Avril Lavigne dishes on new album, media coverage and rumor mill
By KELLY WILSON
Get Out

She sold more than 14 million copies of her 2002 debut pop-rock album, “Let Go,” and has graced countless magazine covers, but Avril Lavigne isn't your typical music diva.

“I'm really low-key,’’ says the sweet-natured Canadian. “When I leave for tour, I have a big black suitcase and I pack it with five pairs of shoes and some clothes and some cosmetics and off I go.’’

She embraces this low-key attitude when it comes to living in the public eye.

“Walking into a mall on a weekend is probably something I wouldn't do unless I desperately needed something, although I did run into Wal-Mart for Halloween because I had to get something,’’ she says.

“I had my hair in a pony tail, a hat on and a hood. I was a Hooters girl for Halloween and I had the outfit. My opening act, Butch Walker, I got him a Hooters tank top at the restaurant and I needed to get him orange shorts and I needed to get us slouchy white socks.

‘‘Obviously, I could have sent someone out to get that but I wanted to get it to make sure it was right. I went into Wal-Mart quickly and got what I needed.”

And although she has the paparazzi in her face from time to time, the defiant 20-year-old, who made the wifebeaters/necktie combination trendy for ’tweens everywhere, says she doesn’t let it bother her.

“It doesn’t stop me,” she says. “I go out and I do everything that I used to but sometimes you go about doing it a little differently.”

So what’s her secret to blending in with the crowd?

“You just don’t make eye contact with people,” she says.

Lavigne admits it’s a little embarrassing when she finds her image staring back at her from a magazine cover at an airport gift shop.

“It was pretty weird in the beginning,’’ she admits. “I remember when I first came out at one point I was on like five covers and I was like, ‘Geez.’ We just laugh at it. If I'm with my friends, they're like, ‘Oh, there you are.’ ’’

As a result of her debut album’s success — on top of the mega-sales, it garnered eight Grammy nominations — there's been talk of turning “Sk8ter Boi,” a track from the album, into a full-length film.

“It doesn't have anything to do with me and I don't have any say in it,’’ Lavigne says. “They wanted me to be a part of it and I said no. I didn't want to have anything to do with it. If I'm going to be in a movie, it's not going to be a cheesy movie. It's going to be, like, a cool, serious movie.”

“Sk8ter Boi” may be out as far as Lavigne is concerned, but she did sign on to sing the theme song for the upcoming “SpongeBob SquarePants” flick.

“I decided to do it because I've never done anything like that before and SpongeBob’s huge,’’ she says. “Kids love it and older people love it. I think it's a cool show.’’

In addition to SpongeBob, Lavigne is currently in the midst of a headlining tour in support of her sophomore album, “Under My Skin,” a disc she says she took control of.

“I told everyone that I was going to start working on the record and that I didn't want to be getting phone calls everyday saying, ‘How's it going?’ and ‘Can we hear new music?’ ’’ she says, referring to her record label. “I didn't want to feel pressure. I wanted to keep the songs to myself until I was ready to play them for people.’’

The album has already spawned two successful singles — “Don’t Tell Me” and “My Happy Ending.” A third single, “He Wasn't,” will go to radio within the next two weeks. And though she wears her heart on her sleeve lyrically, don't expect Lavigne to dish on her reported romance with Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley.

“I don't talk about anything that has to do with my personal life,’’ she says. “That's something I choose not to talk about in my interviews.’’