SISTER 2 SISTER MAGAZINE

Sister 2 Sister, February 1998

I always thought Lisa Lopes was nicknamed “Left Eye” because she wore a condom on her left eye when TLC first started. Then I heard she had a “lazy” eye, so that’s where she got the name. Neither is true. Lisa told me why, and which star started calling her “Left Eye.” She told everything about her famous love affair with football star Andre Rison, including how they were fighting the night she burned down his house. She even told all about her less publicized affair with Tupac Shakur.There was the night when Andre and Tupac both turned up in the same nightclub with her. They already knew each other, got loud and rowdy, and the club kicked both of them out. Left Eye said, “Here’s the new guy I’m talking to and the guy I’m in love with; they get kicked out together.” Left Eye gave a fascinating interview. She thinks like nobody else I’ve met. And don’t think she’s not a business woman! This is one smart lady. And she’s funny, too. She’s survived a lot of tragedy in her little life. That’s why we think of her as a Super American Woman. She doesn’t always make the right choices but there’s Left Eye.

Jamie: You called me one time and said that you and Andre were going to get back together. But in the meantime, did you get back with Tupac?

LeftEye: After I left and drove back down to Atlanta, the Grammys was coming up in about three weeks. Andre had always wanted to be a part of the Grammies. To him the Grammys was like what the Super Bowl is to some people. I finally got a chance to go to the Grammys and I had just broke up with him. He ended up in California doing something for ESPN or for some kind of reason. And he called me, trying to get back with me and I was like, “No, it’s over.” And he said, “Well, I’m in California,” and he asked me could he go to the Grammys. And I was like, “Aw man!” Me and my girls were gonna go out there and just be free and do what we want to do. Have some fun and see who we want to see and here comes Andre to rain on the party. He ended up going to the Grammys: I don’t know how because he didn’t go with me, but somebody gave him a ticket. The whole time I was in California it was like a chase.

Jamie: Chasing you?

LeftEye: Yeah. I had to break up with him again in California. I had to reiterate, “It’s over.”

Jamie: You didn’t think about him at all?

LeftEye: Oh yeah. I always thought about him.

Jamie: Did you miss him?

LeftEye: Yeah.

Jamie: But you were looking for another guy at that time? Another person to be with? Or did you just want to be free?

LeftEye: I wasn’t looking for a person to be with. I always had this love interest for Tupac. Me and Andre was over and I was like, “Shoot, Tupac just got out of jail. Me and you ain’t together no more. He’s looking at me, giving me the eye.” They whole time we were in California, Andre would track me down. He would show up at the parties I was at, he would invite me to his hotel room. I wouldn’t come. And I remember one morning at about 5 o’clock, I woke up and Andre was sitting on my bed. Don’t ask me how he got into the room, I still don’t know to this day.

Jamie: [Laughing] Just looking at you?

LeftEye: Yes.

Jamie: Okay, so you met Tupac and he had just gotten out of jail.

LeftEye: Yeah, he had been out of jail for a minute. I already knew him, but I hadn’t talked to him for a long time. When me and Andre got together, I just cut everything off.

Jamie: Didn’t Tupac have you arrested by some hotel police one time because you were trying to get into his hotel?

LeftEye: Yep. Jamie, all of this stuff comes together because that night was the night that I…Oh man. That was when I first met Andre. Me and Tupac were going through some stuff back then, so we weren’t really speaking. He was speaking to me but I was a little bit mad at him and I hadn’t seen him for a couple of months. And I went to the club that night and I saw Andre. Me and Andre were talking. We were have a good time. Two, three hours went by and we were drinking, then Tupac rolls in the club. I was like, “Man, I guess I have to be with Andre tonight.” I didn’t was to diss Andre and be like,“Let me go over here and talk to my boy Tupac because that’s who I really wanted to talk to.”

Jamie: Was this Andre’s birthday party?

LeftEye: No, this was some Freaknik party. I was standing next to Andre and I saw Tupac coming into the club. I was like, “Oh Lord.” Then Tupac just walked straight toward Andre and he was like, “What’s up Dre?” They were giving each other dap and they just moved me out of the way. I was looking at them like, “Ain’t this about a bitch! Every time I talk to someone, Tupac knows them.”

Jamie: How long were you and Tupac together?

LeftEye: Well we were never together. Me and Tupac had more of a phone relationship. He was in California, I was in Atlanta. We grew really close for about a year. We were real tight and we talked almost every day. I only saw him in person about three times.

Jamie: So was it earlier that day when he had you arrested by the police?

LeftEye: No, it was later that night. When him and Andre got together, they lit up a blunt in the club and they both got kicked out. Here’s the new guy I’m talking to and the guy I’m in love with; they get kicked out together. I’m standing in the club by myself: I’m like, “Let me go downstairs and see what’s going on.” I go downstairs, Tupac and Andre, the two biggest mouths, the centers of attention, both of them got a whole crowd standing around them, talking loud. “Yeah, we wasn’t doing nothing. These motherfuckers tried to put us out. We told them such and such.” I come there and Andre puts his arm around me. He’s telling everyone I’m his girl. I think Andre saw me looking at Tupac, so he wouldn’t let me go. Sitting up there telling Monie Love, “Yeah, this is my girl.” Andre was starting to irritate me because I didn’t know him then. This was like the third time I had run into him at a club. I really wanted to be with Tupac and decide…to get something off my chest. But Andre had such a tight grip on me that I kind of like told my girl, “Come and get this boy off of me, please. I just got to get away from him for a couple of seconds.” And that’s when Tupac jumped. He started doing stuff to aggravate me on purpose. He started jumping in with these girls and other stuff. So I followed him to his limo and I got in and I wouldn’t get out because I wanted to talk to him. Tionne [that’s T-Boz of TLC] got in the car and Tupac was like, “Tionne, get your girl, man, get your girl.” She was like, “She looks all right to me.” Tionne let me in there then she got back out. I rode all the way to the hotel with them because no one could put me out of the car. When I got to the hotel, he raced up to his room. I got up and started to go up the elevator. But when the doors opened, the cops got me and escorted me back out.

Jamie: They just took you out of the hotel?

LeftEye: Hotel security…I don’t know.

Jamie: You weren’t embarrassed then?

LeftEye: No.

Jamie: What had you wanted to get off you chest?

LeftEye: Me and Tupac were real close. We decided not to be boyfriend and girlfriend. We decided to be what he called “niggaz.”

Jamie: Niggaz?

LeftEye: And we both liked each other. As the year went on, certain things would happen. Our feelings would kind of come through. Just because we’re niggaz, I’m not supposed to get jealous because you have girl company, but after awhile I started with, “Who is this girl?” That type of thing during the whole relationship. If I messed with a guy, he’d get upset at me. Tupac would hang up on me and then call me back and apologize. “But we’re just niggaz. We don’t like each other.” He had all of this stuff like, “Don’t ever let me sleep with you ‘cause I’m gonna look at you different.” We just tried to play this role.

Jamie: You never slept together?

LeftEye: No.

Jamie: What?

LeftEye: No, we never slept together. That was one of the first things he told me. He said, “Don’t ever let me sleep with you. I don’t care what I say, I don’t care how. I don’t care what I do, just don’t let it happen.” So I stuck by that because I didn’t want to mess anything up.

Jamie: You just stuck by that?

LeftEye: Yeah. I didn’t even really see him. It was mainly a lot of phone conversation. He would see girls and I would see guys and he would get mad and then play the role like we’re not supposed to be getting mad. Finally what happened with me and Tupac was, I ended up messing with this guy that was supposedly his friend and I didn’t know how close they were. Tupac stopped speaking to me because of that and that upset me. So two months later is when we were at that party and I wanted to get something off my chest. I really wanted to speak to Tupac because he had stopped speaking to me.

Jamie: That’s when you were trying to get in the limo and everything?

LeftEye: Yeah.

Jamie: Did you ever get it off your chest?

LeftEye: What I wanted to get off my chest was, “Me and you, we know we like each other. But this whole time you just wanted to be niggaz, you get mad because I’m messing with people and then you stop speaking to me, especially over this one guy in particular. You and me, we’re supposed to be much closer than this.” That was basically what I wanted to get of my chest but I never could.

Jamie: It has been said that you have a drinking problem. Is that true? Do you drink now?

LeftEye: I don’t drink that much. I can drink. Well, now it’s like, if I’m at a party and everyone’s drinking champagne, I will have a glass of champagne. If I’m at home, I don’t get up in the morning and drink. I don’t drink at home and all that only if I’m out and everyone’s taking a drink.

Jamie: Now I was asked to ask you, “Why do good girls like bad boys?” Do you think good girls like bad boys?

LeftEye: I just think it’s a challenge. I think it’s the same way with guys. Guys like girls that give them a hard time. It’s just because it’s a challenge and I think that’s all it is.

Jamie: Why do you think you’ve survived all the things you’ve been through?

LeftEye: I don’t know. Jamie, I don’t know because some people go through things and they fall all apart. I can say I went through a lot and that’s what made me strong, but it’s just my make-up.

Jamie: Do you pray? Do you meditate?

LeftEye: I went to church a lot when I was younger, so I think that built a foundation for me being able to overcome a lot of stuff.

Jamie: Denyse [Parks, her assistant] said that you are the type of person who, if someone needed 50,000 dollars, you would give it to them. And if you didn’t have it you would find a way to get it to them. Is that true?

LeftEye: Yeah, but I’ve always been like that.

Jamie: You and Andre are still friends, you told me. Why did he give you his Super Bowl ring? Does he have another girlfriend? What is he doing?

LeftEye: No, he doesn’t have another girlfriend. Right now he’s focusing on his season with Kansas City. Me and Andre talk every so often.

Jamie: Did he ever go in for treatment?

LeftEye: Yeah, he did.

Jamie: He did?

LeftEye: Yeah, they sentenced him to go in to treatment for something.

Jamie: You don’t know how long he was in?

LeftEye: He had to go to a counselor or something.

Jamie: Because he beat you up?

LeftEye: No! I don’t know why. I didn’t even know because we were separated then. When we started talking again, he said he had to go to a counselor for three months. They had put him on probation for something and that was part of his probation.

Jamie: Do you all have money? Everyone always says that TLC doesn’t have any money.

LeftEye: We got money from LaFace. When we finally got the deal and we paid everyone, paid our taxes and all, we were left with about $1,200,000 a piece. That was a pretty good amount of money, but almost $800,000 of my money went to the lawsuit for the house. So that hurt. I had been dumping a lot of my money into Left Eye Productions before I got the deal with Sony. So recently, I finally got the deal with Sony and they took care of my overhead and that stuff. My situation is a little bit different because of that lawsuit I had.

Read More Left Eye Interview on Sister 2 Sister Magazine 1998