This woman was such a huge influence on me when I was younger. I want to say that her verses were the first ones that I ever memorized, or pushed myself to remember because she just had that element which was undeniable.
I clearly remember when I saw a commercial about TLC coming to Tucson’s TCC arena, and BEGGED my dad to buy me tickets, but he said we couldn’t afford them at the time. I was so crushed and every time that commercial came on I would just walk out of the room knowing that I was going to miss my favorite group.
A few days before the concert, I was walking around the house and it was like perfect timing that I walked into the living room right when the commercial came on again and my dad tells me “How often are you going to ignore this commercial? I might as well give these tickets to someone who wants to see them.”
As I was staring at him puzzled, he flashed 2 tickets to the show in which my immediate reaction was to scream and start crying. oh yea, my love for TLC was THAT serious and it was my FIRST concert I had ever went to and it was amazing. They had matching silk robes like the ones in the Creep video, and came out from under a silk sheet- their performance was so on point and so timeless to me.
Here we are on the 10 year anniversary of Lisa Left Eye Lopes’ passing, and I’m listening to Mr. Cee’s tribute he threw on at Hot 97 for today’s throwback at noon, I’m in tears. I can still see Left Eye kickin’ all these verses in my mind live in concert, and even remember almost knocking my dad down in order to stand side stage. The craziest thing happened when I did that though, i looked to my left and right to see if there was anyone else standing by me in which there wasn’t.
At that time Left Eye was walking off the stage solo and I screamed so loud at her that she looked up and gave me a big smile and a wave. I took that memory with me as I grew up because I felt that she was so loved as an artist yet so misunderstood as a woman that the pressure might have become too much for her to deal with. Now that I’m in this business I’m realizing how tough it can be and can only imagine the pressure TLC might have been in to deliver and am forever grateful to what they did for women in music.
Anyway enough of my rambles, Essence sat down with T-Boz and Chilli to talk about where they were when Lisa passed on, and how they dealt with it throughout the years.
TweetESSENCE.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.