From movies to music, Avril Lavigne likes variety
Friday, March 21, 2008By Doug Pullen
Press News Service
AUBURN HILLS -- It's not enough for Avril Lavigne to conquer the pop music world. She already has modeled, acted in movies such as "Fast Food Nation" and launched a series of videos and graphic novels on her MySpace site called "Make 5 Wishes."
She has just announced a new graphic novel version of her 2007 boy-stealing anthem, "Girlfriend," called "Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend: Sleight of Hand ... and Heart." This July, she'll turn her punk-inspired fashion sense into a line of clothing for teen and 'tween girls called Abbey Dawn (a childhood nickname), which will be sold exclusively through Kohl's. By next year, she'll unveil her own fragrance.
Just call her Avril, Inc.
Talk to her about it, and it's obvious the girl just wants to have fun, not just add to a fat bank account.
"I'm excited to be able to focus on something else creatively," she said in a recent conference call. "I love music. By the time I get off tour, I think it will be me doing music straight for seven years, so I look forward to something new to put my energy into and to take a little break, even though I'll still be writing. I'll never stop."
Her current venture is her most scream-inducing. The 41-city The Best Damn Tour, named for last year's multi-platinum "The Best Damn Thing" CD, launched March 5 in her native Canada and comes to The Palace of Auburn Hills on Saturday.
Keeping it fun
After six years and 30 million worldwide album sales, the 23-year-old pop-rocker has put together her most lavish and, she hopes, the most fun stage show of her young career.
"Finally, I have enough songs that are singles that people know, so I can put them in certain points that I want in the show. I can bring it up with songs like 'Girlfriend' and 'Sk8er Boi,' open and close with those big songs and bring out dancers. But I can also come down and come out on the piano with 'When You're Gone,' 'Alone' and 'By Myself,'" said the Naponee, Ont., native.
The idea of putting on a "fun show," she said, stemmed in large part from the experience of co-writing and touring behind her second album, 2005's "Under My Skin," which offered her youthful reflections on life after a romantic breakup. After that touring cycle ended, Lavigne set out to find a happy place in her songs, a quest made easier by her nearly two-year marriage to Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley.
"I got off tour, took a little break, (and) I started writing right away, and all I wanted to do was just write really fun songs that weren't serious and like break-up boyfriend songs," she said.
The word "fun" comes up a lot. She certainly had some at the expense of gossip-obsessed celebrity media when she donned a fat suit and feigned pregnancy for Ashton Kutcher's new comic reality show "Pop Fiction," which debuted March 9 on E! Lavigne, who has been the subject of pregnancy rumors herself, is just a girl who wanted to have some -- fun.
"We're getting (the media) back and, obviously, not in a mean way," she told Canada's Sun Media recently. "We're just showing you guys what it's like and how out of control the rumors can be. But I thought it was a lot of fun and funny."
Focusing on career
Not so funny have been persistent accusations of plagiarism (the writers of the Rubinoos' 1979 song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" sued last year over her "Girlfriend") and accusations of questionable ethics (her "Under My Skin" collaborator Chantal Kreviazuk later retracted her comments).
More recently, Lavigne has been hit with complaints about payments for her tour dancers and a video image of her flipping the bird during her stage show.
Lavigne -- who got five nods in next month's Juno Awards (Canada's Grammys) -- can't control some of the slings and arrows that come with stardom in North America, Europe and Australia, but the diminutive singer does appear to be in charge of a career that is exploding well beyond the pop music world. That may why she has done well at a time when many of her peers are struggling to sell records or fill arenas.
"It's kind of one of those things I don't think about," she said of her popularity. "I'm not really in control of that. The music industry has kind of taken a hit right now, but I just focus on singing and writing, and I'm just going to keep doing it as long as I can and have fun with it."
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