Talking to Avril Lavigne

The "Complicated" singer is hitting the road on March 5 and was psyched to talk to TEEN about the new tour, her upcoming clothing line, and how she and Deryck stay connected....

TEEN: What's your show going to be like this time around?
Avril Lavigne: It's going to be very upbeat, and the production will be bigger in the sense that I have dancers on a couple of songs, LED screens, and I’m going to have checkered flooring. I have a pink sparkle drum kit, a pink piano being made. Over time I just learned how I need to be onstage. I’m more confident now.

TEEN: What brought about that confidence?
Avril: Well, a lot of people don’t know this about me, but I’m actually shy around people I don’t know. I would just say with my first concert, my first tour, I didn’t really talk onstage. I was like, “Thank you, I love you guys,” or whatever. But now I’ve just kind of learned to work a crowd. I’ve played so many shows now, it’s been five years, and I’ve learned how to talk to an audience.

TEEN: A while ago you talked about not wanting to be compared to the Britney Spearses and Christina Aguileras of the world. Does adding more production pieces to the show make you worry more about comparisons?
Avril: No, because my songs aren’t bubble gum pop dance songs and I don’t have background dancers on every single song like they do. I’m not wearing a headphone, microphone on my head. It’s a totally different thing. I’m playing guitar. I’m playing the drums. I’m playing the piano. I’ve had dancers a couple of times and they’re like “my girls,” and they come out with their attitude. Actually, that’s a very good question — planning this tour, I wanted it to be big and bigger, and I was very careful to make sure that I didn’t do anything [over the top]. Anything that ever feels uncomfortable to me or if I ever question something, I scrap it. I’m just very clear on who I am and what I like and don’t like, so no.

TEEN: Is there any song in particular you would like to maybe remake some day?
Avril: Well, at the moment I am covering and recording [Joan Jett's anthem] “Bad Reputation,” and I think that’s a cool song, and that’s a different song that I’m going to be playing. It’s going to be part of my live show.