R&B trio TLC burned first with their 1992 debut album — “Ooooooohhh…On TLC Tip” – which went multi-platinum.
Then the profession of the cult girl group almost went up in flames.
In June 1994, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes – a resident rapper of the trio, which also included, amongst others, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins – got right into a vicious, brutal fight together with her then-boyfriend, former NFL star Andre Rison, which left her bruised and bloodied.
Together with her nails ripped out of her eye sockets, Lopes sought revenge by starting a hearth that burned down his $1.3 million mansion in suburban Atlanta.
“Lisa was heavily blamed within the news on the time because the crazy rapper who set the home on fire,” says Thomas, 52, in a recent documentary “TLC Perpetually” which premieres on Lifetime and A&E on Saturday.
And when Lopes was arrested and charged with arson in the primary degree, the three of them took part in the warmth together.
![TLC in 1992.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012063880.jpg?w=1024)
“[The industry] turned on us as if we were all arsonists,” says Watkins, 53.
But in the long run, the publicity looked as if it would push TLC even higher – later that 12 months they released their second album, “CrazySexyCool”, turned out to be successful.
Hit CD – featuring the hit singles “Creep” “Waterfalls” and “Red Light Special” – went diamond, selling over 12 million copies within the US and turning the trio into pop superstars.
TLC is legendary for posing on the November 1994 cover of Vibe magazine wearing firefighter uniforms. Headline: “Burning the charts and burning down the home.”
(*3*)
But even in becoming America’s best-selling girl group of all time, the Atlanta-based band had to beat health issues, relationship abuses and even bankruptcy – followed by Lopes’ tragic death in 2002 – in response to the documentary.
Watkins suffered from sickle cell anemia and spent the primary seven years of her life in hospital. Doctors told her she wouldn’t live greater than 30 years.
Despite this, she pushed through painful episodes to perform with TLC.
“It looks like someone is stabbing you within the joints with a butcher knife over and once more,” he says within the documentary.
Meanwhile, Thomas was in a relationship with the group’s producer, Dallas Austin, which led to her having an abortion on the age of 20.
![TLC at the 1996 Grammys.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012099412.jpg?w=683)
“I probably had a breakdown on the time,” Thomas reveals within the documentary. “I could not forgive myself. I just felt an incredible deal of guilt about what I had done.”
But Lopes’ romance with Rison was even rockier. “They’d a toxic relationship,” says Thomas. “The only advice I may give is ‘leave him.’ Lopes stayed.
After winning their first two Grammys in 1996, TLC announced backstage that they were as “broke as could be broke”, as Thomas put it.
Despite selling hundreds of thousands of albums, they went bankrupt.
“Unfortunately, we have never had good deals,” he says.
![TLC in 1999.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012099413.jpg?w=818)
However the audience was still hungry for more.
TLC’s hot streak continued into the 1999s “FanMail”, with #1 singles “No peelings” and “Unpleasant.” Nonetheless, Lopes began to drift away from the group as a result of creative differences. The truth is, the rapper was working on her solo album “Supernova” when she died in a automotive accident in Honduras.
She was only 30 years old when she died on April 26, 2002.
“Just before Lisa died, I used to be within the hospital for 4 months fighting for my life,” says Watkins of her battle with sickle cell anemia. “That was the last time I saw Lisa because she got here to see me just before she left for Honduras.”
Because the industry wrote back TLC – now reduced to a duo – after poor performance “3D” from 2002 Watkins’ health problems continued. In 2007, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
![Tionne from TLC](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012063603.jpg?w=1002)
“My doctor … said, ‘In case something goes incorrect and I can not save my hearing, face or balance, give the command that you wish to save yourself,'” she says. “In order that they took my balance away, I mostly saved my face and my hearing was only 3% lost then.”
Years later, TLC found themselves within the highlight again with a comeback that led them to headline their biggest show ever – on the 2022 Glastonbury Festival within the UK.
Watkins is proud that they “still hold the torch” today, he says.
“Three little black girls from the neighborhood [became] the biggest and best-selling girl group of all time in America and still holds that title. We did it.