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Avril unpacks her suitcase
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— by Joe D’Angelo, with additional reporting by Shari Scorca
It's not surprising that Avril Lavigne, at just over five feet and barely on the healthy side of 100 pounds, can almost fit into her luggage. What's remarkable is that the large black suitcase she clumsily hoists onto her bed carries all the clothes a 19-year-old girl will wear for the next six weeks.
"I'm not dissing them or anything, but people like Britney Spears and Beyoncé have wardrobe people," she explains as she begins to unpack. "I have a suitcase. I'm a bit lower maintenance."
Her guitarist Evan Taubenfeld may disagree. As she pulls one black boot after another from the bag and dumps them on the floor of her luxury tour bus — for a total of four pairs, including 20-eye Dr. Martens and a chrome-studded boot that would make Kiss' Gene Simmons jealous — she asks Taubenfeld to stow them in a closet. He dutifully obliges, mismatching every one in playful spite.
More essentials come out of the suitcase: a hairdryer, comfy blue slippers adorned with fluffy white clouds that she kept from a recent video shoot, a few belts, and what looks to be a leather dog collar attached to a long silver chain. "Accessories ..." she mumbles.
A pair of black pants with a skull-and-crossbones pattern down the legs — in pink — is next to emerge. These warrant elaboration. "Look at these," she announces. "My mom saw them and she's like, 'Why do you always have to be wearing those things?' My mom doesn't like when I wear skulls and crossbones. She thinks it's evil."
The bus has two bathrooms: one for Avril, the other for everyone else. "There's always piss on the floor with guys," she complains, disgusted. Taubenfeld just shrugs and moves toward the front of the coach to examine the TV.
For all the features on the bus, rented for her cross-country shopping-mall tour to promote her forthcoming album, Under My Skin, Avril's just glad it doesn't smell. "I think Korn just got off this bus, so they've given it a good cleaning," she laughs. "Sometimes you get on a bus and it smells like beer and marijuana smoke. Or just guys in general. It's pretty gross."
As the coach rolls closer to its first stop, Minneapolis' gigantic Mall of America, Lavigne quickly shifts gears to prep for the business ahead.
"When do we talk about merch?" she asks her manager.
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Born: Sept. 27, 1984
Hometown: Napanee, Ontario, Canada
Instruments played: Guitar, piano
First LP: Let Go (Released, June, 2002)
Peak chart position: #2
MTV VMAs: 1 (Best New (Artist In A Video, 2002, "Complicated")
Next LP: Under My Skin (Scheduled release, May 25, 2004 )
Latest single: "Don't Tell Me"
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Avril admittedly has grown up a lot since her last album. While maintaining a typically teenage personality — she's still shy in front of a camera and gets cagey when asked about her personal life — she takes her job very seriously.
"You do a lot more growing between the ages of 16 and 19 than you do from 27 to 30," she says with authority. "Sometimes I'm immature, but most of the time I've got a handle on things. Other people my age go to school, then pursue their career, then get a job, and I'm kind of there. I have a house. I have a job. It's like, 'What's next?' "
Two hours prior to showtime, most pop stars would be fretting over what to wear. Onstage Avril will don the same black pants, jacket and top she has on now. It's the same outfit she wore for a TV interview conducted an hour earlier at the five-star hotel she had stayed at the night before. And it resembles the clothes her fans, some of whom began lining up for the 5 p.m. show 11 hours in advance, presumably purchased at the Hot Topic franchise located yards away from the Mall of America stage, just past the Orange Julius.
"I just wear my clothes for everything," she says. "For my interviews and for stage and for hanging out, just like a normal person."
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Photo: Amy V. Cooper
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