Who is Dallas Austin? Dallas Austin is a famous producer, songwriter and keyboardist behind hits for numerous artists, including Boyz II Men, Michael Jackson and TLC. His association with that last group has him back in the news, as Evan Ross, son of Diana Ross, is set to play Dallas Austin in “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story,” a VH1 movie set to premiere on Monday, Oct. 21, at 9PM. But who is Dallas Austin, other than a character in a movie?
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Dallas Austin was born on Dec. 29, 1972, in Columbus, Georgia, and as a child, he began playing guitar and keys. By 1986, he’d relocated to Atlanta and begun playing in bands, and he later segued into producing, scoring hits with Klymaxx, Troop, and Boyz II Men, whose 1991 Motown album “Cooleyhighharmony” sold 9 million copies. By 1992, if you’d asked, “Who is Dallas Austin?” the answer would have been “the man behind TLC,” as he worked as an arranger on “Oooooohhh… On the TLC Tip,” the group’s debut, and he served as executive producer on “CrazySexyCool,” the mega-selling 1994 follow-up. Dallas Austin has writing credits on 20 TLC songs, according to VH1, and it’s for that reason he earns a spot in “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story,” a dramatic telling of the Atlanta trio’s rise and fall.
Who is Dallas Austin, this music luminary Evan Ross is portraying on the small screen? He’s run the DARP studio in Atlanta and run Rowdy Records with L.A. Reid, another key figure in the TLC story. Dallas Austin has also worked with Brandy, Michael Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Paula Abdul and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, but that’s not why he shows up in “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story.” As Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas has talked about publically—most notably on the reality series “What Chilli Wants”—she had an affair with Dallas Austin when she was 20, and when she became pregnant with his baby, she decided to have an abortion. “I’m 20, my career hadn’t really started. How do I do all that?” Chilli said of her relationship with Dallas Austin, according to Necole Bitchie. “How do I be a mommy? It messed me up. It broke my spirit. I feel like I became not my strong self anymore. I feel like I gave in and broke to what someone else wanted. I would break down and just cry because I wasn’t a mommy. I cried almost every day for almost 9 years.”
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Who is Dallas Austin? He’s was an integral part of TLC’s success, and thanks to Evan Ross—who’s dating Ashley Simpson—audiences around the world will get a sense of how he helped launch the R&B group. Check out “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story” when it premieres on VH1 at 9PM on Monday, Oct. 21.
