Maxine Jones, one of the original members of En Vogue, did an interview some months ago and went ALL the way off on her former group members.

She told it all- from back stabbing stories, to who was sleeping with the producer, and she even referred to them as “skanks”…geesh! So I guess it’s safe to say that Maxine isn’t really feelin’ her former best friends, Terry Ellis and Cindy Herron right about now. The fourth original member, Dawn Robinson, wasn’t caught in the crossfire of Maxine’s verbal shots about the the group, because she left a long time ago and never officially rejoined them (other than a few performances here and there).

When asked about her stance on reuniting with her group members, Maxine said “It’s hurtful. I’m never going back. I’m never going back with those evil skanks — it ain’t going to happen.”

Here are some excerpts from the interview Maxine did with Rumor Fix:

MAXINE ON WHICH GROUP MEMBER CAUSED TENSION BY SLEEPING WITH THEIR PRODUCER
“There’s been a long standing divide between us,” she reveals. She claims En Vogue member Terry Ellis had cloudy judgement because she had a romantic relationship with Denzil Foster, who is one of the producers who put the girl group together in the early ’90s.

She claims Denzil was famous for saying, “Before I see this successful without me I’d rather tear it apart.” And, Maxine says that’s what he did.
Wait, there’s more…

ON HOW THE GROUP DISAGREED ON FURTHERING THEIR CAREER WITH THEIR PRODUCER

In 1994 after the success of Funky Divas, Maxine says a new record label wanted to sign them to a lucrative $15 million deal, but the girls couldn’t come to an agreement.

Maxine felt this would be a way to get out of what she considered a bad deal with Denzil and his co-producer Thomas McElroy. “We had the upper hand and had proven ourselves so it was time to fix our agreement,” she adds, “We sold 30 million records and the group never financially capitalized on the success.”

Terry Ellis and Cindy Herron sided with the founding producers and Maxine and Dawn Robinson wanted the new deal. For two years the girls fought, [then they eventually] ran out of money and signed the deal with the old record label and the old producers and released EV3.   [Each of them took] home around $280,000 before taxes. “We had been off for two or three years. We all needed that deal,” Maxine admits. Dawn was still unhappy and wanted out — so she walked away from the name and even ownership of the group.

THEN THE YOU-KNOW-WHAT HIT THE FAN WHEN THIS HAPPENED…
After a big performance on the BET Awards with Alicia Keys in 2008, En Vogue got several offers for record deals and this is what she said happened next:

“So here he is again presenting this group with a record deal with him as a producer and this record company – he’s the go between guy,” she says of Denzil. “He can’t work out his deal with the label. Even Sylvia [Rhone] had a problem with him.”

[During that time] Maxine [said] “I’m not out. I don’t care if we don’t work with these boys. I’m tired of them and I’m tired of risking everything for them. Our biggest selling song was a production without them — we can sing without you!”

Terry and Cindy sided with Denzil and they wanted to back out of the record deal with Universal Records Motown and return the advance. “I was like — No absolutely not — crazy,” Maxine says.

“Cindy said to me, ‘Give the money back or we’ll be taking it out of your check.’ That means I’m not an equal partner – that I don’t have any say so. That was the barrier that she crossed. From that point on — I put all of them on notice.”

After that last straw, Maxine hired her own attorney to handle her business and Terry and Cindy ended up fired her from the group that she was a part of founding. As if that wasn’t enough drama, Maxine and Dawn banded together and started touring as En Vogue and then there were ultimately two separate groups of En Vogue. Terry and Cindy weren’t trying to hear that, so they took Maxine to court to prevent her from using their name. Maxine said:

“The arbitrator asked me ‘Who should I give the name too?’ Maxine says. Her response was, “I can’t imagine you taking their right to use the name –- we all had a stake in building it. Let the fans decide which En Vogue they want to see because we’re all En Vogue. We all busted our a**es to make that name what it is. We all should have the right to use the name. I wouldn’t dream of taking anything from them.”

The ending result was that Terry and Cindy won the right to use the name and Maxine eventually had to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy after taking a financial hit from that legal process.

BETRAYAL
[Maxine says] “It’s silly …  it’s crazy … it’s not fair,” she says. “I was with that group for more than 25 years – I have a stake in that trademark – we sold more than 30 million records. My voice is on most of the leads. That’s my fight. There’s no way I’m walking away from that. There’s no way until the highest judge in the land tells me. “I’ve more than earned the right to use the name – I am En Vogue.”

This is really sad, but not every story ends with a happy ending. Maxine Jones is now doing her own thing and performs solo and it’s great seeing Terry and Cindy perform together as En Vogue now, they sound just as beautiful as ever, but ain’t nothing like the original four En Vogue members. Terry said that she would love to have Maxine back in the group, but after all that went down, it doesn’t look like that’ll happen any time soon.

As bad as today’s music industry desperately needs REAL singers and female groups, we hope they will all reconsider and push their differences aside for the sake of R&B, because quite frankly, I’m ’bout sick and tired of hearing Beyonce on the radio every hour on the hour. Beyonce’s a phenomenal artist, but the music game just needs more diversity like we had back in the day, that’s all. Every last one of the En Vogue members can SANG…so please ladies, make a comeback TOGETHER soon!