T-Boz says music industry turned on TLC after Left Eye’s death

Watch the full interview below

Oct 12, 2020

In a new interview, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins shared how she and Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas were treated as the remaining members of TLC after the tragic death of their groupmate Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes.

In conversation with Hollywood Unlocked T-Boz revealed she felt record labels and her musical peers discarded TLC following Left Eye’s death.

‘Honestly, when Lisa died, the whole industry turned on us. Everybody. They were like, It’s over for them. They’re never going to do it again.” she remembered.

“I kept saying, nah bruh, that still doesn’t hinder my talent and my passion to sing and dance. It’s in my soul,” she said. “We all know its never going to be the same again, but you find your new normal and you keep going. That’s exactly what we did.”

I Love The 90s - The Party Continues — Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins of the music group ‘TLC’ performs onstage during the I Love The 90s The Party Continues at The Greek Theatre on July 14, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)

She recalled preparing to perform at the VH1 Super Bowl Bliss in 2014 when major acts pulled out of the show last minute. Both Drake and Nelly were due to hit the stage however stepped back shortly before showtime.

“That concert was the most stressful, hectic concert, but it ended up being the greatest,” she remarked.

“That was one of the best concerts, it got the highest ratings and it put us on the map again.”

T-Boz also spoke on the difference between artists now and artists in the 1990s when TLC debuted, citing social media as a factor in the biggest change.

“First of all, when we first came out, we didn’t have social media. I think social media gave all the dummies a platform to talk, and I didn’t know there were that many dummies in the world,” she said.

“When we were out, everything was word-of-mouth, so if it got around, it really held power. Everything was going person-to-person, not on the internet with internet thugs and all of that. I’m baffled because we used to look up to our artist, not to bring them down.”

The full interview lasts just under 50 minutes. Watch the dialogue below: