TLC is the one of the most successful girl groups of all-time.
During the '90s, they were impossible to miss, racking up number one hits, promoting safe
relations, defining popular culture, and revolutionizing the music industry.
Sadly, in April of 2002, TLC lost Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes to a tragic car accident, and the
band has never been the same.
Here's what we learned about Lopes after her death.
Lopes' father Ronald Lopes, was a former Army
staff sergeant and an extremely strict father and husband.
Lopes talked about it in The Last Days of Left Eye, a documentary that she was making
about her life at the time of her death.
"When we lived with my dad he was a drill sergeant for real."
This included handing out some steep punishments.
She noted that if she did bad in school:
"I got the heavy duty punishment!
No TV, no front porch, no back porch, no boyfriends, no nothing."
Despite his otherwise strict demeanor, Lopes notes in the film that her father, himself
a heavy drinker, encouraged her drinking at a young age.
"I would drink, and my father would say, 'look at her go, look at her go.'"
Lopes was the subject of intense media scrutiny
when she set fire to her then-boyfriend Andre Rison's home during a domestic dispute.
In The Last Days of Left Eye, Lopes described how she started the fire.
"went under the cabinet grabbed my lighter fluid, that I used to barbecue and barbecued
me some tennis shoes."
But the fire spread quickly out of the tub and consumed much of the house, which was
not Lopes' intention.
"I didn't realize what I was doing, I didn't mean for the house to burn down."
After being sentenced for the fire, Lopes
intentionally cut herself, professing her love for her boyfriend by cutting it into
her arm with a razor.
"I was serving time in the diversion center"
He wasn't really coming to visit like I would have wanted him to"
After she was released from the diversion center, there was another fight with her boyfriend.
"We had a barbecue, and he accused me and his friend of flirtin' and saying some really
mean things" Lopes' frustration over the fight led her
to cut again, overwriting her profession of love.
"Over top of the word love, I started writing the word Hate.
H-A-T-E."
Lopes' reputation caused people to misjudge
her, according to friends and family who knew the real Lopes.
Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas told Essence magazine: "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."
Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins also shared that while Lopes was most known for her bold, daring
style and musical brilliance, she was also creative in the way she cared for her friends.
Watkins told Essence magazine about a gift she received from Lopes while in the hospital.
"She was very creative, too.
I remember I was in the hospital for four months and she sent me a clock that she made
and the clock read: 'Take all the time you need.'
She really put thought into things."
Lopes was keenly aware that people had formed negative opinions about her, too, which was
part of the reason she was making The Last Days of Left Eye.
"Throughout my career, I've gone through several things"
"I pretty much just want to set the record straight"
Lopes was invested in her physical and spiritual
health; she would frequently retreat to Honduras to do cleanses, as she followed and endorsed
a guru named Dr. Sebi who was based there.
Additionally, Lopes mentored girl bands like Egypt, who were with her during her final
retreat in Honduras.
While much of this was well known, what only became public many years later, is that she
had the members of Egypt cleansing and fasting with her.
They ate strict diets and drank herbal drinks, and would often vomit because the tinctures
tasted so foul.
They eventually broke their diets, gleefully stocking up on chips and other items at a
local grocery store.
In what can be read as an eerie foreshadowing
of her own passing, Lopes was riding as a passenger in her van when her personal assistant
accidentally hit Bayron Isaul Fuentes Lopez, a 10-year-old Honduran boy.
According to the New York Post, the boy suddenly stepped into traffic off of a median, and
the car hit him, ending his life.
In spite of not being at fault, Lopes paid all of the medical and funeral expenses, and
gave the family some additional funds.
She was haunted by the experience, and it affected her deeply and profoundly, particularly
because she blamed a spirit for the accident — the same spirit that she previously said
was chasing her.
"I don't think I will ever get over it"
Just weeks after the first car accident, a
second accident took Lopes' life.
Her funeral drew thousands and it became clear that Lopes was one of a kind.
When asked if they would consider bringing on someone else as a third member, Watkins
and Thomas emphatically declined.
"Never, I mean, honestly, never ever ever" More than 15 years later, the duo have upheld
this, refusing to add a permanent replacement.
Still, TLC lives on.
"She would want us to move on, she would say, 'TLC is forever.'"
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