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Maxine Jones On En Vogue: "I Can't Work With Those Chicks"; Calls Dawn Robinson "Looney" Find channel in my area Maxine Jones On En Vogue: "I Can't Work With Those Chicks"; Calls Dawn Robinson "Looney" The estranged member of the hit R&B quartet talks betrayal, her financial status, group in-fighting, and why she will never work with the ladies again Justin Dwayne Joseph Posted: 11/17/2014 04:20 PM EST If you were holding on to the dream of a reunion of the original members of En Vogue---Give It Up, Turn It Loose. The past few years have been a rocky road for the once platinum selling R&B quartet: Two members were dismissed, management issues plagued the group, and a verdict was handed down in a lawsuit that left two members stripped of their rights to use the group's name professionally. In an interview with Juicy Magazine, ex-member Maxine Jones, 52, is speaking out against her former groupmates Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron---who are currently touring as a trio using the group's moniker alongside new member Rhona Bennett---and Dawn Robinson ("She's Looney"). ON LOSING THE RIGHT TO USE THE EN VOGUE NAME TO HER FORMER GROUP MATES, CINDY HERRON AND TERRY ELLIS: “It’s been difficult, and it’s been difficult mainly because I feel like all the years I spent there and what I helped to build – you know, 30 million records sold – and what my input…and to just have nothing to show for it. For a long time…it’s been two-and-a-half, going on three-years now since this whole thing happened, but I was mostly angry for most of that time. It’s not until this year really that I totally embraced the idea of putting it behind me and starting out on my own and starting from scratch. Before that, my mind was in the mode that I’m still in a group, I’m not giving up, I’m going to get some more girls, and I’m going to go out there, and I’m going to be in this En Vogue too. I am a third, I own a third, [and I] own a right to use the name too. That’s how it was originally – that trademark has my name on it too in the Library of Congress. My name is on that trademark, and so that was the thing. It was a big deal to me to first of all, to be forced out, and then my intellectual property to be taken away from me. It just really, honestly, pissed me off.” ON APPEALING THE DECISION THAT STRIPPED HER OF THE RIGHT TO USE THE EN VOGUE NAME: “The battle is not over because they’ve won with an arbitrator, and to me, the whole hearing was not fair, unfair to me totally, and so I’m appealing it. Now my case is going before the appellate. The appellate has viewed it and decided it’s worthy of them ruling on. So that’s where it is right now. I’m not giving up --- It’s my legacy. I’ve put in the time, I’ve put in the work, I’ve earned the right, and I’m not giving it up easy.” ON FEELING BETRAYED BY CINDY AND TERRY: “Yeah, I totally feel betrayed by them, and I feel like what they did to me, I wouldn’t have expected it from them, and I wouldn’t have dreamt of doing that to them, so I’m hurt. At first I was very, very hurt, and then it went to anger, and it’s still a little bit of all of that there. Before I felt like it was paralyzing – I felt devastated, but not anymore. I’m able to move forward, and I’m grateful for that. ON DISAGREEMENTS ABOUT MANAGEMENT AND THE GROUP BEING DOOMED FROM THE START: “It’s a bigger issue [than management]…The problem, is really one of the girls had been screwing around with one of the producers. We were put together by two producers [Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy], and Terry started sleeping with one of the guys almost from the beginning, and that just kind of devastated us. We were never a unit. When we were re-negotiating our contracts and trying to make it better for ourselves, I remember just going to him and telling him that I made my decision, I was going to stick with the group. And I’ll never forget what he told me because it’s just so true, and it’s still true to this day. He said to me: ‘You are no f*cking group! Can’t you see that? ...Dawn is crazy, she’s all over the place…Cindy don’t have a damn clue, and I got your partner Terry in my back pocket. How you going to call yourself a group when I got your partners, she’s supposed to be your partner Max, and she’s in my back pocket. I’m trying to tell you Max, you’re just going to be left ass out.’ And that’s the dynamic of this group, that’s always been the dynamic. I’m always the one that’s the easily replaceable one. HER FINANCIAL STATUS WHEN SHE LEFT EN VOGUE: “When I officially left the group, it wasn’t bad at that point, but it certainly got bad because of course I had no income. It got bad once I lost the arbitrator’s ruling because it totally stopped me from working. Before that, it wasn’t bad because just like Terry and Cindy were going out and calling themselves the whole group, I was doing the same thing, and nobody had a problem. It’s the name, you know, that name and what we built. The reputation behind it, and nobody cared really. As long as they could use that name, it was going to draw the fans out, you know. Once the arbitrator’s ruling came, it just totally stopped me from being able to go out using the name En Vogue, and they said I couldn’t have the name En Vogue, I had to say ‘formerly of’. Terry, Cindy, and their attorneys, anytime a promoter tried to book me and even say Maxine Jones, formerly of En Vogue, they were intimidating them, and telling them they were going to be sued just by having the name En Vogue in the caption. It basically scared away anyone who wanted to hire me.” ON THE UPCOMING LIFETIME MOVIE, AN EN VOGUE CHRISTMAS: “Yeah I heard about it. I think it’s wack, and then I saw the trailer… I don’t like it when I’m watching them, I don’t. I don’t because I feel like they’ve calling themselves En Vogue, and they’re not. They’re on Lifetime, and it’s supposed to be, an En Vogue reunion. It’s two of them there, and what, you think you can just get somebody off the street and call it a freakin’ reunion? I don’t think so.” “It’s not a reunion that’s for sure. I don’t know what it is, and to me, it doesn’t make them look good, and that’s why I don’t mind doing these interviews because to me, I just want everybody to know it’s just Terry and Cindy and some other chick [bennett, pictured above R). ON DAWN ROBINSON BEING “LOONEY”: “I have tried everything in my power to work with Dawn ’cause she’s talented and beautiful – there’s not a question about that, but the girl is looney. That’s what I’ll say about it, okay. And I’m not trying anymore, I’m done. That’s never going to happen either again.” ON THE POSSIBILITY OF HER REUNITING WITH THE LADIES: “There’s no way. I can’t work alongside those chicks and they tried to see to it that I ended up with zero, with nothing, and totally devastated. No. I will not stand alongside those girls and get on stage with them, no.” (Photo: C Brandon/Redferns/Getty Images) http://www.centrictv.com/music/articles/2014/11/17/maxine-jones-on-en-vogue-i-can-t-work-with-those-chicks-calls-dawn-robinson-looney.html