Ten years ago today, the music world lost the talent and vivacious spirit of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes in a tragic car accident in La Ceiba, Honduras.
As one third of the diamond-selling girl group TLC, Lopes kept fans engaged with her slick rhymes and one-of-a-kind personality that will forever be remembered.
ESSENCE.com got the opportunity to chat with Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas as they reflect on the life of their fallen group member.
ESSENCE.com: Today marks 10 years since we lost Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes in a tragic car accident. What do you remember about that day?
T-BOZ: She died a day before my birthday. I remember everything. I was with security in my Porsche and I said to them, “I feel like I’m going to get in a wreck and I want to go home.” The driver said: “Well, that’s on the other side of town.” I didn’t care; I wanted to go home. I just felt something was going to happen to me, but it wasn’t me — it was Lisa. I was sitting in a rocking chair in my daughter’s room after putting her down when I got a call from Chilli. She was screaming. I had just gotten out the hospital from fighting sickle cell so I had to be careful about getting upset. Everybody was trying to keep me calm.
I remember staying up all night and Patti Labelle and Missy Elliot calling me. Whitney Houston was at Lisa’s funeral. She sat behind me and rubbed my shoulders for two hours, while telling me, “It’s going to be okay, it’s going to be all right.” Right before that, I remember Lisa played a trick where she went missing and nobody knew where she was. This was the one time I wish she was joking and doing one of her stunts, but she wasn’t.
ESSENCE.com: People playfully identified her as the crazy one in the group because of the notable fire in 1994, among other things. What’s the biggest misconception about Left Eye?
CHILLI: People didn’t understand how much of a heart she really had and how passionate and giving she was. She might have come across as someone who wanted to start trouble all the time, but that wasn’t it; she just had a lot to say. Sometimes when you speak what’s on your mind — I’m talking everything on your mind, and people can get a misconception of you. So because she spoke her mind, all of the time, it caused people to misjudge her.
ESSENCE.com: Are we going to get another TLC album or a 20th anniversary tour?
T-BOZ: Yes, we’re going on tour; we are in negotiations now with LA. Reid, so we’ll see what happens. A lot of cool things are coming up.
CHILLI: Another TLC album? Yes, that’s for sure! We’ll have new music right after the movie drops. We have everybody that was there with us from the beginning on board. We’ll definitely have a tour; I just don’t know what we’ll call it yet.
Check out the full interview over at ESSENCE.com!