'Real Housewife' Kandi Burruss Says Getting Back with Her Band Xscape Wasn't Part of Her Plan

"I just went with the flow," singer Kandi Burruss tells PEOPLE in this week's issue

After 17 years, Xscape is back together, with a Bravo reality show and an upcoming arena tour.

However, “it wasn’t a planned reunion,” singer Kandi Burruss, 41, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “What happened was a network was going to do an unauthorized movie about us, and of course I’m not going to let somebody just take my legacy. So I called my group members and we were all able to have a conversation to start trying to get our story told the right way.”

Getty(2)

Before the Real Housewives of Atlanta star could move forward with the group, she wanted bandmate Tamika Scott to apologize for a decade-long feud that included Scott, 41, claiming in a radio interview that Burruss slept with their label head Jermaine Dupri and his father, music industry executive Michael Mauldin.

“I was like, I need a public apology,” Burruss says. “She’s going to have to say to the world that the stuff that she said about me was a lie. And so in doing that — we did it on the radio — and the radio disc jockey, he’s like, ‘Oh, Xscape is back!’ I was like, ‘Xscape is not back!’ All of a sudden we started getting all these offers to perform and do shows, so I just went with the flow for the moment.”

For more from Burress, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

Even though the mom of two got her apology, there’s still tension with Scott, her sister LaTocha and Tameka “Tiny” Harris.

“It’s always drama,” admits Burruss, who won’t be recording new music with the rest of the R&B group. “We all think differently when it comes to handling business, or at least, the three of them think differently than me. It’s always them three against me, and I feel like I’m always made to be the villain. It’s really irritating and stressful.”

The fans’ devotion keeps Burruss motivated, though. “The first three shows we did in the summer were all sold out, and now we’re about to go on tour and the tickets are selling like crazy,” she says. “I didn’t even realize how much people did love us as a group, which is a great thing. If nothing else, I am enjoying this time because of the fans.”

Xscape Still Kickin It airs Sundays on Bravo at 9 p.m. ET.