Guess some wounds never heal. More than two decades after the release of TLC's debut album, Ooooooohhh… On the TLC Tip, tensions are still high between the group's surviving members, Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, and their former manager, Perri "Pebbles" Reid. In the new VH1 biopic CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story, T-Boz and Chilli turn an unflattering spotlight on Pebbles, whom they blame for their money problems in the 1990s.
The biopic, which aired on Monday, Oct. 21, chronicles the famed girl group's rise to fame in the 1990s and early 2000s. T-Boz, Chilli, and the late Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopes first burst onto the scene in 1991 with hit songs including "Ain't 2 Proud 2 Beg" and "Baby, Baby, Baby." Those were followed by 1994's CrazySexyCool, which spawned classics including "Waterfalls" and "Creep" and sold more than 23 million copies worldwide.
With success like that, the trio should have been rolling in dough. But in July 1995, eight months after CrazySexyCool's release, they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and declared debts totaling some $3.5 million.
VH1's biopic, for which T-Boz and Chilli served as executive producers, suggests that Pebbles (played by Rochelle Aytes) was the root of the group's financial problems. She's portrayed as a greedy hanger-on who withheld millions of dollars from her clients — an allegation that does not sit well with the real-life Pebbles, once married to music producer L.A. Reid.
"I'm NOT here to promote something I put on the MAP and yet have been disrespected because of more reasons than one!" she tweeted after one of T-Boz and Chilli's recent appearances to promote the made-for-TV flick. "Lawyers on deck." (Pre-TLC, Pebbles was well-known as an R&B pop singer herself in the late '80s, with hits like "Girlfriend" and "Mercedes Boy.")
"I am in shock listening to all this mess and lies on this radio interview!! This is madness!!!" she added. "It's SO hard to believe this! DO NOT believe…Not going to comment about this anymore on here UNofficially. Dealing with this though."
T-Boz and Chilli, for their part, stand by the movie's depiction of Pebbles. "I don't have an problems with her," Chilli told Us Weekly. "This story is from our perspective…And we did not lie…We told the truth, and that's how our experience was with her. That's how it was."
"We've always been open and honest about how much she's done for us and the things she did give us," T-Boz added. "Throughout relationships, whether it's mother, daughter, father, son, friends, whomever, you'll have ups and downs, and you'll disagree, and you won't like everything that everybody does. And some people can't take people moving on and they can't take change. I don't think [Pebbles has] ever gotten over the whole breakup of TLC."
"Once we didn't work with her anymore, we were fine," Chilli added.
