When Avril Lavigne first arrived with "Complicated," we all knew the Canadian teen in the tie and tank-top was different from the Britneys and Xinas. We just didn't know how different. This year, for instance, she hit the charts with “ Don’t Tell Me." Most pop stars tease about their sexual availability; this song bluntly told the guys in her audience that she wasn't the kind to put out.

There's more. The choirgirl turned sk8er gal isn't just a bratty figurehead. In concert, she plays guitar, piano and drums, too. Her cover version of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" at first seemed to stretch credibility. Now it's just another facet to her quirky musical persona. She's even convinced her record label Arista to butt out of the recording process and let her dream up the concepts to her videos.

So while her peers flare out in the tabloids, Avril plans to stick around, and it's working. Lavigne is a parents' favorite and when she rails against lip syncing, you could almost imagine her to be one of her older musical forebears. VH1 listened as she explained how she escaped the "punk" tag and why it's fun to pretend to be on crack every once in a while.

VH1: Are you different than the way the public perceives you?

Avril Lavigne: I don't know. No one really knows what anyone is like. The press will put labels on people and try to explain what they're like. I really don't think it can always do a person justice, y'know? No one will know them ever really.

VH1: You got a lot of heat for looking like a punk girl and not owning the Sex Pistols record.

AL: A lot of people gave me a hard time with the whole punk thing. I never said I was. Maybe because of the way I dress, people said, "Oh, she thinks she is and she's not." It's like, "I never said I was, people." When I first came out everyone loved me and they said all these really nice things about me, so other people had to come in there and like kinda rip me apart. But that happens to everyone. [Watch Clip]

VH1: You seemed to deal with it a lot better than most people.

AL: That's the way life is. If you're in school and there's a popular kid or a hot chick and all the guys are talking about her, all the girls in the class are going to go, "Oh well, she's not that hot; this is wrong with her and this is wrong with her," and try to pick her apart. It's sad, but that's the way people are.

VH1: You chastised Ashlee Simpson for lip syncing. Have you ever worked with a backing tape?

AL: No way. I've always sang live my whole entire life. I've never lip synced once. I never will. I'm here because of my voice and because I like to sing and because I want to sing. I go to awards shows and I sit there and I watch people up onstage who are very successful who aren't singing live. I think, "God, that's not fair to all the talented people who are out there." It disappoints me really. I think it's a disgrace. [Watch Clip]

VH1: I've paid good money to see lots of shows where it's on tape.

AL: I work really hard. I sing an hour and a half every night. I have to save my voice. I have to take care of it. I'm friends with other people in other bands who do the same thing. We change our lifestyle. We can't sleep with air conditioning on or heaters on. We have to sleep with humidifiers and we have to try not to talk during the day and save our voices. I'm proud of that and I'm sure they are, too.

VH1: "Don't Tell Me" is a good message for young girls.

AL: I was 17 when I wrote that song, so that was all fresh on my mind, just coming out of high school. There's a lot of pressure on girls these days. I'm happy to be able to sing it up onstage every night and to introduce it by telling the audience, "This is a song about being strong."

VH1: What kind of feedback have you gotten?

AL: A lot of the moms at my shows come up and go, [in a high-pitched voice] "Thank you for not being Britney Spears," or "Thank you for being such a good role model to my kids. I'm really happy that they're listening to you." And I'm just like [giggles] "Wow. Cool. Okay." Bonus points! [Watch Clip]

VH1: Talk about the concept behind the video for "My Happy Ending."

AL: I actually worked with the director really closely. I said, "I want to act the part. I want to get to have me and a guy acting where we're happy, and we're walking through the park, and we're laughing." We were supposed to kiss, but I didn't do that. I chose not to, but I wanted to play piano and I wanted to be in tutu. I think that's probably one of my best videos.

VH1: When you said you didn't want to kiss the guy, they must have been like, "No, you have to."

AL: Well, the director was like, "C'mon, it's acting. You have to kiss him." And I was like, [inhales] "No, I can't."

VH1: What did you base "Nobody's Home" on?

AL: I wrote "Nobody's Home" about a girl I once knew, who was kinda not really going anywhere with her life. She was hanging out with the wrong crowd, getting in a lot of trouble, and wasn't really focused. In the video, I play the part of a runaway. That wasn't her situation. That was just something we decided to do for the video, make it a little bit more dramatic.

VH1: Do you have a better time being glammed up or playing the street kid?

AL: I had the most fun playing the bum on the street. [Laughs] I had my best friend on the set with me. She's in some of the shots with me. We were pretending we were on crack the whole day. That was the most fun video to shoot. I had those '80s-like acid wash jeans and I was singing Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" and dancing like I was back in the '80s. [Watch Clip]

VH1: Did it surprise you to see all these girls wearing the necktie when you first came out?

AL: Yeah, it did. It's not like I was the first one who ever wore a necktie. When I came out, a lot of my fans started coming to the shows wearing white wife-beaters and tank tops and studded bracelets.

VH1: So why did you drop the tie?

AL: Well, I mean, like I was going to wear the tie forever, right? It became so big that I got over it. Now fans come to my shows wearing the bondage pants I wore on my whole entire mall tour. So it's kind of funny.