No divorce in sight for top-selling group
TLC on new album, finding their new normal and Beyoncé’s fan-girl moment
NEW YO R K For Tionne (T-Boz) Watkins and Rozonda (Chilli) Thomas, TLC is a marriage and divorce is not an option.
The top-selling girl group released its final album on June 30. Although they don’t plan to record new music, “That doesn’t mean we’re done though. That doesn’t mean we won’t do a residency in Vegas,” T-Boz said.
TLC, their fifth album and first in 13 years, features Snoop Dogg, a song sampling Earth, Wind & Fire’s September, producer Ron Fair and help from T-Boz’s brother, songwriter-producer Carnoy (Ayo Kayo) Watkins.
FINDING A NEW NORMAL
TLC, which launched a Kickstarter fund in 2015 to raise money for their final album, earned more than $430,000, though they initially asked for $150,000.
Katy Perry and thousands of fans donated to the project. That was in contrast to the reaction the group received when Lisa (Left Eye) Lopes died in 2002, T-Boz said.
“When Lisa first passed, so many people, especially ones you wouldn’t think would turn on us, kind of counted us out, but her passing didn’t really hinder our ability to sing and dance, and our talent didn’t leave, we just lost a group member,” she said. “So you find your new normal and you put it back together and to see that people believed in us touched my heart the most.”
BEYONCÉ’S FAN- GIRL
TLC has big fans in artists like Drake and Lady Gaga, but Be- yoncé’s fan-girl moment really surprised T-Boz and Chilli.
The group said Beyoncé showed her love at the season 10 finale of American Idol in 2011.
“This is the first time this ever happened. Like, she just rolled up on us and was like, ‘Thank you for everything,’” Chilli said.
“‘That was some of the best times of my life’ is what she said,” T-Boz said.
TRY AGAIN
TLC has been known for its loud and outspoken videos, from the futuristic outfits in No Scrubs to the condom eye patches in Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg. But they said the video for the No. 1 hit Creep — the first single on their 1994 album, CrazySexyCool — was filmed three times.
“We didn’t like them; scrapped them and started again. ... We were like, ‘If we come back out, we need to make a statement,’” T-Boz said. “It wasn’t strong.”