Ep. 257 - Tionne 'T-Boz' Watkins: TLC - The Biggest Girl Band in American History

"Life is tough...and it's also miraculous." T-Boz and TLC sold 70 million albums, becoming the bestselling girl band ever in America. Along the way they declared bankruptcy, she battled sickle-cell anemia, the death of one of their bandmates and best friends, a brain tumor, everything. She's 47 today and beat two life sentences the doctors declared on her. People say, "Well, she sold 70 million albums! That's success!" When you do your absolute best today, even though you know tomorrow everything can change - that's success. I had T-Boz on the podcast to celebrate the release of her new memoir, "A Sick Life" which I highly recommend. REINVENTION IS EVERY DAY TLC sold 70 million albums and is the #1 selling girl band in America. But to stay creative, T-Boz and her bandmates, Left-eye, and Chili had to constantly develop music that stayed fresh and relevant. 15 years after they started, they released their 5th album REMEMBERING THE ABOVE I always say "Reinvention is every day" ever since my book, "Reinvent Yourself" came out. But I'll be honest, just as hard is remembering every day that "reinvention every day". The straight and narrow and supposedly easy path is constantly whispering to me to follow it. But don't. IDEA SEX Other groups were R&B, other groups were rap, other groups were funk. How do you be the best? T-Boz (funk) + Left-Eye (Rap) + Chili (R&B) = TLC = 70 million albums PERSISTENCE Sickle-cell anemia is debilitating. You're not supposed to live. The blood cells don't want to deliver oxygen to the rest of your body. The pain is incredible. T-Boz's brain tumor took three years to recover from. The death of her best friend and band-mate took 2 years to recover from. Going bankrupt after selling tens of millions of albums forced her to start from scratch. Reinventing in a constantly changing music business is the downfall of many artists. For their last album, TLC even used Kickstarted to fund it as opposed to a record label. Success is about reinvention and persistent every day. IF YOU'RE AN ARTIST, KNOW THE BUSINESS A lot of creatives don't want to read the contracts or fine print. TLC didn't read it as well and ended up making almost no money on their first 30 million albums. At one point they even held up music legend, Clive Davis, at gun point, asking, "Where's our money". They went bankrupt and had to start from scratch. Don't outsource your financial well-being and the security of your family to others. SICKNESS AND PAIN No matter who you are, life is going to happen. "Life is tough". T-Boz had painful sickle-cell anemia since birth and often had to be hospitalized mid-album, mid-tour, mid-whatever. "When I was seven they told me I wouldn't live past 30. I'm 47 now." "They told me I couldn't have kids. I have two now." "When they did brain surgery, they told me I might never sing again. I'm on tour now with our latest album." Then she lost her best friend and band-mate, Left-eye, to a car crash. She was depressed for two years. Then she had a brain tumor that required surgery and three years of physical therapy to recover from. "I still can't whistle," she told me. "Try," I said. So she did. She couldn't whistle. "I can't move the muscles on the left side of my mouth." But throughout the podcast she laughed. "And I'm going back on tour tomorrow." CREATIVITY HAS MANY OUTLETS T-Boz has written songs, performed them, did the choreography for TLC's videos, conceived of the videos, written a book of poems, written movies, and now this memoir. People sometimes say, "I can't be creative". Or, "I don't have the talent". Or "I can do X, but not Y". Not true. Creativity is a muscle. Find some small way to be creative every day and the muscle gets developed. For me, today is the first day I'm going to try to do standup in the same day at two different clubs. I'm scared. Find one thing scary and challenging and creative every... See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.