, the Barra MacNeils, Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIsaac can all attribute some of their success to his trailblazing efforts.

Before entering politics, Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald often played fiddle in concerts with Cameron.

Cameron was always less concerned about the business of music than he was about entertaining his audience, MacDonald said.

"If he was on a stage, he loved it," he said. "He enjoyed playing for those who were there and he would play music that would be part of a bigger atmosphere and that was really engaging to people.

"I think people respected that and responded to it."