Katy Perry paid $6500 to have a sleepover with US R&B band TLC
POP princess Katy Perry is one of a handful of people who forked out $6500 for a slumber party with the No Scrubs singers from TLC.
A BIT of pop culture crystal ball action: some time over the next year you’re going to see TLC in bedtime onesies with Katy Perry.
It’s not part of Perry’s latest Big Brother-style publicity campaign. The pop singer was one of a handful of people who paid over $6500 for a slumber party with the US R&B pioneers behind Waterfalls, No Scrubs and Creep.
In January 2015 TLC launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund their fifth (and final) album.
Pledgers could get everything from a basic album to meeting remaining members T-Boz and Chilli, getting a phone call or video call from the ladies or even a personal workout with Chilli.
Particularly cashed-up fans could go to the movies with T-Boz or Chilli or, for nearly $10,000, do a photo shoot with them.
One purchaser of the movie package was disappointed when Chilli (born Rozonda Thomas) had her entourage tag along.
“He was upset, he thought it was a one on one date,” Chilli says. “We had to let him know no, it’s all of us.”
After a long wait (and some impatient fans) the self-titled album is finally finished and released. They’re still honouring the last batch of the pledges — including at least one celebrity sleepover.
“We’re going to have a slumber party with Katy Perry,” Chilli says, “we just have to get our schedules together so we can make it happen. That’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Their Kickstarter campaigned raised over $560,000 — a record for the crowd-funding program.
The cash was used to secure producers and songwriters, pay for recording studios and travel and then the marketing and publicity campaign to launch the record.
Initial claims on the Kickstarter pitch that they’d reunite with original songwriters behind their hits didn’t pan out — there’s no Dallas Austin (who wrote Unpretty and Creep), Babyface (Red Light Special, Diggin’ On You), Organized Noise (Waterfalls) or Kandi Burress (No Scrubs, Girl Talk) on the album’s credits.
Chilli, who has a 20 year old son, Tron, with Austin, said the end of their relationship many years ago had nothing to do with his absence from the project.
“It was different to not have Dallas there. We’ve been working with him since the beginnings, but we had conflicting schedules. It definitely wasn’t over anything else.”
There is a nod to their past with an interlude featuring original member Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, who tragically died in a car accident in 2002.
While the trio fought bitterly — and publicly — at the height of their fame, they still pay respect to Lopes at each of their live shows to this day.
“It just feels right,” Chilli says. “Lisa was our sister, she helped to build this thing we have. We’re always going to keep her spirit alive, she’ll live on through TLC as long as we have something to say about.”
TLC is the first album they recorded as a two piece — on 2002’s 3D, released a few months after Lopes’ death, they used raps recorded for the second solo album she never got to finish.
In 2005 the duo created a reality show, RU The Girl, which was initially viewed as their search for a replacement member, they insisted it was just to find a new talent to perform on a new song.
The resulting single, I Bet, was not a hit. However a 2013 TV drama based on their career, CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story, was a hit and relaunched their heavy touring as a duo.
T-Boz and Chilli wanted to use more Lopes’ raps on their final album, but were blocked by her estate. They used footage of her talking from an old interview instead.
“She does have some other raps her family are holding hostage, they won’t let us use them unless we pay money, it’s just crazy. The other music she was doing before she passed away was more of a poetic vibe. When we finished the 3D album we got all the stuff we could possibly get that would match what we were talking about at that time and used it. We couldn’t use anything else because it didn’t match. So we used that interview (sound bite) on the interlude, it’s the essence of Lisa.”
Chilli admits she is saddened with the reception from Lopes’ family.
“It is what it is. It doesn’t stop us from making sure we honour our sister.”
TLC famously went bankrupt at the height of their fame in the early ’90s, thanks to signing prohibitive deals with management and record labels.
They learnt fast from their mistakes and explored a loophole in their contracts which saw them recently re-recorded versions of their back-catalogue — which their old record label owns.
They own the copyrights of the new versions, which sound identical to the originals. It’s a process more acts unable to own their biggest hits are doing to circumvent music industry hurdles.
RELATED: TLC’s Chilli on Ed Sheeran’s legal link to No Scrubs
“We own the masters,” Chilli says. “Anybody who wants to use a TLC song, just call us, we’ve got you. Come to us, don’t go to the labels, come straight to us!”
While TLC is their final album, the pair will continue to tour as TLC and will still release solo music, with Chilli also getting steady acting work.
They’re cashing in on the ’90s craze with regular touring work at retro events — they shoehorn in new material between the hits. “We don’t have a problem with being associated with the ’90s, there was some of the best music during that times. It’s an honour to be a part of that era.”
However there is a long game when they don’t want to keep slogging it out on the road.
“We’ll work this album until we can’t work it anymore. Our goal is to secure a residency in Las Vegas.”
TLC (852 MUSIQ/LIBERATOR MUSIC) OUT NOW
Originally published as Katy Perry paid $6500 to have a sleepover with US R&B band TLC