Why TLC’s career nearly went up in flames before it even started

nypost.com:

“Ooooooohhh … On the TLC Tip” — that went multiplatinum.Then, the iconic girl group’s career nearly went up in flames. In June 1994, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes — the resident rapper of the trio, which also included Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins — got into a vicious, violent fight with her then-boyfriend, former NFL star Andre Rison, that left her bruised and bloodied.

Her nails ripped from their sockets, Lopes sought revenge, starting a fire that torched his $1.3 million mansion in suburban Atlanta.“News reports at the time were very much blaming Lisa as the crazy rapper who lit the house on fire,” says Thomas, 52, in the new documentary “TLC Forever,” which premieres on Lifetime and A&E on Saturday.And as Lopes was arrested and indicted on charges of first-degree arson, the threesome took the heat together.“[The industry] turned on us, like we all were arsonists,” says Watkins, 53.But in the end, the notoriety appeared to push TLC even higher — later that same year, their second album, “CrazySexyCool,” proved to be a smash.

The blockbuster record — featuring the hits “Creep,” “Waterfalls” and “Red Light Special” — went diamond, selling over 12 million copies in the US, and turning the trio into pop superstars.

TLC would famously pose for the November 1994 cover of Vibe magazine in fireman uniforms. The headline: “Burning up the charts and burning down the house.”But even while becoming the best-selling American girl group of all time, the Atlanta-based act had to overcome health battles, abusive relationships and even bankruptcy — followed by Lopes’ tragic death in 2002 — according to the documentary.Watkins suffered from sickle cell anemia, which caused her to spend the first seven years of her life in.