Sister 2 Sister Magazine Tribute (T-Boz Interview) (2002)

(Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes backstage at the Natural Breeze Concert in Tokyo, Japan)

When T-boz found out that we were putting together an entire magazine dedicated to the memory of Lisa "LeftEye" Lopes, she let us know that she wanted to be a part of it. To her, T-boz, LeftEye and Chilli were always - and will always be - the Three Mustketeers of hip-hop music... all for one and one for all. When they played, and they could be some baaaaad little girls, they played like sisters, and when they fought, they fought like sisters... always with love.-

Jamie: How are you doing, boo-boo?

T-boz: I'm good.

Jamie: How's the baby doing?

T-boz: She is wonderful. She turned 18 months. She's trying to talk and running the house. Acting just like her daddy.

Jamie: How are you feeling? You were in the hospital for about two months. Was that your longest bout?

T-boz: Yeah, it was almost three months.

Jamie: Are you holding up ok, honey? Are you missing Lisa?

T-boz: Oh, of course. I feel like it's TLC forever; that's what she would've said. You can't replace her. It's not ever gonna happen. I'm kinda disturbed because kids mean well, but I'm getting these letters now that keep saying, "Can I replace her?" I'm like, "Are you stupid?" That bothers me. Everybody needs to know that she's irreplaceable. It's not gon' ever happen.

Jamie: Have you talked to Chilli? Have you all talked long about it? It was really interesting that the minister said that she gave you two more than she gave anybody because you all were together so much, right?

T-boz: Yeah, and it's more about your life dreams, your heart and soul, and your music and all your ideals, aspirations, you know, just everything. It's all about your creativity. So if you're a creative person, that's a big bulk of what you have to give because that's your love and passion.

Jamie: Did you go down to Honduras?

T-boz: No, my mom went. I sent my mom.

Jamie: Did she like it?

T-boz: She liked the treatments and the water, but it really wans't her cup of tea. But I'm not a nature girl like that.

(Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes posing with friends at Lisa's 1995 "Believe in Yourself" Charity Campaign for inner city youth)

Jamie: How many songs had TLC done?

T-boz: We have a lot. We go in the studio on Monday.

Jamie: Rodney Jerkins told me he had just talked to you all and gone over what he wanted Lisa to do in a song, and that was like five or six hours before he heard about her death.

T-boz: Yeah. When my part was coming up [in the song], he was pretending he was LeftEye. Chilli was in the car with him and I was listening on the phone.

Jamie: Where were you when you heard about the accident?

T-boz: I was upstairs in my daughter's room. I had just put her to sleep and I was watching "Judge Mathis." It comes on at 11 at night. It was probably like 11:07 and Rozonda [Chilli] called me crying hysterically and I couldn't tell who she was. Our manager had called her and she called me and I was like, "What are you talking about?" I couldn't understand her. We stayed on the phone trying to figure out if it was true or not. I got the message that Ronald, Lisa's brother, wanted to be the first one to tell [Lisa's mom,] Miss Wanda. I didn't want to call over to his mom's house. My uncle [Quynton, who is married to Lisa's mother] was supposed to be flying to Iowa with my mother, but he didn't get on the plane for some reason and my mother made it. So she got there and had to turn around and come back.

Jamie: Quynton is so nice.

T-boz: Yeah, he's a sweetheart.

Jamie: You got a wonderful family and your mommy looked so cute when I saw her. So you all are going back in the studio. Who are you going in the studio with?

T-boz: Rodney Jerkins, Dallas, probably Jermaine Dupri, Babyface, and that's it. We've already done Raphael [Saadiq]. And we already did Eddie Hustle.

Jamie: Tionne, did it surprise you that Lisa passed so soon? Everybody's telling me about how spiritual she was. And I have to tell you, for me, this has been hard. Every time I interview somebody it's like I have to reliver her life and death. Has it been a shock to you? You think about Tupac, Biggie, Aaliyah, LeftEye.... Four young people.

T-boz: I was telling my husband, this seems so different now. Back in the day I know artsits passed away in groups and stuff, but it seems like [back then] it was suicide or a drug overdose or something like that. These are just so brutal. Tat definitely had me messed up for a minute.

Jamie: Tell me a couple of interesting stories, something funny. I remember one time you were telling me about how you were running down the hall and you all were pulling your pants down and mooning.

T-boz: Girl, we were talking about that the other day. The first time, Lisa and Rozonda was like, "Tionne, you don't ever participate. You always don't want to moon nobody." We had to knock on somebody's door and take your pants down and run up the hallway of the hotel and back. So Lisa and Chilli were first. They made it cool; they ain't get caught. So me and our DJ, at the time, went next. I'm the only one with my butt hanging out and I get caught. It would be our road manager [that caught me.] I was looking at Lisa like; I shouldn't have listened to you. There have been plenty of times. We've had water fights and Lisa would be clumsy and she'd run straight into the wall. We were laughing the other day.

Jamie: Who? You and Rozonda?

T-boz: Just everybody telling stories about stuff we used to do. Man, one time we had a food fight at D.A.R.P with Dallas. Lisa had the brilliant idea that she was gon' take some flour and water and pour it in a bowl on top of his head while he was sitting at the console. Man, she mixed it too thick and it just sat on his head. He took the bowl off and looked at the mix like, "You idiot!"

Jamie: You mean it didn't drip down on him?

T-boz: No, it was just a big thing of dough. It didn't even go anywhere. I said, "Lisa, you didn't mix it right." And she was like, "Well...." But what was so funny was that he got us back with ketchup and mustard and took our hands and smashed it back in our faces. We used to have fun. We used to mess up his studio. We would have water fights. We would come up with stuff like, "Let's spray the hallway down in the studio with water and slide and see who can slide the furthest."

Jamie: Well, no wonder Dallas charged ya'll so much money. Ya'll messed up his studio!

T-boz: It was not his studio back then. We were messing up somebody else's. We messed up the whole building.

(Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes posing with a friend in an Atlanta club in 1991)

Jamie: Well, Tionne, were you as wild before you joined the group? Ronald said Lisa changed when she got in TLC. Was it the chemistry between the three of you?

T-boz: I think it was the chemistry between all three of us. We would just jump off each other's vibe. We were talking about the last thing we did, the anniversary of "Soul Train" and Lisa was still Lisa again. She fell off the stool pretending that she fell, but it looked real. We were cracking up. It was the old TLC again. We were all getting along and everything was going great. She sounds good on the new album. Everything was good. We were supporting her in her new solo ventures. It was really going good.

Jamie: I was reading over some of our old interviews with her and she was saying, "We're sisters. We've been together 10 years." No matter how angry she would get she would say that.

T-boz: I mean, come on. I love my momma. More than anything you love your momma, but there have been times when I get on my momma's nerves and she gets on mine. But that don't mean that you don't love somebody or that you're not close. People just always want to say, well, they're always bickering or they always have arguments. It wasn't all about that. We had a lot of laughs. More laughs and smiles than anything. More love and hugs than arguments. Anybody who's in a marriage or any type of relationship will have disagreements. That's being human. But do I love Lisa? Yeah. Did Lisa love me? Yes.

Jamie: When you were in the hospital she came to see you?

T-boz: Yep. To me, I don't argue with people I don't care about. Like on the street, I'm not gonna argue with you. But if I care about you and love you, yeah, I'm gonna take the time to express to you my true feelings. And that's how Lisa was. I can respect that. Just because I didn't agree sometimes doesn't mean I didn't respect her or who she was.

Jamie: Did you feel that the funeral was real sad? I thought it was kinda uplifting in a way.

T-boz: Yeah, it was uplifting but my head was so many places. I wasn't really processing that this was happening. I didn't see the news and hear things like everybody else. I didn't watch TV or listen to the radio until probably like three days ago.You know what made me feel the best? Yeah, it was a beautiful funeral, but what made me feel the best was her mother and her brother. If her momma, in her heart, and God is with her to be in peace, then that made me strong. That gave me a whole different kind of peace in my heart.

Jamie: Wanda has been very, very strong.

T-boz: Yes, she has. So I have no choice but to be.

(Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins pictured in 1994)

Jamie: You all are interesting people and you mean a lot to so many people. Especially to young girls. I think that's really interesting how you all could disagree and still make music and still love each other. I think we need to learn that instead of our kids growing up today and they're mad at each other and they bust a cap in each other.

T-boz: Can I tell you this? As much as people want to talk about everything, have they ever taken time to sit bac and think; did they ever see us break up? No. And you can say what you want to say, but at the end of the day you hear me and Chilli saying that we supported her solo album, you hear her talking about how she loved us, no matter what. We weren't going nowhere!

Jamie: You all had so many obstacles and look how strong you were. And you were babies. I'm very proud of the three of you and what you all had together, the music that you made, and still with all that going on you were the #1 selling female group.

T-boz: I just want to say that when people thought that Lisa was so mad, one thing she would always tell me when she knew she made me mad was, "You don't understand it now, but I'm doing it for you."

The funniest thing of it all is, even if she was mad at me and we had disagreements, that was just because she was so overly creative. She had a lot of stuff to get out and I can apprecaite that. She would always tell me, "I know you're mad but I'm doing it for you."

Jamie: One thing that's coming out is how big her heart was and how generous she was. Did you all ever say, "Lisa, why are you doing this?"

T-boz: That was every year. I would say, "What'cha doing?" After a while I stopped, but I was like, you know what? It makes her feel good. When I was younger I'd be like, "What you doing, girl? Are you crazy?" And she'd be like, "Nah." And she'd explain it her way and I was like, "Oh, I see it your way now." I started understanding that that's what made her feel good and that made her happy.

Jamie: Do you know what you're going to name the album?

T-boz: Yeah, we know but I won't tell you.

Jamie: It's not Fantasy.com?

T-boz: No, it's not. It's something that Lisa named it and she was very excited about it. I just want to try my best to do what she would've wanted to do.

Jamie: When do you think it will come out?

T-boz: I have no idea. I just want to make sure her mom is straight and I want to make sure that her dreams are fulfilled the way she would've wanted them to be.

Jamie: It's interesting that you said people are writing to you and wanting to be her replacement. Someone mentioned to me today that it would be interesting to have her sister Raina as a third part. I said, "Well, Raina's a fitness person." And they said, "Well, that would be poetic justice." But you said it would be hard for you to bring somebody in there.

T-boz: I couldn't do it. I mean, we still are TLC, period. T-boz, LeftEye, and Chilli.

(Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas at the 1999 Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards)