Avril and Stephen performing (Image from Stephen Bruce Medd Music/YouTube)
We’re a day away from the 2023 Canada Walk of Fame ceremony, where Napanee native Avril Lavigne will receive her star.
To learn more about her early days of music in Napanee, myFM spoke with local musician Stephen Medd, who first met Avril in 1996.
Medd, having a bunch of songs sitting in his back pocket, wanted to make an album and make it a community project with young performers on it. He says Avril was at the top of his list.
The following year they wrote and recorded a second album.
Medd commented that they were very exciting times as when they were working together and recording, that’s when Avril was being discovered by the music industry.
It would be just a few years later in 2002 when Avril’s debut studio album Let Go was released. A few weeks prior to the release, Avril’s dad John gave Medd an advanced copy so that he could have a listen.
Medd says that for Avril, this star on the Canada Walk of Fame is another feather in her cap. Like many, he’s excited for her and wishes her “one heck of a good party after the star is laid in the sidewalk at King Street, Toronto!”
Written by Emily Chatwood