Avril Lavigne: Try to Shut Her Up Avril Lavigne’s success is nothing short of phenomenal. With a multi-platinum record that stayed on the No. 1 spot around the world for weeks, various award nominations, including five Grammy nods, and a list of achievements within the past six months that runs a mile long, it’s an undisputed fact that she is the hottest thing right now since the bust up of the teen pop explosion. And the awful truth? Avril Lavigne doesn’t like doing press. "Do I like interviews? No. But it’s my job. It’s how I reach the fans and how I promote myself. It’s important and I understand that. I don’t come in with a bad attitude. Obviously in my case, I’ve been doing it a lot. Maybe a bit more than some other artists, for whatever reason. But it’s work. You have to work hard for everything," explained Avril at the regional press conference held at the Four Seasons Hotel Singapore, just a few hours before the 2003 MTV Asia Awards on January 24. Avril’s straight-forwardness, an element that’s certainly missing in many of her peers, struck a friendly chord with many. MTVAsia.com caught up with the winner of Favourite Female, Favourite Breakthrough Artist and The Style Award at the 2003 MTV Asia Awards for a short five minutes, where she talked about her upcoming tour and why punk and her simply do not go together! 2002 was a mad year for you. How are fame and success treating you now? They’re treating me good. Things are picking up really fast. I had a lot of fun, getting to do a lot of cool things. But at the same time, it’s a lot of work. You have been nominated and winning in many awards show. How do you feel whenever you get a nomination? Whenever you get nominated for something, you don’t really think about it. A lot of times you lose, sometimes you win. It’s not that big of a deal -- it’s just an award show. It’s kinda like a pat on the back. If you win, it’s like "Wicked! Cool!" It’s just something that’s a little bit fun. You’ll be embarking on your first headline tour Try To Shut Me Up in the U.S. soon. Are you excited to hit the road? My first headline tour starts in Europe actually, and then we do North America. I’m really excited. I mean, it’s the first record and I’m doing a headlining tour of that. It’s really an incredible thing. I’m just really, really excited about it. So who are you going to bring on tour as your opening acts? Our Lady Peace will be opening for us in Europe. In North America, I think we are going to have Gob and Simple Plan. Why is the tour titled Try To Shut Me Up? Are you trying to make some sort of a statement? [laughs] That’s my first time being ask that question. Yeah! I’m basically saying that this is me. I’m here to do my music and my thing. And if you don’t like it, you don’t like it or whatever. Try to shut me up! There are some fans who said that you like to play golf. Is that true? No, I don’t play golf! I never have. I play hockey and baseball when I was growing up though. Hockey is my favorite sport. You started a fashion trend for girls out there. Do you find it weird that people look up to you as a role model? Yeah! That’s weird. I don’t really consider myself to be a role model. People will say that I am, but that’s very odd to me. I never expected that one. What’s your personal definition of punk? Punk is not me and it’s not my lifestyle. Punk is political, it’s hardcore, it’s... you know, it’s a touchy subject. I hate it when people label me punk. My music is not punk and my lifestyle definitely isn’t. I’m in the pop world. - Date: January 24, 2003, Source: MTV Asia