TORONTO -- In the early days of the Guess Who, Randy Bachman used to have a rock-related Christmas tradition.

Beginning in 1967, the band decided it would play a show in Thunder Bay, Ont., on Dec. 23 at Fort William Gardens. The group would be paid $400 for the gig, Bachman recalls, and right after, they'd make the overnight drive back to Winnipeg. The next day, they'd use their newly acquired spoils to do all their holiday shopping ("There wasn't much left but a lot of it was on sale," he recalls).

Bachman and the other members of the Burton Cummings-fronted band aren't the only people who carry vivid memories of those gigs.

A young Paul Shaffer was front row at those shows, year after year, appreciative that one of his favourite bands kept sweeping through his hometown.

"It was back before they had their own hits," Shaffer recalled in a recent interview in Toronto.

"They were just covering the hits of the day and they were brilliant at it. I never forgot it."

Neither did Bachman. And when the 68-year-old guitar wizard got the chance to handpick a contemporary to induct him into Canada's Walk of Fame, Shaffer was one of the first names to come to his mind.

In fact, Shaffer wound up taking on hosting duties for the entire event, which airs on Global this Sunday. Other inductees this year include Vancouver-based chanteuse Sarah McLachlan, Hamilton-raised CFL legend Russ Jackson, Toronto ballerina Sonia Rodriguez, late comic actor Phil Hartman of Brantford, Ont., and the Canadian hockey team that defeated the Soviets at the 1972 Summit Series.

While it's understandable that Shaffer recalls his formative experiences watching the Guess Who, it's more surprising that the gregarious Bachman actually remembers peering out into the crowd at those annual gigs and seeing Shaffer, who would one day make his mark with his musical contributions to "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Show With David Letterman."

"In the front row would be little Paul Shaffer, a couple years younger than Burton Cummings," Bachman remembered with a smile.

"He'd be there and he'd be watching us and he'd come and say: 'Oh, I'm a piano player, duh duh duh duh.' He knows our set list from then. I saw him there year after year after year.

"And then suddenly, Paul Shaffer leaves Thunder Bay, comes to Toronto, does his thing in 'Godspell' and now he's one of the greatest band leaders in the world."

Shaffer has long been open about how extensively he was influenced by those Guess Who shows, writing about the band in his 2009 memoir, "We'll Be Here For the Rest of Our Lives."

The two Canucks finally met back in 1995 when Bachman was on tour with Ringo Starr, and Shaffer says he "just regaled (Bachman) with things I remember about his show that they used to do."

"Maybe that's kind of why I became basically a cover artist myself," mused Shaffer, 62.

The respect is certainly mutual.

"On 'David Letterman,' he's there doing the shtick every night, and that's a really tough gig," Bachman said. "He's phenomenal. He can play any song in any key at any time. You can just start to sing it and he knows everything.

"He's an amazing guy."