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CNN Live Today

Fans Mourning Loss of Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes

Aired April 26, 2002 - 11:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Friends and fans are mourning the death of R&B star Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes this morning. Now as we told you, Lopes, of the Grammy-winning group TLC, was killed in a car crash in Honduras yesterday.

Reporter Lisa Breckenridge of our affiliate KTTV is outside the Virgin Records megastore in Hollywood. She joins us now with more.

Hello, Lisa.

LISA BRECKENRIDGE, KTTV-TV REPORTER: Good morning, Leon.

Such a very sad day for music fans. We're outside the Virgin megastore here in Hollywood where so many of their records sold. TLC such a very popular group and Lisa Lopes one of the most flamboyant members.

She was in Honduras on a humanitarian effort. She went down there often. There is a child development center and she always went down there to help. For some unknown reason, the car she was in last night rolled about 150 miles north of the capital of Honduras and she was the only one that was killed. There were six other people in the car as well. They were taken to the hospital.

Now Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes has been called the controversial and sometimes volatile member of TLC, the group behind such hits as "Waterfalls," "No Scrubs" and "Unpretty." The surviving bandmates released a statement early this morning saying, "We had all grown up together and were as close as a family. Today we have truly lost our sister."

The group debuted back in 1992 with "Ooooooohhh ... On the TLC Tip." They returned in 1994 with "CrazySexyCool" and Lopes was dubbed the crazy member of the group. The album went quadruple platinum and won them the first two of their four Grammy Awards.

Now the group's success, they also had a downside. In 1994, Lopes pled guilt to setting fire to the home of her boyfriend, Atlanta Falcon's receiver Andre Rison. She was sentenced to a halfway house and five years probation.

Now within the last few months while awaiting release of their upcoming album, Lopes had signed a solo deal with Suge Knight. A few years ago, the group declared bankruptcy, blamed on poorly structured recording contracts. But Lopes, who would have been 31 next month, had reunited with her boyfriend and they were actually planning on marrying sometime in the near future.

So again, a very sad time for so many people in the music business. We understand that her manager has flown down to Honduras to bring her body back.

Reporting live in Hollywood, I'm Lisa Breckenridge. Back to you in the studio.

HARRIS: Lisa Breckenridge, thank you very much. We sure do appreciate that report.

Lisa Breckenridge of our affiliate KTTV.

Now we'll have some more on the death of Lisa Lopes coming up at the bottom of the hour. We'll be talking with Ian Burke. Now he is the former manager of TLC, and he's also a very close friend of Lopes, and we'll talk with him and get his thoughts this morning so please stay with us.

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