Avril Lavigne: Better late than never

In her native Canada, Avril Lavigne is a big star. The 23-year-old punk-popster competes with Celine Dion for Juno Awards (Canada's Grammys), and the press gossips about her life (she's not pregnant) and a recent lawsuit over songwriting credits (she settled out of court after being accused of cribbing "Girlfriend" from the Rubinoos' 1979 tune "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend").

"Girlfriend" was a huge hit; in fact, it was named the top download of 2007 by International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Now she's finally getting around to touring behind "Girlfriend" and her third consecutive No. 1 album, "Best Damn Thing."

Q "Best Damn Thing" came out last April. Do you have any second thoughts about not going on tour right away and keeping fans waiting for almost a year?

A I think it could have gone either way. I think it probably didn't really matter that much. You always have to do promo [promotion]. I did promo all of 2007, I had to go to so many different places, including Asia, Europe and South America. I had a lot of places to go, a lot of TV shows to do, and a lot of photo shoots and all that stuff. It has to be done if you want to work a record really hard, and I chose to work this one hard.

Q What can we expect from your show on Thursday at Target Center?

A The show is going to be very upbeat, and the production will be bigger -- dancers on a couple of songs, and LED screens, and I'm going to have checkered flooring. I have a pink sparkle drum kit, a pink piano, flags. Over time, I just learned how I need to be on stage. I'm more confident. It's just more dynamic, brighter and more colorful.

A My songs aren't bubble-gum pop dance songs, and I don't have background dancers on every single song like them. I'm not wearing a headphone microphone on my head. It's a totally different thing. There's dancing on maybe like four songs, and it's not really much dancing. It's very me; it's very kicking and punching and stomping and marching, stuff that I was always doing on stage. And then it's me playing my guitar, me on the piano, me with my band the entire show, and then at the end [the dancers] come in again, so it's not a lot. And I've been doing it at festivals and stuff like that, so I've actually been doing it for a year now, so it doesn't feel new anymore. But I guess it will be for a lot of people to see. It's not over the top too much. The show is very me, it rocks. It's just the next level.

Q You've said that you're more confident now. What brought that about?

A 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 tour, I didn't really talk on stage, 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 just kind of learned how to talk to an audience.

Q "The Best Damn Thing" is a return to the energetic punk-pop of your debut, which is quite a departure from its predecessor, the very serious "Under My Skin." Why?

A I got off tour and I started writing right away, and all I wanted to do was just write really fun songs that weren't serious and like break-up boyfriend songs. Because my previous record was really dark and deep, and so I got that out and I spent a whole year and a half singing those songs, so now I wanted to go and write really fun songs, upbeat, so I could just have fun and just jump around on stage and not be so dark. So it always changes, yes.

A I'm going to be doing a fragrance and I'm also going to be doing a clothing line. It's a clothing line I wanted to do for about three years. A lot of times what people do is they do a licensing deal, and I didn't want to do that; I wanted to own a company and really be able to be a designer and be creative. And I've finally found someone to partner up with, and I'm very excited about it because I love clothes. I love anything visual. I'm excited to be able to focus on something else creatively. I love music. By the time I get off tour, I think it will be me doing music straight for seven years, so I look forward to something new to put my energy into, and to take a little break, even though I'll still be writing. I'll never stop.