Pop Quiz: Avril Lavigne

Pop Quiz: Avril Lavigne

Aidin Vaziri | While the tabloids keep going on about how Avril Lavigne is a drunken mess, the 20-year-old Canadian pop singer sounds remarkably, disappointingly sober when we catch up with her over the phone in Rome. Still out on tour behind her sophomore album, last year's double-platinum "Under My Skin," the "My Happy Ending" hitmaker plays Wednesday at the Chronicle Pavilion before taking some time off to start thinking about her next project.

Avril Lavigne
Q: Have you seen the headlines today? "Avril Lavigne Drinks Too Much."
A: I don't even drink.
Q: Here's another one: "Avril Lavigne the Party Girl?"
A: That's funny.
Q: Apparently there are some photographs of you and a bottle.
A: That was a long time ago. Yeah, I know Star magazine had this huge two- page spread about how I drink all the time and I'm an alcoholic. But the funny thing is I was on tour for 10 weeks straight in Asia and I went to L.A. to visit my girlfriends. I drank like once on my whole tour. We went out for the weekend and everyone was like, "Avril is an alcoholic!"
Q: Here's the first sentence of one story: "Rock chick Avril Lavigne's booze-fueled antics are becoming so common and so public that friends are worrying that she is out of control. 'She's turning into a nightmare,' says a source close to the singer."
A: I mean, really, it should make me look a rock star.
Q: And in the picture they ran with it, you have a cigarette, cell phone and burn marks on your wrist.
A: Really?
Q: It looks really cool, actually.
A: I don't have burn marks on my arm.
Q: Well, you should get some.