Avril Lavigne Recounts How She Got Tony Hawk Over to Her House to Record Her TikTok Debut

"I was like, 'Hey, I'm going to film my first TikTok, would you mind coming over to my house and skate my mini-ramp?'" the singer recalled about getting Tony Hawk on board to film her debut TikTok video

AVRIL LAVIGNE, TONY HAWK
Avril Lavigne; Tony Hawk. Photo: TIKTOK

The story behind how Avril Lavigne got Tony Hawk to be a part of her viral "Sk8er Boi" TikTok debut isn't as "Complicated" as one might think.

In an interview with her musician boyfriend Mod Sun for Audacy, the singer, 36, explained, "I knew I had to join [TikTok], and then was like, what am I going to do? Play 'Sk8er Boi?' Skateboard? I don't know, I'll just call Tony Hawk."

Lavigne then went on to say that rather than call the pro skateboarder, 53, she slid into his direct messages on Instagram, something she admitted she "never" does.

"I was like, 'Hey, I'm going to film my first TikTok, would you mind coming over to my house and skate my mini-ramp?' He was like, 'Sure,'" she recalled with a laugh.

Mod, 34, added: "He just like, appeared with a skateboard. Literally, just in the driveway."

When Hawke walked through her front gate holding a skateboard, Lavigne said she had to "pinch" herself.

"[I was] like, 'Is this even real?'" she said. "I was like, 'I feel like I need to be holding a guitar right now or something.' I was like, 'This is pretty epic.' Summer 2021 off to a good start."

The TikTok video starts off with Lavigne lip-syncing her 2002 song atop a halfpipe as she dons her signature look from the track's era: a sleeveless black t-shirt with matching shorts and a striped necktie. As the chorus plays, the video then cuts to Hawk wearing the same tie as he does a few quick tricks on his board.

Currently, the video sits at 6 million views, a feat that made Lavigne tell Mod, "I'm a TikToker now."

"He goes, 'Honey, don't say that,'" she recalled with a laugh.

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When asked to think back on her life around the release of "Sk8er Boi" — which went on to earn her a Grammy nomination for best female rock vocal — in 2002, Lavigne said she was "obsessed with skateboarding."

"I was fresh out of high school, and I just really liked guys that wore skater shoes, like the big, fat ones," she said. "When Mod and I started dating, he goes, 'So you know I am the skater boy now?'"

"Mod is actually really freaking good at skateboarding," she added.

Lavigne was first romantically linked to Mod Sun in February after they collaborated on his song "Flames" in January. She told PEOPLE that they "had an immediate connection from the first day in the studio."

"He's an incredible artist and producer," she said. "This is the first of many. Proud of what we made with 'Flames.'"

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