Q + A
TLC
Forget The Pointer Sisters, Destiny’s Child, or even The Supremes – the best-selling US girl group of all time is TLC. Formed in Atlanta in 1990, Tionne ’T-Boz’ Watkins, Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas and Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes racked up 65 million sales and countless awards with hits like Waterfalls, Creep and No Scrubs.
However, despite their success, they also suffered at the hands of the music industry, signing catastrophic contracts that led to bankruptcy at the height of their fame. Lopes died tragically in a 2002 car crash and the girls only made one more album until 2017’s crowd-funded comeback TLC, which they said would be their last. Now the surviving duo are returning to the UK for a one-off show at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 29 June and there are whispers of a possible Glastonbury Festival appearance, too. Classic Pop caught up with Chilli to reflect on the group’s legacy and hear their plans for the future.
Your second album, CrazySexyCool is 25 years old this year and still sounds incredibly fresh.
Thank you. I think that was down to the sophomore album thing, you have so much more pressure. The first one can be this or that, maybe it’s a fluke. Then the second one for us it was like, “Can they do it again?” It was a bunch of things, there was more colour, the clothes were still baggy but sexier, there was a lot to that album which made it what it was.