T-Boz joined The Jenny McCarthy Show to promote her brand new book, A Sick Life, which is out now, as well as her new single, ‘Dreams‘, also out now!
Jenny: Sometimes celebrities write books and it’s just fluff. We want the real stories.
T-Boz: Yeah, everything I say is real.
Jenny: Isn’t that nice?
T-Boz: Yeah, it’s just me. I’ve been that way my whole career, though. What you see is what you get with me, good and bad.
Jenny: And you know what’s good about that? You never have to remember what you said.
T-Boz: Hello? That’s what I’m talking about. And there’s a certain somebody who likes to say that we are not telling the truth. Child, I’ve been consistent for 25 years. Sometimes I forget and repeat myself, and the fans are like yeah you’re being consistent. So, if I’m being consistent why would I lie about anything?
Jenny: Let’s talk about the book, ‘A Sick Life: TLC n Me: Stories from on and off the stage‘, what made you wanna write it?
T-Boz: It was therapeutic for me. Also, after the brain tumor surgery, and not enough research, and people still being not informed about something that is killing a lot of us, I was like maybe I should speak up. I’ve been in positions where doctors didn’t know why I was still here. So, I think I should help other people as well as myself.
Jenny: In the book, you speak about it from a young age. They said you’re not gonna make, and you won’t live past 30?
T-Boz: And that I wouldn’t have kids and be disabled my whole life.
Jenny: Isn’t that amazing. I tell parents all the time, don’t listen to those diagnoses, there is always hope.
T-Boz: Absolutely, and doctors practice medicine. It’s not the be and end all.
Jenny: Can you tell us a little more about sickle cell?
T-Boz: The easiest way to describe it is your red blood cells, everyone else has a circle shape, ours takes on an ‘S’ sickle shape. What happens is, your blood clots and stops oxygen flowing to your vital organs, so it can cause organ failure and death, basically.
Jenny: Have you tried therapeutic treatments like HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen therapy)?
T-Boz: What’s crazy is I can’t do the hyperbaric chamber unless I have something like an open wound. My doctors said it would hurt me because of the pressure. But I do use infrared saunas, acupuncture etc.
Jenny: I love infrared saunas! Those will keep me alive forever!
T-Boz: I’m putting one in my house. Also, have you seen the stuff that comes out of your body when your on the towels?! It’s crazy. My brother was laughing. If you wear no underwear, I swear to God, you will have a black line. All the metal that’s in your system will come out of your butt!
Jenny: We did blood tests to watch the line go down to see how much metals came out. Infrared saunas are going to keep me alive. Do you know which brand you are getting?
T-Boz: Yes, because some of them have radiation and glues you don’t want.
Jenny: So, when was the last time you spoke to Pebbles?
T-Boz: Right before the movie came out. It went okay, but she basically said she was going to sue us if she didn’t like what she saw. It wasn’t about telling stuff, there was a lot of stuff I didn’t tell, so we didn’t slander her. We were just telling our story from a 19 year old’s point of view. Also, it’s just what happened. And, like in a relationship, especially if it went sour, everything isn’t going to be good. We’ve always given her credit. Yes, Pebbles, again, if it wasn’t for you, they wouldn’t know us. But I’m not going to pay her for the rest of my life for one thing!
Jenny: I do remember you giving her credit.
T-Boz: I always have! Even if things aren’t good now, I always have. And I wish her the best, but I have lost a lot of respect for her, I have none anymore, at this point.
Jenny: I feel like sometimes some friendships are like weeds in the garden. They come in your life for a time that they need to be there, and then there actually is a time to let go sometimes.
T-Boz: A reason to season or a lifetime is what I call it. And at the end of the day, I give credit where it’s due, and she deserves that. But don’t take credit for things you didn’t do or don’t say you didn’t do certain things. Basically, you can’t say what someone’s opinion is. It’s your opinion, is that defamation of character? No, it’s my damn opinion of you.
Jenny: What was the particular thing that ended it?
T-Boz: She was just too controlling, and it was just time. Time ran out. Honestly, I think that’s what the real issue is. That we went on without her, and she feels that we don’t give her credit, but we do. It was just time to move on. We were still very successful afterwards, we in fact blew up even more.
Jenny: The universe or God blesses you when you do make those brave moves. Like when you stay in a bad relationship, it’s toxic.
T-Boz: So it’s better to move on, shake hands and be cordial. Agree to disagree. At the end of the day, I wish everybody the best. But don’t expect me not to tell stories just because some of them aren’t good, that’s just not realistic.
Jenny: No, it’s not. Can you tell us about the funeral, how crazy it was for you, with Whitney Houston screaming the holy spirit behind you, Suge Knight falling alseep, bring me to that moment in your head.
T-Boz: It was like a Circus. I was sick at the time because I was in the hospital for 4 months, so I was looking like death eating a soda cracker, 90 pounds, and I was a hot mess. I was frail, so I was still kinda sickly. She passed away the day before my birthday, but the funeral itself, I couldn’t make it up for the world. Whitney was hilarious, Suge was disrespectful.
Jenny: I suppose it helped lighten the situation because it was funny?
T-Boz: At the time, no. But, when I got home I just giggled. You need to read the book, because every time the pastor said something, she would say ‘praise the Lord’. When he said thank you Jesus, ‘thank you Jesus!’. She would do that through every word! And when I was in there with the body and she brought Bobbi Kristina in the room while she was a little girl, she was like ‘she knew you when you was in your mama’s belly, she knew you when you were in your mama’s belly’, she said is twice so fast! I was looking at her like, is this really happening? But I love Nippy. We were really close, I love her.
Jenny: What did you learn from yourself after writing your book?
T-Boz: That’s a good question. You do go deep into though about yourself, and sometimes when you read it, it’s like an outer body experience. Because it seems like it wasn’t me. I’m like, kinda wow and surreal. I can’t believe it still, that I have a book and I went through so much and I’m still sitting here to talk about it. That’s what I love about it, because I got it off my chest, I learned and grew from my mistakes and it made me who I am today. I tell the bad about myself aswell. So, if people get mad because of what I brought up in the book, I talk bad about myself. I’m showing you everything, I’m most vulnerable in this book than anything. What I’ve learned is it’s good to talk about things that you’ve been holding in for a long time, because of all the death scares and things I went through, I never talked about it, so I feel so much lighter and free, if that makes sense.
Jenny: It does, it’s like a load off. And, knowing that people can learn by listening to your stories, and relate. Everybody goes through pain, and seeing you come through the other end a survivor, gives other people hope.
T-Boz: And I love that I am still alive to tell the story, it’s a triumph story. So, I think that there a lot of different things that people can get from my book, whether it’s a single mother, divorced woman, a person who was bullied or teased, I talk about all that in my book, and illness.
Jenny: Thank you!
Big thanks to Megan Dove
