Behind the Music (TV Series)

TLC (1999)

Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas: Self

Quotes 

• Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes : Even though we were getting the videos and we were on television and we were winning a lot of awards and stuff, we did not feel good about ourselves back at home because... we didn't have anything to show for it!

  Narrator : TLC was well on its way to selling more than 10 million copies of CrazySexyCool, their single Waterfalls was a #1 hit, and they were in the middle of a sold out world tour, millions of dollars were pouring in, but in June of '95 the girls shocked their fans by filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy.

  Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins : [laughing]  People still to this day do not believe that we were broke, but we were, okay?

  Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas : [laughing]  I know, so hard to believe, no one, I mean everyone was wondering, 'How could you guys have a #1 record, you sold all these albums, and you don't have any money?'

  Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes : This is how a group can sell 10 million records and be broke, and everyone get ready to do your math. There's 100 points on an album, TLC had 7, every point is equal to 8 cents. alright? 7 times 8, 56 cents, that means every time an album gets sold, TLC makes 56 cents. Sell 10 million records, 5.6 million dollars.

  Narrator : That's the addition, now here's the subtraction. From that 5.6 million, the girls were contractually obligated to pay back both their record and production companies for expenses incurred on their behalf, including recording, travel, promotion, and music videos.

  Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes : So LaFace Records has spent about 3 million dollars on the second album, so that automatically gets deducted from the 5.6 million dollars before we can even see a penny. Now, we have 2.6 million dollars left to split between the three of us. Well guess what? When you have that much money, you're in about the 47th, 48.9 percent tax bracket, so that immediately gets deducted to 1.3 million dollars.

  Narrator : Then subtract the percentages paid to their managers, lawyers, and accountants. After generating millions of dollars in profits, TLC's attorney says Tionne, Lisa and Chilli, each took home about 50,000 dollars a year in 1993 and '94.

  Rozonda 'Chilli' Thomas : We literally did not have anything, and it was killing us because we're one of the biggest acts in the world and we don't have anything to show for it. You know, we're unhappy, you know, we can't buy our parents a house or even ourselves if we want to.

  Narrator : Making matters worse the girls were deeply in debt. Each of them owed over half a million dollars to Pebbitone, and more than $100,000 each to LaFace Records. Attorney David Bisbee represented TLC in the bankruptcy proceedings. He said the girls had no choice but to file chapter 11.