When news broke earlier this week that Avril Lavigne’s rhythm guitarist Jesse Colburn had been ousted from the band, Lavigne herself was caught a little off guard that the news caused such a commotion. Seeing as Colburn is heavily rumoured to be Avril’s ex-boyfriend, the switch-up in Lavigne’s band has certainly got the gossip mill churning. Lavigne isn’t about to throw more fuel on that fire by elaborating on Colburn’s reasons for leaving (the official party line is that he left to pursue other projects), but she did confirm that he is no longer in the band.
“No,” Lavigne responded with a nervous giggle when ChartAttack asked if her touring band is the same group that she used to tour her debut album, Let Go, last year. “Some of them are the same. We have Craig [Wood] from Gob. The bass player from their band is now the guitarist for my band.”
Wood joins a band that already includes drummer Matt Brann, bassist Charlie Moniz and guitarist Evan Taubenfeld. With Lavigne’s insanely busy schedule, Wood won’t be able to pull double duty with Gob, so the Vancouver-based pop-punk band are currently looking for a new bass player.
Wood’s inclusion in the Lavigne band doesn’t come as a huge surprise, seeing as Gob opened for the singer on her very first headlining tour. There was obvious camaraderie between the band and Lavigne, who would routinely engage in a bit of horseplay onstage.
“We were really good friends with him and we all really liked him,” Lavigne says. “We’ve been on tour with Gob before and he really liked the guys, so we thought he’d be good for the band. I think he was ready for a change, too. It’s good to change every once in a while.”
Wood will make his Lavigne band debut this Sunday (April 4) at the Juno Awards in Edmonton. The show will be broadcast across Canada on CTV at 8 p.m. in most local time zones except Atlantic, where it will air at 9 p.m.
Meanwhile, Lavigne is continuing her Secret Mall Tour with Taubenfeld, which touched down in Calgary yesterday. Lavigne’s second album, Under My Skin, is due May 25.