Hot Talk With Chilli: TLC Singer Talks Dating Rumors, Music & Reality TV

By Jawn Murray, BlackVoices.com

Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas is single and ready to mingle.

The TLC singer, fresh off of her surprise appearance alongside SWV and En Vogue on the 2008 BET Awards with Alicia Keys, has her eye on a newly divorced Hollywood A-lister and she wants the world to know.

"The Rock," she exclaimed! "I love him! I haven't met him yet. I want to. If you ever reach out to him, tell him that Chilli has the biggest crush on him. She would love to just go to lunch. Don't think I don't know he's divorced now too. I wouldn't say all of this if he was married. I know that relationship is over."

Pretty straight forward!

And that's what makes interviewing Chilli rather easy. She pulls no punches, plays no games and shoots from the hip when you ask her about internet gossip and dating rumors.

For example, one online site had her romantically linked to boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

"Floyd and I are very good friends and that's all it is," the singer clarified, while we spoke via cell phone as she ran errands in her hometown of Atlanta. "I always encourage him to do good things with his money. It's not that he doesn't do good things with his money, it's just that most guys in the entertainment world don't mind going to the strip joints 'making it rain.' So I try to detour him from there. I tell him to 'make it rain' at the hospital in the emergency room for some families."

Having to clear up rumors is no fun for the 37-year-old Atlanta native, who said that it's harder to clean up a story after it's made the rounds on the internet.

"People like myself, that blog stuff drives me nuts and it's hard to retract. Once it's out there, it's out there. When you go back and try to fix it and say it isn't true, less than half of the people who already heard the wrong story never get to hear the truth. It's kind of messed up," she vented.

Another untruth about Chilli was that she was in a tumultuous relationship with NFL star Ray Lewis and was the victim of domestic violence.

"That whole hook up with Ray Lewis was that they said I was at a bar with him and he beat me up and I was in a hospital. When they said this was going on, I was in LA. I did go on a date with him, but it was just a date and that was it. I was never in Baltimore with him and this fight thing that came out never happened," she explained, before adding: "That was crazy."

It is no secret that Chilli did date R&B singer Usher during his prime – they were even named by 'People' magazine as the "Most Beautiful Couple" in 2003 – but we decided not to bore her with questions about that.

Instead, I was more interested in knowing if Chilli really dated CNN news anchor T.J. Holmes.

"I dated him a year ago. When people started talking about it, it was a wrap. It had been a wrap for months," she shared. "At the end of the day, a guy is a guy. He's either a good guy or a terrible guy. He's different in ways as far as his title to people, but at the end of the day, he's just a guy."

Chilli did more than just enlighten me about the various stories surrounding her personal life; she also spoke her desire to appear on her favorite reality show.

"I am really into 'Dancing with the Stars,'" she confessed. "I would hope that I would win, but that kind of dancing is totally different from what I do. Ballroom dancing and the Tango and all that stuff they do; that does not look very easy. It looks like it would be a nice challenge and I'm up for it."

Fellow R&B star Mario was one of Chilli's favorites this past season.

"Mario was very good. His pants were too tight for [some of those] numbers. Everything was kind of right there in your face," she laughed.

And while TLC hasn't release new music since recording the track, 'Come Get Some,' from their 2003 greatest hits package, 'Now and Forever: The Hits;' Chilli is readying the release of an independent solo album.

One track, 'Dumb Dumb Dumb' surfaced online in recent months and the reception from fans has been rather positive.

"It feels amazing," she said about the fan reaction to her song. "I can't wait to be back on stage and perform in front of thousands and thousands of my fans. That's the best part of it for me."

Chilli said reports that she had signed with Akon's Konvict Music weren't true. "I was never signed to Akon's Konvict label. We talked about working that way together, but we just ended up working in the studio and that was it," she offered.

Showing her entrepreneurial arm, Chilli has launched a line of custom made handbags that can be ordered online.

Her line, 'Bags by Chilli,' was inspired by the love for her 11-year-old son, Tron.

"About 6 years ago, someone had given me a gift which was a bag with a picture of me and Tron from one of his birthday parties. I thought it was one of the most precious gifts that I had ever received and I would carry the purse around all the time and people would ask me all the time where I got it from. I couldn't tell them anything because the person who gave me the bag as a gift wasn't making them anymore. I decided to do some research because I wanted some more bags for myself and here I am," she said.

For details on the bags, visit www.BagsByChilli.com.