From left: T-Boz, Left Eye, and Chilli.

From left: T-Boz, Left Eye, and Chilli.

Before TLC started, was being in a group like it part of your, “What I wanna be when I grow up” dream?

T-BOZ: Since I was seven—same dream. Left side of stage. Baggy clothes. Couldn’t see my face. With a mic. Run down to the right side. Same thing. Always. Over and over. And baggy clothes! How scary is that? And I would tell my mom, and she’d be like, “OK,” and I’d say “They’re gonna know my name! I’m gonna be in history, momma!” She’d be like, “OK, baby.”

CHILLI: For me when I was little, I used to grab a brush, anything, pretend it was the mic in front of the mirror, anything. When you’re little, you don’t know to say, “I’m gonna be a recording artist.” You’re just like, “I’m gonna be a star!” And that’s what I would say forever, and I always had that feeling that maybe it would be a part of my path. But growing up in the South, I thought that I had to live in L.A. or New York, but definitely L.A., so I was like, How do I get to L.A.? And then destiny just took over with [record executive] L.A. Reid and LaFace Records coming to Atlanta and putting Atlanta on the map like that. Just the way that every event happened to get here, it was definitely just a meant to be situation because I don’t know how else you could explain that: I mean, the moment I met [T-Boz and Left Eye]. I was a dancer for Damian Dame for two seconds, another group on LaFace’s label, and [LaFace] was gonna have this huge audition to find another member [for TLC], but that got squashed because I guess I was the missing link. And after that it just kept moving nonstop.

How old were you, exactly?

T-BOZ: Me and Lisa met first, when I was 19.

CHILLI: When I got in the group, we were 20 at the time.

Do you remember your first impressions of each other?

CHILLI: Yeah! It’s funny because, I had a couple best friends. So I looked at it like, Wow, I’m in this group, this is gonna be amazing. But to me, what developed between us that I didn’t even have with my best friends was that experience of sisterhood. I just felt a real connection with them. I loved them, and I wanted to be a part of it. It was like you instantly have this connection. You know when you meet some people, and you just don’t like them? I don’t care what they do, what they say, for how long—it’s just something about them you don’t like. But with [T-Boz and Left Eye], it wasn’t like that. I felt attached immediately.

T-BOZ: Our arguments were even funny! One time I remember Lisa called [Chilli] “Pocahontas” [around the time the Disney movie came out] and she was like, “What!” And I was the instigator, ’cause [Chilli] was so gullible. I was like, “Man, are you really gonna let her say that to you? I mean seriously.” It worked.

CHILLI: First of all, she is an instigator! They got on my nerves so very badly. Both of y’all together!

T-BOZ: We? Lisa, mostly! Are you serious right now? Oh my god, what I do together!

CHILLI: You used to hang out all the time. I’d never hang out that much with y’all!

T-BOZ: Hey! That was a choice, missy!

CHILLI: [Laughs] You know what, I didn’t, ’cause they were getting into a whole heap of trouble! A whole heap of trouble!

T-BOZ: She the one with the curly hair over there—she never wanted to play, or get wet. I’m like, “Well, I mean, all you have to do is scrunch it, Rozonda,” and she’s like, “I don’t like it wet!” So, [Left Eye and I were] like, “Forget her, she don’t wanna play!” Yeah we left you! [Laughs] She didn’t wanna have any water fights! So you can’t blame us for that, you didn’t wanna play! We would get kinda rough, and mess up hotels, and get shut out, but they loved us, and they allowed us back! ’Cause I used to be good, too. I mean, [Left Eye and Chilli] would always take their butts out and run around with their pants down. And I would always say, “No! No, no, no!” But the one time they got on my damn nerves, and I actually let [the peer pressure] work and [I ran through the hotel halls with my butt out], the road manager steps out on my ass!

CHILLI: Literally! On her little booty! He saw the li’l Boz cheeks!

T-BOZ: Can you imagine if there had been social media back then? Oh, we would have been everywhere. Like, “TLC kicked out of hotel because of, blah blah blah blah blah!”

CHILLI: I have to tell you this! Because one time, we were on tour, I think we were on [our first national tour] with MC Hammer. And we were knocking on people’s doors and running away and stuff like that in the hallways and so, Lisa—oh my god. You know the ashtrays that had the sand in them? We did something horrible to someone’s door, and in the ashtray next door, she put her little Left Eye sign in the sand! Then they came directly to our door, saying, “Well, we saw it in the sand and then saw y’all running!” We still tried to deny it!

T-BOZ: Lord, when we toured! We used to take water and throw it down [the studio’s] hallway so we could slide on it! We got into so much trouble for messing up that studio, boy!

It was part of your process!

T-BOZ: It surely was! A lotta creativity came out of that shit!