Tuesday May 22, 09:19 PM

Lisa Left Eye's last days

By Splash The final seconds of Lisa Lopes' life were featured in a documentary she was filming when she died.

Viewers saw the disturbing moment she lost control of her vehicle on a bumpy Honduras road before the camera footage stops at the point the vehicle rolled over.

She was in a car with several people, one of them a videographer, when she crashed in April 2002.

She was the only person killed.

But the footage taken four years ago was only recently made public - as part of a VH1 documentary The Last Days of Left Eye.

Poignant footage revealed how the troubled singer spent her final month fasting and living in a remote part of the jungle in an attempt to sift through her demons.

She showed cameras a deep scar in her forearm spelling out HATE and revealed for the first time the extent of pain she suffered through her relationship with NFL star Andre Rison - whose house she set alight after an argument.

But instead of finding peace, Lopez's days were haunted by another fatal crash.

The documentary revealed for the first time that just days before her own death, Lopes was faced with another death.

She was a passenger in a car which hit a nine-year-old local boy who ran out into the road unexpectedly, killing him.

A devastated Lopes attended the boy in hospital and helped his family pay for medical costs and eventually for his funeral when he died the following day.

Lopes decided to take a trip to South America and document every moment after being told her record label had ditched her solo album in 2002, just after she left TLC.

Starting in the airport, the two-hour long documentary captured Lopes swimming in waterfalls, hiking, practicing yoga and spilling her emotions directly to camera.

She said: "I'm going to take everyone on a magical journey. The wonderful world of Left Eye.

"I could play the piano from four. It came naturally to me. Growing up all of the talents it was almost like why cannot everybody do this?

"My father was very strict. There were a lot of rules. He was a military sergeant, he was very dominant. When we lived with my dad he was a drill sergeant for real. We would come home. We would line up like soldiers.

"When I did badly at school I would get the full punishment, no TV, no radio, no boyfriends, no front yard, no back yard. "He would get abusive with my mother. He would get physical.

"During my teenage years, the family got kind of separated and I ended up with my father's side of the family living with my grandmother.

"My nana she used to play with our heads. Telling me I can't wash my hair because I would run up the water bill, telling me my church clothes were still hers because she paid for them.

"My grades started going down because I was having problems.

"I used to stay on punishment from one report card until the next. But the funny thing was - I could actually drink. My father would come around on weekends with a case of beer an I would get attention by drinking a lot and not getting drunk. He would say: "Look at her go.

"I was 17 when I finally left for good. I just had to get out. I had $750 to my name. I went to Atlanta. I was looking forward to this new adventure."

Lopes revealed that despite starting her career in TLC, the biggest selling female RnB band of all time, she soon started to want more freedom and her drinking grew more problematic.

She said: "We had a lot of fun in the beginning but we didn't really realize what we were getting ourselves into.

"Me and alcohol, when we get together...it's a different story. There was this girl, every time I got drunk this girl called Nicky showed up. Whenever something happened that Lisa could not cope with, she blamed "Nicky" this totally different person.

"I was creating all these different personalities, I cannot really blame anybody for anything."

Lisa also talked for the first time about her relationship with NFL star Andre Rison.

"I never really like digging deep and try and put my emotions out.

"I was out at a club and Andre followed me around that club so many times I got really annoyed and it wasn't until about the third or fourth time that we just really clicked.

"And went over to his house and he was waiting for me, leaning out of the window. He was very polite and gentle.

"He had this beautiful big house but it was completely empty. I said to him why is there no furniture?

"And he said: "Because I am waiting for you to furnish it."

"That day I went there, I never left.

"He used to tell me he loved me so much that I never had the chance to say it first. He was very romantic and he was my best friend.

"But there were some parts that weren't very good.

"He is a giving person. He gives out plenty...cars... clothes, but one thing he couldn't give was his girl.

"He was very jealous, very possessive. I didn't have any freedom.

"And he cheated on me. One time I went home and the bed is all made. I went upstairs and he was in the guest room, butt-naked. And I opened the closet and there was a girl with a pink jacket and pink stockings on.

"I just couldn't believe it.

"There were so many problems in our relationship.

"My father and my mother fought a lot and I just react quickly to those situations."

Lopes then described the situation which led to the now infamous house fire - started after Lisa decided to burn Rison's vast collection of sneakers.

She said: "He had been staying out lat several days in a row. I decided I'm coming home late with some girls and a dress on like I have had a wild time. It was 5am. Andre's car still not there so my plan did not work. He drove up five minutes after me.

"I was standing there and Andre's headlights were shinning on me.

"He was looking at me like what the f*** do you have on. I can't remember what he said but he got slapped for it. He went into the house, I went into the house. It was all just building up and all my frustrations came back. He pulled me into the bedroom and we were fighting. He threw me down onto the bed and he was inning me down, ripping my clothes.

"I would start beating on him, I was wasted, I kept blacking out.

"When I woke up and looked in the mirror I had this huge bruise from the inside of my lip all the way inside. I decided I was going to kill him. I almost didn't recognize myself.

"I was still enraged. I was still hurt.

"I went into the closet and saw all this shoes stacked up. I started throwing them in the bath.

"I got my lighter fluid that I use for barbeques and I barbequed me some tennis shoes.

"Then I got hypnotized by the flames. The flames are growing. Everything was getting bigger and bigger. My sister ran into the bathroom and pulled me out.

"When I got outside and looked at that house and thought that is the house of hell in flames.

"We went to the hospital and by the time we got out at 6am it was already on the news.

"I just meant for it to stay in the tub, I thought... I didn't see me going to jail for an accident.

"People were painting him as the victim. But I was abused, physically, mentally..."

Lopes was sentenced to 5 years probation and ordered into an alcohol rehabilitation programme.

She said "When I was in the rehabilitation centre, my father was in my mind heavily. He had died four years earlier. I felt great loss when he passed. I think that the programme helped me because I spent a lot of time thinking.

"Everybody has problems."

While inside, Lopes carved the words LOVE into her forearm with a razor, believeing she would stay with Rison.

But after he failed to make frequent visits and she grew disheartened, she carved over the word with HATE.

It left a deep, visible scar which Lopes showed to the camera.

She said:'I was not afraid. I did this around seven years ago. It said love first then hate over it. I carved I Love Dre while in the diversion centre. I was hurt, I was angry, he wasn't really coming to visit like I would have wanted him to. There was no telling where he was.

"We had a barbeque and he accused me and his friend of flirting and he was saying some really mean things, I was so frustrated that I vent a grabbed the razor and over the word Love I started writing the word Hate.

"I have premonitions, dreams. There were times I just thought I was going to die."

In a spooky moment in the documentary, Lopes reveals in her final days she had dreams of death.

"I had a real frightening dream last night.. I dreamed that I woke up and I looked up at the sun. It was bigger than you have ever seen. It was basically the end," she said.

After the death of the young boy while Lisa was being driven by her camera crew on local errands, Lopes visibly breaks down. She said: "I don't think I will ever get over it."

Then she talked more philosophically about her view on death.

She said: I do not believe in death, I believe in transformation. When someone passes away look u a new star is born.

"I think my life represents change. I love change. Try and change for the better. Keep going forward, never go backward."

The documentary ends with Lopes behind the wheel of a red Mitsubishi driving and also looking at the camera.

At the moment of the crash the cameraman was focused at the passengers in the back seat and it is not clear what caused the fatal accident.

The last footage sees Lisa struggling to bring the car back into control but skidding off to one side of the road before the camera cuts out.

The force of the impact sent Lisa flying out of the window as the car rolled over and she died from head injuries.

More than 30,000 fans attended her funeral service in Atlanta, Georgia.