Cat Glover, Prince Dancer & Singer, Dies Aged 60
Dancer, singer and choreographer Catherine “Cat” Glover, Prince’s onstage foil during his late-‘80s Sign O’ the Times and Lovesexy era, has died, according to a post on her official Facebook page. No cause of death has been cited, but she was 60 years old.
“It’s with great sadness that we formally announce the passing of Catherine Vernice Glover- AKA ‘Cat.’ The statement reads: “Please allow her children, family and friends privacy at this difficult time. A further statement will be released in due course.”
Glover’s work with Prince lasted just two years but she was a vibrant onstage presence during his elaborate concerts during that era, dancing, singing and rapping prominently throughout most of the shows and appearing in the small skits sprinkled throughout his electrifying 1987 Sign O’ the Times concert film. She also performs the rap in his 1988 hit Alphabet Street. Glover can also be heard on Prince’s Black Album, originally scheduled for release in 1987, but shelved and released for a limited time in 1994.
A tall, energetic and physical dancer, she is also a big presence in many of his videos from the period, notably U Got the Look and I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man — in the middle of the latter, Prince asks her out for a date and she tells him to “Fuck off!”
“I’ve always idolized him, and it’s not an intimate thing, it’s just… he’s great. I don’t think there’s anyone that can be as creative as he can – dance, play all his instruments,” Glover said of her admiration for Prince in a 1987 Video Soul interview. “I’ve actually sat in the studio and watched him put down everything by himself, and I’ve just gone, ‘My God, he’s incredible, he really is.'”
Glover first rose to fame on the talent show Star Search opposite partner Patrick Allen. She first heard about Prince after he released his album Dirty Mind in 1980.
‘The only thing that got me through my depression from everything was listening to Prince’s album, Dirty Mind. I knew I had to meet him. That was me talking to my inner self,’ she recalled in a 2016 interview with Chicago Crusader.
She eventually met Prince at Dingbats Club on the Near North Side at the age of 18 and she eventually joined Prince’s band in December 1986 where she worked with him until 1989.