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- Crystal Jones was one of the founding members of TLC, along with Tionne Watkins and Lisa Lopes.
- Crystal left TLC in early 1991 amidst a disagreement with the head of the group’s management company.
- Crystal was replaced by Chilli when she left the group and has mostly lived out of the public eye since.
Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas will look back at the early days of their group, TLC, in the upcoming Lifetime and A&E documentary, TLC Forever. Before Chilli was even a member of the group, though, T-Boz was in TLC with founding member, Crystal Jones, as well as the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes. Crystal left the group in 1991 amidst contract negotiation issues, and was replaced by Chilli.
Since her departure from TLC, Crystal has stepped away from the music industry and liven a life away from the public eye. However, she did resurface to tell her side of the story in 2013 after a biopic, Crazy, Sexy Cool: The TLC Story, premiered on VH1. The movie claimed that Crystal was replaced in the group because she couldn’t sing, but she says that was not the case. “Everybody that does know me knows I can sing,” Crystal insisted in a 2013 interview on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. “So that wasn’t true.”
Crystal Jones during a 2013 interview. (V-103 Atlanta/Youtube)
Learn more about Crystal below and her departure from TLC below.
Why Did TLC Replace Crystal Jones?
The 2013 biopic showed Crystal being asked to leave TLC after an audition for L.A. Reid. She told Rolling Out that the audition with L.A. Reid never happened. Rather, they sang for singer Perri “Pebbles” Reid, who had recently formed a production and management company. Once Pebbles took an interest in the group, Crystal said she began using “manipulations” to try and become their manager. Issues arose when the ladies met with a lawyer to sign contracts.
“I didn’t understand [it] and I turned to Pebbles and I asked if I could take mine home and have my mom look it over and she said, ‘Absolutely not,’” Crystal claimed. “So I chose not to sign my contract, thinking in my head there would be a little loyalty. Maybe they’ll ask me why and Tionne and Lisa would say, ‘What’s up? Why won’t you sign it?’ But no one questioned it. No one ever asked.”
Crystal said everything was “downhill” from the moment she decided not to sign. “They kept having meetings without me and all of a sudden they told me they didn’t want me in the group anymore,” she shared. She also said that T-Boz and Left Eye began “distancing themselves” from her amidst the contract situation.
“They would fly out of town with Pebbles,” Crystal explained. “They did the video for [Pebbles’ song] “Backyard” and if you look you’ll see them in the back, but I’m not there. The reason why is they told me at the last minute. I was a new mom. I’d just had a four month old baby. They told me within hours of leaving and I couldn’t go. They started doing stuff like that.”
T-Boz and Chilli performing together. (Matt Baron/Shutterstock)
Is Crystal Jones From TLC Still A Singer?
Crystal said that she tried to keep up a career in the music industry after leaving TLC, but nothing worked out. “I just decided to walk away because I had to be a mom,” Crystal, who was 19 at the time of her departure, said. “I was devastated. After that, I did try other situations but couldn’t come up with the same mix. Everybody in Atlanta around that time knew what had happened. It was a little depressing for awhile to see them go on and see my idea come to fruition and not get any credit. It was hard.”
While out on her own, Crystal worked hard to make ends meet. “I didn’t have much of an education, so I had to do what I had to do to survive,” she shared. “I didn’t have much schooling, so I had to take jobs that would take me. I started doing things I shouldn’t have been doing, working at certain clubs to make ends meet. I had to be a mom.” However, she did confirm that she still sings at church!
Crystal Jones Is Also A Dancer
In addition to being a singer, Crystal also worked in the entertainment industry as a dancer before forming TLC. “I was a backup dancer for a young lady by the name of Anne G,” she shared in 2013. “I was on tour with her. I’ve been on tour with DJ Chuck Chillout and Kool Chip. I was living in New York at one point, doing videos.”
After she got pregnant with her daughter, Crystal moved back to Atlanta, which is where she met up with manager Ian Burke and came up with the concept for TLC. The group was originally called Second Nature, but changed to TLC at Pebbles’ urging. “She wanted something a little bit more catchier,” Crystal explained.
Does Crystal Jones Still Speak To TLC?
In her 2013 interview, Crystal said she “doesn’t really speak to” T-Boz and Chilli much. However, she also shared that she had conversations with Left Eye before her 2002 death. “We had a very, how can I say, intimate moment,” she admitted. “We talked, we hugged, she apologized. I told her I understood it’s a business. My only let down was that I thought we had a little bit of loyalty. So I figured if I didn’t sign the contract, they wouldn’t either. But they went ahead.”
What Does Crystal Jones Do Today?
Since leaving TLC, Crystal focused on life as a mom. In 2014, she also released a memoir called The Awakening Of Shattered A Dream: My TimeLine where she discussed her “road to recovery” amidst an intense personal journey. “This story is told through a TimeLine Therapy which allows the release of limited beliefs once guided by limited decisions,” the book’s description confirms. “Crystal has decided for her therapy to become transparent in efforts to motivate as well as inspire others wanting to improve their mental and emotional well being by allowing the healing process to begin.”
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