- Mod Sun is a rapper and musician known for his hit song “Flames.”
- The artist was engaged to pop/punk hitmaker Avril Lavigne until they broke it off on Feb. 21, 2023.
- Most recently, Mod reacted to their split via Instagram on Feb. 28, 2023.
“The day we met, I knew you were the one. Together forever til our days are done,” wrote Mod Sun when sharing the news of his and Avril Lavigne‘s engagement in April 2022. Mod, 35, revealed that he popped the question to Avril, 38, when they were in Paris. “I grabbed your hand + took one last breath… I said, ‘will you marry me?’ + she said ‘yes.'”
Mod and Avril were engaged for nearly one year until they called it quits by Feb. 21, 2023. At the time, Avril’s reps confirmed the split to Page Six, however, news of the termination of their engagement was news to Mod’s team. “They were together and engaged as of three days ago when he left for tour, so if anything has changed, that’s news to him,” his reps told the outlet. And one week later on Feb. 28, Mod broke his silence and shared an emotional Instagram post about his “broken” heart.
“In 1 week my entire life completely changed…I just know there’s a plan for it all. I’ll keep my head up + always listen to my heart, even when it feels broken,” his lengthy caption read. “Being surrounded by love every night on tour has been an absolute blessing. I have the best friends in the entire world, thanks for always having my back. See you on stage.”
They were first linked in February 2021, but as Mod said, as soon as they started dating, he knew she was the one. The rapper was previously involved with Bella Thorne and Tana Mongeau, but it seems he was holding out for his punk rock princess. Below are five things to know about him!
Mod Sun Is A Singer-Songwriter/Rapper
Mod Sun (b. Derek Ryan Smith in March 1987) is best known for his work as a hip-hop artist and in the punk/post-hardcore genres. As of 2022, he has four albums: Look Up (2015), Movie (2017), BB (2017), and Internet Killed The Rockstar (2021). His fifth, Rich Kids Ruin Everything, is set for a 2022 release.
In his days as a rapper, Mod has worked with Dej Loaf (“We Do This Sh-t”), blackbear (“Spent All My Money..”), G-Eazy (“Goddess”), Riff Raff/Jody Highroller (“Not That Bad”), Machine Gun Kelly (“Shoot’Em Down”), and more.
He’s Close With MGK
With Internet Killed The Rockstar, he switched back to his more punk sound and scored his highest-charting single yet: “Flames,” featuring Avril Lavigne. Mod Son also released “Karma” in 2020, a single that was picked out by his best friend, MGK.
“I really wanted to figure out how to show the truest me,” Mod told HollywoodLife in 2020, “the one that Kells enjoys every day, the one that he’s like, ‘Bro, I see you, and you are walking, living breathing art, and I need the world to see you through my eyes,’ so I was like, ‘Say less, you’re gonna shoot the video,” Mod said. “He has his own way of doing things, and that’s the biggest takeaway from what you will be seeing because it’s a video like I’ve never done.” 2021 also saw Mod Son release “Down” with Travis Barker because, as Billboard notes, everyone wants to work with Travis Barker.
He’s Forever A ‘Scene Kid’
Hailing from Bloomington, Montana, Mod Sun began his music career playing in the post-hardcore band The Semester as their drummer and mouthpiece. The band kicked him out after high school. “That f******* killed me,” he told Nylon. “I had just gone through high school being like, ‘This is my life,’ and then graduated ready to pursue what was my life and then got literally ejected from my dreams, you dig? I went into this very dark state.”
Search “four letter lie” or “scary kids scaring kids”………forever a scene kid…..this music is in my blood 🥁 https://t.co/ga90JFcwZ1
— MOD SUN (@MODSUN) January 9, 2021
That, obviously, wasn’t the end for him. Mod joined bands Four Letter Lie and Scary Kids Scaring Kids. Mod paid tribute to his old bands in 2021. “The first tour I ever did as mod sun was me opening up for a band called ‘scary kids scaring kids’….I was basically getting booed the entire time I was on stage, but it taught me so much about being an entertainer + performer,” he wrote on Instagram. “I was playing to the wrong crowd, but I would give it my all + by the end of the set, I would sometimes win them over. I spent years finding my crowd, + now I look back on those moments, so absolutely grateful. It taught me to be fearless. It taught me to remove the bone of embarrassment from my body.”
MOD SUN Name Is An Acronym
Mod Sun (often stylized as MOD SUN) stands for something. “Mod Sun stands for ‘movement on dreams, stand under none.’ It is all based off of manifestation, the law of attraction,” he told Nylon. “When I found Bob Dylan, coincidentally, at the same time, I found The Secret, and those two things created me.”
He’s Worked Hard On His Sobriety
“The drugs were gonna kill me, and the drugs were holding back my shine, and it was dimming my light….” Mod told HollywoodLife in 2020. “Going on two years of not doing drugs or drinking, I have filled my time so heavily with falling in love with my art. I think that karma, speaking of karma, works wonders when you really start living in the present moment as much as possible.”