DON'T MESS WITH LOU REED

You've got to check out this interview that New York magazine did with Lou Reed about his new SIRIUS Radio show on SIRIUS Disorder. Classic Lou! Did the interviewer really think he was going to get Lou Reed to comment on the SIRIUS/XM merger? 

My Lou Reed story: in 2004, while working for Video Hits One, I covered a benefit concert for WEDRock, an organization that was working to legalize gay marriage. It was a cool concert: Moby performed, so did Bob Mould, Le Tigre and Margaret Cho. Lou Reed did a spoken word performance, and let me tell you that "Walk On The Wild Side" is funnier without the music. 

Anyway, I was there doing interviews, and I was told not even to expect Lou Reed. Then, some publicist asks me if I'd be interested in speaking with Lou. I was like, I thought he wasn't doing interviews, but I'd always wanted to interview him. I turned around, and there he was. It was a noisy club, so I figured maybe he didn't hear me. But he probably did. Or maybe he was looking at me like that because, you know. I was from VH1. 

I remember it being one of the very few times I'd interviewed someone whose music I loved, but yet I wanted the interview to end as soon as possible. I didn't get intimidated much, but the fact that I was taken off guard by the opportunity to interview him, plus him hearing me being a fan, plus... well, he's Lou Reed, not Mr. Friendly, I wasn't on my game. So I guess I asked him a few questions about gay marriage, and wrapped it up. Then, as he was getting up, I asked him about a lyric from the song "The Last Great American Whale," from my favorite Lou album, New York. 

"Is it true that 'My painter friend Donald' is really John Mellencamp?" I thought I even remember Mellencamp saying that in an interview. 

Lou turned around, and I was like "Uh-oh." I won't say he smiled. I won't say he grinned. But one corner of his mouth raised maybe a half millimeter, and the shape of his eyes changed just a little bit. 

"No. 'My painter friend Donald' is actually my painter friend Donald." At least he didn't call me an asshole though