Hot (ha, get it?) on the heels of announcing her Greatest Hits album, the motherfuckin' princess Avril Lavigne has bestowed her first-ever podcast appearance on none other than Call Her Daddy, where she finally addressed the long-running conspiracy theory about her having been replaced by a clone named Melissa.
"There is a crazy rumour out there about you that I obviously have to ask about," host Alex Cooper goaded after Lavigne arrived at the studio with pizza, champagne and Bud Light ("What kind of Canadian would I be if I didn't bring beer?" she asked).
For the uninitiated, around the time of the release of Lavigne's second album, 2004's Under My Skin, a Brazilian blogger started the rumour that Lavigne had died in 2003 and been replaced by a lookalike named Melissa. I recently discovered that CBC and the BBC teamed up to make a whole podcast series about the theory with comedian Joanne McNally, if you'd like to dig in deep.
"I mean, it's just funny to me — like, on one end, everyone's like, 'Oh my God, you look the exact same! You haven't aged a day!' But then other people are like, you know, there's a conspiracy theory that I'm not me," Lavigne explained, adding, "Cool."
"Honestly, it's not that bad," she continued. "It could be worse, right? Like, I feel like I got a good one. I don't think it's negative or like, creepy."
The singer-songwriter laughed, "Obviously I am me. It's so dumb." She went on to note that she's not the only artist who has been subjected to wild speculation, although even she couldn't explain why the Melissa theory has had such staying power.
Elsewhere in the interview, Lavigne also opened up about writing "Head Above Water" when she spent a couple of years bedridden with Lyme disease, from which fellow Canadian singers Shania Twain and Justin Bieber have also suffered. "That's something that rocks you pretty hard," Lavigne reflected. "I'm really grateful to be on the other end of that — I'll think twice about riding dirt bikes out in the woods on the East Coast next time."
You can check out the full hour-long episode below.