Since I was never an Avril Lavigne fan, I never paid much attention to the ridiculously detailed conspiracy theory that Avril died at some point and was “replaced” by a body-double named Melissa Vandella. Ordinarily, I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, and if this was just a harmless and fun thought experiment, I might have gotten into it. But there was something really macabre about how detailed the conspiracy became, with theories about Avril dying by suicide and how “Melissa’s face” looked so much different. What’s also weird is that… Avril still looks Avril. It’s not like she stepped out at some point with an entirely new face, which is what Lady Gaga, Renee Zellweger and Uma Thurman have all done in the past decade.

Anyway, the conspiracy theory has been around since 2005, and it’s grown to the point of established urban legend at this point. I’m pretty sure that Avril has addressed it in various ways in the past 13 years, but people are still asking. Avril is currently promoting her new music – her first in years, since her Lyme disease diagnosis – and she called into the Australian radio show Kyle & Jackie O. They asked her about the conspiracy. This is what happened:

Of course none of this has never really been addressed by Avril herself, and so this morning while Kyle and Jackie O were chatting to the singer they decided to ask her about them straight out.

“What about, did you laugh at the rumours that went around where you no longer exist and there’s a clone of you?”, asked Jackie.

Now this is where it gets a bit foggy. Avril’s answer could really be taken two different ways…Let us explain. On one hand, Avril can be heard laughing and saying that the rumours were strange. Meaning she might have been denying them.

“Yeah some people think that I’m not the real me which is so weird! Like why would they even think that,” she said. On the other hand, you could say that Avril never actually flat out denied them. Not only that, BUT what was incredibly strange and creepy was that as soon as Jackie asked this question, the phone line turned really weird! Avril went a bit robotic, cut out and times, and even accidentally started pressing random buttons making a beep sound! Is it just a coincidence that things started going haywire with the line as soon as we asked about the Melissa theories? Or was someone doing it…DELIBERATELY!!

[From KIIS 1065]

I’ve been looking around for the audio to see if it really was that weird. Now I’m wondering: am I on the wrong side of pop culture history? Is the “Avril-is-dead-and-now-we’re-seeing-Melissa” conspiracy actually pop culture canon at this point? Am I the only who doesn’t believe it? I believe in a lot of dumb conspiracies, so why can’t I cross this particular bridge??

Photos courtesy of WENN.