By Jim Barber/Napanee Guide
Avril Lavigne performs at Rexall place in Edmonton, Alta., on Monday, October 10, 2011. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY
It's been three years since Avril Lavigne toured her home and native land, and the 27-year-old Napanee native is having time of her life.
After a number of dates in Europe and the Far East over the summer, Lavigne's Black Star Tour is in Canada for much of October, with dates in Sudbury Oct. 16, Ottawa the next night, in Moncton on Oct. 19, Halifax on Oct. 20, London two nights later, and Toronto on Oct. 24.
Her final Canadian tour stop is Montreal's Bell Centre on Oct. 25.
"My mom [Judy] is on tour with me on the tour bus, and the tour has been going really well. It's such a beautiful time to be back in Canada, being the fall. And the audiences have been amazing," Lavigne told the Napanee Guide from her tour stop in Calgary earlier this week.
"I act the same when she's around. It's nice because we get to spend a lot of time together. And it was just Thanksgiving too, so we were able to celebrate the Canadian Thanksgiving together – and it's been years since I've had that with her. I always end up being on tour for stuff like Thanksgiving and other special occasions. And I know she's been enjoying the shows too."
The Black Star Tour, named for Lavigne's fragrance line, is in support of her latest album, Goodbye Lullaby, which was released earlier in 2011.
The latest single from the album, the powerfully-emotive ballad Wish You Were Here, has been released in video form, and will be available for download on Nov. 1.
Lavigne confessed that she has begun to deliberately explore her less-pop, more mature, serious part of her songwriting nature.
"I guess in some way it was therapeutic to write that song, because, to me, it's like a journal or diary. The lyrics to my songs are personal, and they come from my life and things that I see or go through, or things that I see other people go through. Wish You Were Here, I feel, really reflects this album. There are more emotional songs on it, more raw, and they are personal, deep and moving. So that's kind of what the tone of the rest of the album is like, other than the first single, What the Hell, being more like my older stuff," she said.
"It's my fourth album. I produced two songs on Goodbye Lullaby. I wrote about half of this record all by myself, whereas I typically co-write. So I think I grew on this album. I didn't want to do the same thing over and over, and that's why this album is a little different.
"I also didn't really care about following the trends on radio, or anything like that. I didn't want to make a dance record. I didn't want to make a rhythmic record. I wanted to make a record that was important to me."
Lavigne said she wanted to make an album and write songs such as those done by female artists from whom she has drawn inspiration since here days as a precocious teen singer/songwriter attending Napanee District Secondary School.
"It's more song driven than before. And that's kind of like a lot of the stuff I heard on the radio growing up, from real artists like Sarah McLachlan, or Alanis, or Jann Arden - real music, from girls that have real voices, and whose songs had a lot of meaning to them," she said.
"I didn't want to just make another pop record where I just talking about boys and boy bashing and super-light subjects. My subjects on Goodbye Lullaby are personal, they're raw. It's vulnerable and emotional. On certain songs it was hard to go there, but I went there anyway.
"Basically, I have both sides to me. I love rocking out: I love playing the electric guitar and jumping around on stage. But I am also a songwriter. I am a singer, a chick. I play piano and acoustic guitar. And I love a lot of ballads, so I think it's good to have a mixture."
Lavigne's story is well known to Canadian music fans, especially those living in her hometown.
A gifted performer from an early age, she led a fairly normal childhood in Napanee, but by her early teens, she was a local sensation.
She said the Napanee area supported her budding talent and early concerts tremendously.
"I had a lot of wonderful opportunities in Napanee, because I sang at church, the Napanee Fair, Music By the River, which was an event held down by the river in the summer, and different banquets. And then there was the theatre in Selby [Lennox Community Theatre] and doing musicals and stuff there," she said, adding that by 14 she was writing her own songs and appearing in larger neighbouring communities such as Kingston and Belleville.
At 16, she signed a two-album deal with Arista Records for $2 million.
She was an instant pop hit, with her punk-stylings, catchy lyrics and melodies, with her 2002 debut album Let Go and breakthrough single Complicated, topping the charts in countries around the world.
Her second album, Under My Skin (2004) and follow-up release The Best Damn Thing solidified Lavigne's stature as one of the top musical acts in the world.
But through all that, she would still come home to visit, even after most of her friends and family moved away from Napanee.
The reason is now part of the Avril Lavigne legend - the pizza.
Not just any pizza, but that purveyed by Bill and Marina Kosmopolous of downtown Napanee's La Pizzeria.
"When I come to Napanee now, it's because I am stopping there. I am addicted to that pizza - it's so good. I know I am going to come and get some when I come into the Eastern part of Canada," she said.
"They've been so supportive, and they totally have my pictures and memorabilia up and stuff like that.
"In high school, I used to go there every day for lunch and get a slice. And that's where my parents would order pizza from. And you know when you grow up on something, for the rest of your life, you totally crave it. And because I don't live in Canada any more, any time I come to that part of the country, I have to pass by Napanee and go to La Pizzeria."
She said Napanee was a great town for a creative , rambunctious. young person such as herself to grow up in.
"I am sure that it's grown so much since I lived there, but Napanee always felt like a safe place. It's a small town, so everybody knows everybody, and you can play all sorts of sports, like hockey and baseball ... to me, it's a typical Canadian small town, and as a kid I did typical Canadian small-town stuff."
Lavigne played minor hockey with the boys for her novice and atom years, but her parents put her in girls hockey for peewee because, as she said, "there was body contact, and I was, like 84 pounds."
The last time she performed nearby was at one of the first big concerts at the newly-built K-Rock Centre in Kingston.
Although Kingston didn't make the agenda for this tour, she said she hopes to get back there on her next tour.
"I do remember the last time I was there, and the place was brand new. And I got to see a lot of familiar faces in the audience, which was really cool for me," she said.
Besides her music, and appearances in movies and television programs, Lavigne has her fragrance, and three years ago launched her Abbey Dawn clothing line.
"I always loved arts and crafts. I paint a lot, and I like to cook. I am a very visual person so I like to make things and create. So the clothes and fashion is a really big part of music and having a career and everything I have done with photo shoots and video shoots and red carpets and whatever, it became one of the things that I wanted to do. I wanted to have a fashion line. So I started working on it, and it's been out now for three years. And in the Spring of 2012, I will be launching my first full collection, so I will have men's clothes and swimwear, footwear, bags, glasses. So it's the first full collection like that that I've ever had in all those categories. So I am always working at extending and enhancing it," she said.
"I am totally hands-on, because the whole style guide comes from me and my personal style and what I like. And then I formed a team around me that understands that. I go shopping in places like Tokyo and get tons of inspiration from my travels all over the world. And it's one of those things where I am quick, when I see something, I think about things in my head and automatically think of fabrics and fit and following the trends, and making it super edgy. It's a rock and roll brand."
A couple of years ago, she also developed her own charitable foundation.
"I do a lot of work with the Make A Wish Foundation, and that was really special to me, and I just wanted to have my own foundation and take it to the next level, and I still do Make A Wish stuff, but I wanted to get involved with helping sick and disabled young people. So I partnered up with Easter Seals and am developing programs with them right now. It's one of those things that I am really passionate about and it's important for me," Lavigne said.
For more information, visit www.avrillavigne.com.
- Jim Barber is the editor of the Napanee Guide, and a veteran music industry journalist. Contact him at news@napaneeguide.com.
Source :
http://www.napaneeguide.com/
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Avril Lavigne Diary
Lavigne creating programs for kids with disabilities 
On Her Relationship With Deryck Whibley: "We celebrated his 30th birthday together," Lavigne says. "It was a big one and I was like, 'Lets get 30 tattoos. I will if you will.'" Still, Rakovic says Lavigne insisted they're just friends at this point. (Hint: She's rumored to be with 'Hills' hunk Brody Jenner.)
SOURCE ; http://www.cochraneeagle.com/2011/10/cochrane-teen-has-lavigne-wish-granted/