TLC Planning New Tour And Album, Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes Remembered On Anniversary Of Her Death

Becky Bain | April 25, 2012 1:06 pm

This year marks the 20th anniversary of TLC, who released their debut album Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip in 1992. But today comes a more distressing anniversary for the 90s powerhouse R&B group — it’s been ten years since the untimely death of bandmate Lisa “Left-Eye” Lopes, who was killed in a car crash in Honduras on April 25, 2002.

The remaining members, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas remember their dear friend and bandmate in a new interview with Essence, but also divulged all the TLC things to come: a new tour, a new album, and a VH1 biopic. Read on for more.

T-Boz shares the painful memory of finding out about Lisa’s death:

She died a day before my birthday. I remember everything. I was with security in my Porsche and I said to them, “I feel like I’m going to get in a wreck and I want to go home.” The driver said: “Well, that’s on the other side of town.” I didn’t care; I wanted to go home. I just felt something was going to happen to me, but it wasn’t me — it was Lisa. I was sitting in a rocking chair in my daughter’s room after putting her down when I got a call from Chilli. She was screaming. I had just gotten out the hospital from fighting sickle cell so I had to be careful about getting upset. Everybody was trying to keep me calm.

I remember staying up all night and Patti Labelle and Missy Elliot calling me. Whitney Houston was at Lisa’s funeral. She sat behind me and rubbed my shoulders for two hours, while telling me, “It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be all right.” Right before that, I remember Lisa played a trick where she went missing and nobody knew where she was. This was the one time I wish she was joking and doing one of her stunts, but she wasn’t.

Chilli also speaks fondly of Lopes, and how there was a sweetness in her the public didn’t get to see much. “People didn’t understand how much of a heart she really had and how passionate and giving she was,” she recalls. “She might have come across as someone who wanted to start trouble all the time, but that wasn’t it; she just had a lot to say. Sometimes when you speak what’s on your mind — I’m talking everything on your mind, and people can get a misconception of you. So because she spoke her mind, all of the time, it caused people to misjudge her.”

As for the future of TLC, there are more than a few projects underway. “Yes, we’re going on tour,” says T-Boz. “We are in negotiations now with LA. Reid, so we’ll see what happens. A lot of cool things are coming up.” (Though neither member discusses the details of the tour, TMZ reports that they are tinkering with projecting Left-Eye’s image on screens and incorporating her vocals into the performance.)

Chilli adds, “Another TLC album? Yes, that’s for sure! We’ll have new music right after the movie drops.”

The movie she’s talking about is a VH1 biopic about the group, reportedly to be released by the end of the year. Kate Lanier, who penned the films Set It Off and What’s Love Got To Do With It, will be writing the script. “It’s going to have to be new kids,” T-Boz says of the casting. “I can’t think of anybody that can play us. It’s not just about looking like me or dressing like me, you have to have the attitude, the dance moves.”

Read the full interview over at Essence.

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