Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Avril Lavigne appeared on the popular Call Her Daddy podcast, covering a wide range of topics.
The 39-year-old Napanee native chatted with host Alex Cooper for a rare sit down interview to promote her Greatest Hits Tour as well as her upcoming album release.
“It’s 22 years into my career now which is super gnarly to even think about,” Lavigne said of the album and tour. “I’m releasing a greatest hits album in June and going on the Greatest Hits Tour. It’s pretty great to be going back out on the road and doing one of the biggest tours of my career at this point so far, just celebrating my catalogue. I feel super stoked and lucky to still be doing my thing and loving it more than ever.”
Set for a June 21 release, the 20 track album will include Sk8er Boi, Complicated, I’m With You and Head Above Water. The Canadian leg of the tour kicks off May 22 in Vancouver and will come within a couple hundred KMs of her childhood hometown later this summer with an Aug. 12 stop at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena, Aug. 14 visit to Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre and Aug. 16 show at Toronto’s Budweiser Stage.
While the podcast conversation is laced with its share of profanity throughout, it did offer a rare glimpse into Lavigne’s life with callbacks to her days in Napanee.
“I’m glad that I had a normal, steady, solid childhood. I played a lot of sports, I was on the hockey team. The guys hockey team,” recalled Lavigne. “There wasn’t a girls league so I was able to play from novice to peewee and then peewee is when there is body contact and that’s when I wasn’t allowed to play anymore. By that time I was in Grade 9, my first year in high school (at Napanee District Secondary School) and they had a girls team in the high school so I tried out for that-I almost said auditioned-I tried out for the girls team in high school and I made it. Then I blew it by going to our first tournament out of town and getting expelled from school and kicked out of the tournament because someone got caught drinking in the hotel room and someone ratted her out. My parents were so mad at me.”
Lavigne believed it was an OFSAA tournament in Toronto where the incident occurred.
She spoke about playing county fairs growing up before discovering punk rock in high school, drawing influence from Green Day, NoFX and blink-182.
She found her passion for performing again once she began writing her own songs.
“I sat in my bedroom and played my guitar and had no idea what I was doing, I knew one chord and I was going to figure it out. I started writing at 14 and I know that for sure because one of my songs I wrote was ‘really I’m 14-years-old. I’m not that old,’” she said.
Her life in Napanee is discussed in the song My World from her debut album in which she described being fired from a job at Dixie Lee Fried Chicken because she had a show to play that night and didn’t come in for her shift. Growing up in a small town and chasing dreams in the big city is also covered in the song Breakaway-which may be a smash hit for Kelly Clarkson, but was actually penned by Lavigne.
Also covered in the hour long interview is the strange yet persistent rumour that the ‘real’ Avril Lavigne died years ago and was replaced by a look-a-like named Melissa.
“There’s a conspiracy theory that I’m not me,” said Lavigne. “Honestly, it’s not that bad. It could be worse. I feel like I got a good one. I don’t think it’s negative or anything creepy.”
“Obviously I am me,” she added. “It’s so dumb.”
The full Call Her Daddy interview is available now on Spotify.