Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas shakes hands with an iron grip.
She might only be just over 5 feet tall, but the TLC icon is clearly not easily cowed.
At 43, she looks at least a decade younger, with unlined skin and a taut frame.
Thomas is wickedly funny in conversation. She’s also thoughtful and thorough as she discusses the final album she and her TLC partner Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins — who moved to Los Angeles three years ago — will release by the end of 2015.
The recording of the project will be done with the aid of crowdfunding site Kickstarter. Within days of announcing the project in January, TLC's goal of $150,000 was reached. With a little more than a week to go, they've amassed more than $265,000.
TLC is Atlanta royalty, having spawned here in the ’90s and rolled out a string of saucy hits including “No Scrubs,” “Unpretty” and “Creep.” With more than 65 million records sold, they’re tagged as the best-selling female group of all time.
Their history, including the tragic 2002 death of member Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, was vividly revisited with a 2013 VH1 documentary, “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story,” which has unveiled their unique combination of R&B, pop and hip-hop to a new generation.
The duo is set to embark on a summer tour with New Kids on the Block and Nelly — Thomas says they’ll perform for just under an hour — and swing through Atlanta on June 6 at Philips Arena.
During a recent chat at an Atlanta studio, an engaging Thomas discussed why TLC turned to Kickstarter, the musical direction of the new album and how she stays in fighting shape.
Q: How did you even get involved with Kickstarter?
A: Our manager Bill Diggins told us about it. They've raised over a billion dollars for people's projects. Spike Lee went there and that was successful. We liked the idea and we felt like it was something fresh, definitely a fresh avenue for us to explore and I'm glad we made that decision. Not only do we have a lot of creative control while in the studio, it's just a way of becoming a lot more personal with our fans doing it this way.
Q: What are you thinking of at this point as far as the music? A lot has changed in the industry since your last album.
A: A lot of the producers we worked with in the past want to be on board, like Dallas Austin, who is like an honorary member of TLC. Going back to the (VH1) movie, all of those songs, these kids are loving it like it's the first time they've heard it, which says the music is timeless. We're not trying to repeat or re-create what we've done already. It's about moving forward but still keeping that formula that people know and love about TLC. No matter what the beat sounds like, as long as the lyrical content is on some real girl power topics, that's what we do, just talking about real life issues.
Q: You’ve said that there really wasn’t any of Lisa’s material left over that you planned to use on the album, but do you feel like her spirit, her aura, still follows TLC?
A: Forever. For-EVER. We couldn't get rid of it if we wanted to and we don't want to. I think that's what has been so unique about our group. No one can be replaced in the group, no matter what happened. You can't just replace a TLC girl, and because we love (Lisa) so much, we will always honor her in that way.
Q: How did the tour come about? It’s a fun pairing, and you obviously share a demographic, but some might find it a little quirky.
A: We did a show (in 2013) at the Mixtape Festival (in Pennsylvania) and New Kids on the Block were there with Boyz II Men and Jonas Brothers and they watched our show. We got a phone call not long after that and it was no-brainer for us.
Q: What do you do to stay in such great shape?
A: Pretty much all of my workouts are from Beachbody. I'm a Beachbody coach and I love those workouts. I do them at home — I'm not a gym kind of person — and it works for me. I work out pretty much every day. You're always gonna have time to brush your teeth, brush your hair, so workouts cannot be any different.
Q: Does it make you sad to think that this is the end?
A: We're not leaving the music industry. We just want to add to the catalog. I'm just as excited to have new TLC music as the fans; it's exciting to see what we cook up in the studio. But right now, this is the last album for us.
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