LOU REED a talk on the mild SIDE

When Lou Reed released his Berlin album, it was considered a complete commercial and critical failure. Thirty-five years later, and having now been made into a film by Julian Schnabel, it’s being hailed as his masterpiece. The original Rock’n’Roll Animal talks to Jonathan Wingate

I’m waiting for the man to call and, I must admit, the prospect of interviewing Lou Reed is daunting, to say the least. His curmudgeonly attitude to interviews is legendary, and he seems to positively revel in what you might call a particularly “difficult” relationship with the media on these shores.

Reed has been locked within the prism of his petulant public persona since he first emerged fronting The Velvet Underground in the mid-60s. When it comes to talking to the media, he is clearly proud of his reputation as the most difficult and disagreeable man in rock’n’roll. When Vanity Fair magazine recently asked him to give his definition of abject misery, Reed’s response was simply: “Being interviewed by an English journalist.”

He is talking to me via a speakerphone from his New York office and, for the first few moments, Reed’s voice is so faint he sounds as if he’s conducting the interview from the other side of a very thick wall. I panic and, for a second or two, consider asking him to speak up a bit. But then I remember a friend who dared to ask him to talk a little louder and politely pointed out that the line was atrocious. “Your fucking problem, not mine,” said Reed.

When I nervously stutter my sycophantic yet accurate …

by Jonathan Wingate
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