Sister 2 Sister Magazine Tribute (Andre Rison Interview) (2002)

(Andre Rison and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes February 2000, photo taken by photographer Chris Cuffaro)

He was one of the biggest stars of the NFL football world, she was a third of the ruling female group of the hip-hop world. And the world followed every hill and valley of their crazysexycool love affair, especially the part when she went to jail for burning down his $800,000 Atlanta house. Now she's gone and he misses her. The world still doesn't know why she loved him so, but he wants to let the world know how he feels about her... and he still talks to her.

Jamie: How are you holding up after the loss of my baby, Lisa?

Andre: I have been sitting back listening to everybody's comments and I know her better than anybody. I knew her better than anybody outside of the womb that she came from, her mom. I was with her when she tapped into the other side and talked to her father for the first time.

Jamie: Would she go into a room?

Andre: We were in the studio.

Jamie: How did you know that she was talking to her father? And how did that feel to you?

Andre: I've been with her sinec I was a kid. We were star kids together for nine, ten years. You kinda get to know each other like husband and wife. I had to learn her and I had to respect her growth and her mind and her spiritual growth. When I got back from Oakland, we sat down in the studio and it was the first time that we had seen each other in about five months. This was about nine or ten months ago, and she started crying. We were just sitting there chatting and we were talking about getting married and talking about having children and business moves that we were going to make. We talked about me coming to grips with my spiritual side. It wasn't out of the norm to sit there, since I had lost my father already. I would talk to my father before I go out on the field every game. I talk to my father when I am warming up and when I am in a clutch situation. I talk to my father in good times, so when she said that she had finally reached him and started talking to him, I was right there with her. I couldn't do anything but respect it.

Jamie: Could you hear what she was saying to him or was it just silent?

Andre: I [could] hear what she was saying to him and I have seen what she wrote to him. I understood what she was saying to him.

Jamie: Was she just really missing him?

Andre: Yeah, she missed him hard. She loved everybody so much. When I say "everybody", I mean even the people that did her wrong. For her to not have her father there physically, it really bothered her deep down inside. When she spiritually grew into herself, every time that she looked in the mirror, she would see an aura around herself. She would see that glow.

Jamie: She felt it was her father?

Andre: Exactly.

Jamie: Would she describe what the glow looked like?

Andre: I could see the glow. I have seen the glow so much. I would see it when she walked in the room, when she was mad at me. I am the one who said, "I do."

Jamie: To her?

Andre: In general, when everybody was against her, I was still with her.

(Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Andre Rison in 1993 after they first met)

Jamie: I am taking you back because I want people to understand you. I know Lisa loved you through everything. That comes out from everybody that talks about you all. When you said that you were kid stars, how old were you, Andre? I know that she was around 19 or 20 when you all met. Were you around the same age?

Andre: Around the same age. We were just kids and we had so much to work on with ourselves. We never had time because of our grandmother and grandfather responsibilities. That's why we were so close and tight - because we shared everything. I have a book coming out.

Jamie: What's it called?

Andre: It's called "Andre." I should be finished with it in the next four months. I am doing an autobiography. I was already doing it with Lisa.

Jamie: Are you as open and honest as she was? That girl was just honest about everything.

Andre: I would have to say yes because that is what she loved about me.

Jamie: When you and Lisa had the problem that caused your house to burn down, we know that you got mad at Lisa. Were you jealous and possessive at the time? What was in your head? She told us what was in hers.

Andre: I wasn't possessive. I believe I was jealous. I was a young cat that could do everything and have everything.

Jamie: Did you feel like that was the way you had to act? To be violent and stuff?

Andre: No. When you say violent, that upsets my family. I am nothing like that.

Jamie: Well what were you all going through that night when the fire broke out? Why was your heart heavy that night?

Andre: I never talked about it. It's in my book.

Jamie: Well, just a little bit. Everybody has mentioned it and you have never talked about it. It's not fair to have all this being mentioned and nobody knows how you felt and what you were going through. What was it about you that made Lisa love you so much?

Andre: It was the opposite of what you just said. Everything that I did, you could say, "everything that he does from the time he wakes up 'til the time he goes to sleep is for her."

Jamie: For Lisa?

Andre: Exactly.

Jamie: Well, why did you lose it that night? What was it that happened inside of you?

Andre: Actually, that night, I didn't lose it.

Jamie: Well, why did you hit her?

Andre: Actually, I don't recall hitting her.

Jamie: So you blacked out or what?

Andre: I didn't black out. Whenever little mama says something about fighting, trust me, a lady wouldn't be there if it was as bad as everybody makes it seem. Especially if they don't have to be. If she said bickering or fighting, she was doing the swinging.

Jamie: Well, she said that she was fighting you back.

Andre: She was doing the swinging. If I hit her, I know that I hit like a man. That's not my style. I wasn't raised that way.

Jamie: She said that your family would burn her clothes and destroy her stuff.

Andre: I don't know about all that. My family loved her dearly.

Jamie: She said that they were knocking the windows out of her car.

Andre: They didn't give a d*#n at that time. Just think what I had to go through with my family - telling them "F*3k them."

Jamie: You told your family that?

Andre: Yeah. "This is who I love and this is who I am going to be with and stay with."

Jamie: You mean after all this happened?

Andre: Yeah.

(Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Andre Rison in 1997)

Jamie: But Lisa was helping to pay the mortgage on the house, too. You all were really like a husband and wife, right?

Andre: Exactly.

Jamie: That's what I wanted to know. She told me a lot and I also know that the same night the fire happened, you were going out in the streets looking for Lisa. They said that you were on your motorcycle looking for her.

Andre: People got some stories: Boy!

Jamie: That's not true?

Andre: Yeah, I was on my motorcycle. You talking about afterwards?

Jamie: Yeah

Andre: I jumped on my motorcycle at the time that it happened. I had loved ones in there. And of course I had my lady in there. I just asked the people if everybody was alright. Once they told me everybody was alright, I immediately left.We were born in the hip-hop world, but it's one world that she didn't come from - that's the corporate world when you play professional football. You deal with the media and answering questions every day. I had more experience at that. She used to interview and she used to ask me what to say, how to word this and how to word that. She was very open to me as far as taking my experiences on dealing with the media and dealing with pressure. In times like the fire, I used to coach her through the interviews and tell her what to say and what not to say. When I saw the house, I wasn't thinking about that house. I could get me another house and everything as long as everybody was safe. I was worried about me and my lady staying together.

Jamie: That's what they said, that you were really worried about her.

Andre: Yeah. I jumped on my motorcycle and shot by the police. They couldn't see me and everybody was looking for me, but I had already gone out on a search.

Jamie: Do you feel bad about what you had done to her?

Andre: I keep getting this "what I did to her."

Jamie: Lisa told me that she was bleeding from her fingernails, her face was all messed up and that she couldn't even recognize her face.

Andre: Well, they must have had to juice up the story on their end to justify the house burning. No, I ain't cut like that.

Jamie: You haven't hit anyone since then, have you?

Andre: Nah, and I have had plenty of women in my day. You could interview all of them and that's one thing I don't do. I don't call them out of their name and I don't put my hands on them.

Jamie: Well how did you all get to be fighting that night? How did that happen?

Andre: I told you, she's feisty, man.

Jamie: She hit you first?

Andre: That's what I loved about her. It wasn't like we were sitting up like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Even up to the point where she was locked up in the halfway house, I was sneaking in there and I was there every day. I can recall plenty of people not even coming close to that place. I remember when it was nobody. And I am talking n-o-b-o-d-y. Nobody was around and I don't want to go into name-calling of who really was there in the time of need and the time of help. This goes from people close to her, family members, it goes to everybody.

Jamie: Now how did you sneak in there?

Andre: I just did what I had to do. It's just like during football season and somebody had snuck in my room and we are playing video games, knowing we had practice the next morning. Lisa knocks on the window and we just jumped: I jump in the bed and put the covers over my head and he jumps up and goes out of the room. We thought that it was a coach. I hear the knock again and I say, "I know this knock." I looked up and it's Lisa. She done snuck in the camp.

(Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Andre Rison in 1996)

Jamie: How hard is it to sneak in the camp?

Andre: There were police everywhere. I said, "I know I love you." I had just signed this big contract with Cleveland and I know me. I said, "My baby has been through all this bulls#@t." LaFace was f##king them around on their money, we go into places and the hotel isn't paid for; I am paying it. It wasn't right and she wasn't getting treated right. I told her when we got to Cleveland, "You go find a house." She said, "You want me to go find a house?" I said, "Yeah, you go find the house." This was in '95. I told her, "I got this lady, she is going to show you around and show you some houses." A week went by and she found a house. Another week went by and she asked me if I was gonna go see the house. I was still in camp. I was the new kid in town so I was just concentrating on football. I told her, "You go get the house, you get the furniture. I don't care what you go get because you know I am gonna love it anyway." I wanted her to go do it because of all the bulls##t that she had been put through. So, she would say, "F##k the house that we lost. My guy has come back through all this s##t and bought me another house and I picked out the house and he told me to spend $2 million on the muthaf##ker."

Jamie: You told her to spend $2 million on the house?

Andre: She asked me, "What's the limit?" I said, "Two million; go get the house, da##it." She found the house and she was like, "You ain't gonna go see the house?" I didn't see the house until I closed on it.

Jamie: Did you like it?

Andre: I loved it. It had five mansions. It was the baddest one that I ever had. It had the indoor pool as soon as you walk in the house. It was double everything in the kitchen.

Jamie: How much was it?

Andre: Two million exactly. The only thing I hate is that the owner of the Cleveland Browns didn't tell us that they were about to move their franchise. Otherwise, we would have been married that year.

Jamie: How long did you all have the house?

Andre: I had to keep it until I sold it. Eventually, we sold it.

Jamie: Did you get your money back?

Andre: Yeah, we got our money back. It was a brand new house sitting on about two acres with a five-car garage.

Jamie: Did Lisa stay up there with you?

Andre: Oh yeah. She stayed everywhere I stayed.

Jamie: When was the last time that you saw her? When were you all together last?

Andre: The last time I saw her was about two months ago.

Jamie: Were you all together? Where were you?

Andre: We came to two separate parties. At one of Puff Daddy's functions.

Jamie: Were you all boyfriend and girlfriend?

Andre: We had went beyond that. We didn't have to be together to be that.

Jamie: I know that you said you all were separated for like five months. Could you all actually be apart from each other for that long?

Andre: It used to kill us, but at the same time, we knew we needed it to go do what we had to do. It's just a bond that could never be broken.

Jamie: Well, how did you feel when she went with different guys? I know that you went out with other girls. Did it bother you? Because guys seem to take things like that harder?

Andre: Nah, because she used to play with their minds.

Jamie: How?

Andre: She is a true angel; I just have to say that.

(Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Andre Rison at his 30th Birthday Party in 1997)

Jamie: She is an angel. I know that. How did you feel when she was with Suge Knight? SHe was dressing like a little boy when she was with him and we didn't even recognize her.

Andre: I didn't see that. I had read that in a magazine.

Jamie: You didn't know that she had gone to work with Suge?

Andre: I knew that. I talked to Suge and her about the business and everything. I didn't know about her dressing like a little boy until I read it in a magazine. People were bringing me the last issues of magazines that they were saying we were still together and half of the world thought that we were married.

Jamie: How come you all didn't get married?

Andre: They were talking about doing the TLC album and we said that we needed more time to prepare because we wanted to do a big wedding. It just never came about.

Jamie: Andre, do you think that you will ever marry? The kind of relationship that you and Lisa had was just beyond this world, I would say.

Andre: It is beyond this world.

Jamie: I know that you have had girlfriends and I think you even had a child. Lisa even helped with the child payments, right?

Andre: Yeah, I mean she has always helped me with my sons, just like I have always helped her with her people. Two of my sons stay right around the corner. They are big boys. They are basketball players, football players. She had cleaned out a room just for them in one of her houses and she just loved them dearly. They were crazy about her. They are 15 and 16. That's another thing that we loved about each other so much. We knew to value money, but we never valued it as far as giving to help. If it was for her brother, sister, something for her mother, Christmas, if I was short on the change, she would come up with the change. If she was short, which she was our early years together, she would never be short because she could have anything that I had. It was vice versa and that is one of the things that drew us real close together - because she was so honest with me as far as telling me her negatives. SHe would never brag upon herself unless she had to. It was out of to show you, but that was one special quality about her. She was so talented; it's a lot of things that people don't even know she could do.

Jamie: Tell me about her as a woman.

Andre: As a woman, I had the honor to grow up with her. I seen her grow from a little girl to a beautiful woman. I always thought that she was the most beautiful woman walking on earth. I always felt that she was the smartest thing. She had the most common sense on Earth. It was a work in progress.

Jamie: Did she take care of you? Did she cook for you?

Andre: Yeah. She could out-cook anybody except for my mama. She could out-dress anybody in this world. She could make her own dresses. I guess she got that talent from her mother.

Jamie: Did your family come to the funeral or the wake?

Andre: Oh yeah, they were all there.

Jamie: Did you give yourself to God that night? They said that you and your boys stood up.

Andre: Who told you that?

Jamie: That's what they said.

Andre: How you know that? I guess becuase you are Jamie.

Jamie: WHere were you when you first heard about Lisa's death?

Andre: I was in South Carolina doing an appearance with Jagged Edge when I got the word. Everybody had the word, but nobody knew how to give me the word. My bodyguards had my cell phone and one of my A&R people got a 2way. The A&R guy is a close friend of mine and he just took it upon himself to come out and just say it. When he said it, I knew that he was for real. I knew that he wasn't joking. He was for real with it. I haven't been on earth since.

Jamie: How are you sleeping? Are you eating?

Andre: Nope. I have everybody across the continent calling me and I want to thank everybody for their condolences. I haven't eaten. I really don't even think about food because we were both on the same diets and it is really not a diet. Everybody calls it a diet, but it is really the way that we eat. It's something that she had me doing two years ago.

Jamie: You like Honduras also?

Andre: Yeah. I love it. I love Dr. Sebi. He and I are very close.

Jamie: Would you have moved down there?

Andre: Eventually.

Jamie: Where are you staying now?

Andre: Atlanta.

Jamie: You staying in a house or a hotel?

Andre: In a house.

Jamie: What is this thing about you and Suge trying to get the music out of Lisa's place. You didn't do that, did you?

Andre: Oh, no. I remember when I got the word. Peopl are f##king crazy. That's not my style. I don't need nothing from that. What I need is in God's hands right now. I don't believe that Suge even did that.

Jamie: Have you talked to her mom yet? THey have a lot to go through and they are being so strong.

Andre: I talked to Uncle Kyle and Aunt Pam at the funeral and they were just upset that we didn't get married. He told me that she said she wants me to put my music out and he said that he knows I have to put my music out there and I have to launch my music career.

Jamie: She did say that. She bragged on you. I said, "This must be love." She would say, "Andre is one of the most talented people I have ever met. He is going to be huge."

Andre: Well, the thing about it is people know that I have paid my dues. I have been on compilations with Foxy, Ghostface, 8Ball... I paid my dues and now here it comes.

Jamie: Don't you have a baby, too? Not just the big boys?

Andre: Yeah. Lil' D. He is about 10 now.

Jamie: During the time that you were going to see Lisa at the halfway house, the judge told you that you had to go to anger management classes. Did you have to do that?

Andre: We saw counselors.

Jamie: How are your mom and everybody?

Andre: They took it hard becuase they knew how much I loved her. My mom had lost her husband when he was 27 so she had some experience with it. That was the first person that I talked to when I was in South Carolina. She said, "Well, it's like losing your wife." I think everybody is concerned because they know that I live and die and eat that lady.

Jamie: That's why I asked if you could ever marry again.

Andre: I will never have another Lisa - a Nicole. I would never have another Nicky.

Jamie: Who is Nicky?

Andre: That's what I call her. That's her middle name.

Jamie: How big was her heart? People don't understand that.

Andre: I think that I told Ed Gordon best. You can't put a barrier on how big her heart was. There was no barrier because it didn't stop. She was definitely a gift from God. Some people that are older than me told me, "The length of your tears will be like oceans." I think that is why everybody is worried about me. When she walked left, I walked left. When she walked right, I walked right. If she didn't eat, I didn't eat. It's hard to watch TV and listen to the radio but I do. I think the spritual growth that we had taken and began to take was a process to prepare. God is so good and so strong. I have put faith in my soul and in my heart and I know that I am gonna talk to her again.

I believe I will talk to her. I had a good, long talk with her brother. I told him that whatever he needs, it's up to myself and others to keep her legacy going on. Ron knew us since we were kids and I knew him since he was a kid, he and Raina. Even though her mom and I had differences here and there, we grew to understand each other and I began to like her and respect her. I wish her well and send my condolences to her. I am going to talk to Lisa. I told my right-hand people, "I talked to her tonight."

Jamie: When you do your deal with the NFL, will that be a nulti-million dollar deal?

Andre: Yes.

Jamie: 'Cuz she once said that you were out of money. Did that happen for a while or what?

Andre: I mean everybody hits a brick here and there when you support 500 people instead of supporting just yourself.

Jamie: Are you still supporting 500 people?

Andre: Yeah, but I got help now. I got God's help.

Jamie: And Lisa's?

Andre: And Lisa's, exactly. The thing about it is, I had everything that I wanted. All I'm searching for now is peace and happiness, really. I'm going to live my life and do what I'm supposed to do while I'm here on earth. My mom lives on 500 acres, three cribs and a lake. The only thing we're missing is a mule. I've given three women d##n near a million dollars a piece. I don't know how much money it takes to take care of a child because I've distributed over $500,000 or $600,000 to various mothers. I was married once when I was 19 or 20. I eloped. I was married when I got drafted. I didn't want to have a baby out of wedlock.

Jamie: But you had babies out of wedlock afterwards, right?

Andre: Yep, one.

Jamie: You gonna stay in touch?

Andre: Oh yeah.

Jamie: Well let us know how things are going for you. I will call you from time to time to see how strong you're being and see what she's talking about. You were with her during "The Cut" too, right? Oh, I forgot, she was with Lorenzo.

Andre: She was with me. She was never with Lorenzo.

Jamie: Okay. Do you have anything else you want to say?

Andre: May she rest in peace. Keep in touch, and thank you again to all the people that supported her while she was here. I wish they would support her while she's gone. I also wanted to say that when Lisa came out with her Supernova project, we wanted to tour schools in every state because she said that was one of the most important things to her. We wanted to throw difference charity functions in her name and donate the money to public schools across the country and as much as possible would go to music classes and educational programs to keep it existing and keep it alive. If there was anything that she wanted, it was for a kid to have an instrument.

(Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Andre Rison pictured with friends in 2001)