Image caption Avril Lavigne has sold more than 45 million records, but said "I still consider myself a normal person".
You don't want to side with Lavigne's mistakes.
20 years later, she came to prominence with her debut album Let Go, and her music is as sharp and direct as ever.
Predecessors and enemies were dispatched with invective joy. "Don't hold your breath/'Because you're still suffocated by your words,'" she ranted in her recent single, biting me. In case her mood is unclear, another new song is simple: "When I think of you, I want to throw up."
The song, called Love Sux, is the title song for Lavigne's seventh album and was written after breaking up with musician Pete Jonas (though she won't confirm that).
"When I wrote Love Sux, I was spending a while," she said. "I'm very tired and tired of love. I went through a breakup and I felt like, 'Uh, it's not coming back,' you know?
"It's not easy to have a relationship – I have time to reflect on the tricky things I've been through."
The 37-year-old star has previously been married to Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger and Sum 41 rock singer Deryck Whibley. Despite the breakup, they still maintained a good relationship, and she emphasized that her more vindictive lyrics were written with healthy humor.
"At this point, it's like, I just learn to laugh at these things instead of getting upset by it and letting it let me down."
Ironically, however, canuck Alanis Morissette's compatriots would be proud that when Lavigne fell in love with her co-producer punk musician Mod Sun, her plans to make an album of breakup songs were disrupted.
She tried to resist it ("I've ever tried the most," she said) but there was an undeniable connection. Harnessing these feelings at the end of writing down a different relationship ultimately inspired the most tender song on this album.
"It's not that I don't care, it's just that I'm afraid," she sang in the piano-led "Dare to Love Me." Why is it so hard to open my heart? ”
Picture caption, Lavigne began dating singer and rapper Mod Sun (Derek Smith) after working on her new album
Lavigne wrote the song herself, intending to keep it a secret. Things changed when her collaborators Travis Barker (punk villain Blink-182) and John Feldman (California ska band Goldfinger) heard about it.
"I really don't want to take it out, but the boys love it," she said. "They just thought, 'No, it's our favorite, you have to wear it.'"
"It's great to have a super primitive and fragile song like this. It's really about opening and tearing down your walls. ”
A new wave of pop punk
After lavigne's last album (written after a near-death experience with Lyme disease) heavy cathartic lyrics, Love Sux saw her return to her best-known skateboard punk music.
The timing is just right, just in time for a new generation of female stars to re-appreciate Lavigne's pop rock music.
Olivia Rodrigo's Good 4 U – the UK's most popular song of 2021 – is clearly thanks to songs like Sk8r Boi and What The Hell. Willow Smith lists Lavigne as a major influencer. And when Billie Eilish first met the star in 2019, she declared on Instagram: "Thank you for making me who I am." ”
"Wow," Avril Lavigne said as I read her title. "It's crazy."
"It was cool to see other female artists of the same age when I first debuted. They write about what they went through at that age – the first date, the first breakup, all those strong emotions.
"I love seeing them and their success as singer-songwriters."
Billie Eilish wasn't yet born when Lavigne landed her first hit single, but she used the star as her main source of inspiration
Lavigne arrived here in 2002 with such confidence that it's easy to forget that she was only 17 years old.
By then, she had been performing for years, singing gospel at church fairs and singing country songs at local talent shows and hockey games in Ontario, Canada.
In 1999, after winning a singing competition with Shania Twain, she went from being a local artist to a recording artist. After contributing to several albums by folk musician Steve Medd, she caught the attention of Arista Records, which brought her to New York and signed her to reportedly pay $3.3 million.
She dropped out of school and moved to Manhattan to start writing her debut album inspired by her obsession with new music— Green Day, Morissette, The Offspring, and Blink-182.
Released in 2002, Let Go is an avant-garde, melodic and commercial giant. It earned the title of Multi Platinum Record in its second month of release and remains the best-selling album of the century for Canadian artists — more successful than any of Drake's, Justin Bieber and Michael Bumble's.
Lavigne's arrogant attitude, fighting pants and penchant for ties were initially called "anti-Britney" — but she was furious at the media's strategy of pitting female artists against each other.
"I don't like that word. It's stupid," she told EW in 2002. "I don't believe it. She's human. God, let her go! ”
The star suffered from severe Lyme disease in the 2014-15 season and was bedridden for five months, but she said she has now recovered
The pigeon's nest doesn't end there. Lavigne was bound by the label of "teen pop", and even as her lyrics matured, she entered her 30s. But she understood that those early hits still defined her career.
"I still feel young!" She laughed. "It's a really remarkable thing. Looking back, I feel very humble. Honestly, as a little girl, all I really care about is singing. I don't even know what Hollywood is, or the record deal, and all of this comes together. ”
Becoming a global star at age 17 can have a detrimental effect on your mental health, but Lavigne says fame is largely over.
"In a strange way, it didn't really hit me — and it almost still didn't. I feel like I'm normal, I'm normal. I cook, I go grocery shopping, I do normal things – and then I have my career.
"I separated it. These crazy achievements have happened, but I don't think about them. ”
She does admit, however, that the experience of being a solo artist is a lonely one.
"I was too young, too shy," she recalled. "Speaking in front of camera for the first time is really embarrassing for a teenager.
"I envy the band — because all five of them can be interviewed together, travel together, be on stage together. But throughout my career, I've always been alone. ”
Picture caption of Lavigne serving her signature pizza to restaurant owner Bill Cosmopoulos
However, fame does have some benefits. In Lavigne's hometown of Napanee, Canada, a local pizzeria named a specialty after her — she didn't shy away from picking up the phone and ordering a large Lavigne favorite.
"That's the only thing I can get!" She laughed. "Lavigne's pizza was green olives, pepperoni and mushrooms. It's really my favorite pizza to date. ”
(For the record, she stayed neutral in the split pizza toppings debate on the internet: "I'm cool with pineapples.") I never order, though. ”）
Sk8r Boi: Movies
Lavigne began her career at the height of the CD era, but she has made a successful transition to streaming, with Spotify alone having 16 million monthly listeners.
Promoting her new record, however, meant she had to create an account on TikTok — where almost all modern hits were born.
"Everybody was harassing me to join, and honestly, I didn't super like it," she admitted.
When she finally relented, she stuck to the ground rule: "I don't post it 3 times a week [but] whenever something makes sense and is fun and I've thought of it, we post something." ”
Her first thought was to make a video for Sk8r Boi featuring a mini half-tube she recently installed in her home in Malibu.
The video begins simply, with Lavigne lip-syncing the lyrics, and then the camera switches to skateboarding legend Tony Hawke playing tricks in her back garden.
Picture caption, Tony Hawk gave the singer a half-pipe lesson and was asked to appear in the singer's upcoming film
It spread instantly, with more than 35 million plays and nearly 6 million likes. Surprisingly, Lavigne had never seen Hawke before filming, just slid into his DM to ask if he would like to make a video together. As he walked up her lane with his board, "I had to pinch myself," she said.
"He's the coolest and cutest skater dad. He came to my house and we had a BBQ... No big deal... We skated in my backyard. It's amazing. ”
Meanwhile, Lavigne is adapting the lyrics of Sk8r Boi into a movie. The screenplay is "in the works," and she hired a director whose story looks at the high school faction and "misses the chance to fall in love."
Production must fit her world tour, which began in Canada in May and ended a year later at Brixton College in London over three nights.
"This album, it's going to be the perfect live," she said. With Blink-182's Travis Barker joining her live performance, she finally got the band she'd always longed for.
"It's cool. I can hang out with friends and do it all. It's more interesting. ”
Avril Lavigne recorded and co-created her new album with Travis Barker, who subsequently signed the star to his record label, DTA Records
This leaves a problem... What is it like to be on the bad side of Avril Lavigne?
In her recent single, Bite Me, she described taking her boyfriend's clothes, throwing them out the window, and setting them on fire.
In real life, had she ever thought about doing this?
"Temptation? Maybe. Did I do it? Naaaah。 I'm crazy, but I'm not that crazy. ”