Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Lou Reed took a walk on the wild side, down to Hollywood's RockWalk, where he placed his handprints and signature outside the Guitar Center music store on Sunset Boulevard.
"I think that's fantastic," he said of the honor Tuesday. "I'm very, very surprised and really get a kick out of this."
Best known for the 1972 hit "Walk on the Wild Side," Reed recently came out with a compilation spanning 35 years in music called "NYC Man - The Ultimate Lou Reed Collection." Other albums from the founding member of the seminal avant-garde rock group the Velvet Underground include "Berlin," "Metal Machine Music" and "Transformer."
Reed, whose lyrics often explore the urban underground, said a continuing theme in his music has been people living outside society's mainstream.
"I've tried to always think about and represent people who don't have very much: the underdog, people who are on the outside," the 61-year-old said.
He added that Tuesday's honor wouldn't change that.
"I follow my passion and I'm not really concerned with what other people do," he said.
Other musicians celebrated on the RockWalk include B.B. King, Brian Wilson, Johnny Cash, Carlos Santana, James Brown, Carl Perkins, Bonnie Raitt and John Lee Hooker.

www.itv.com
8.16AM BST, 25 Jun 2003
Rock musician Lou Reed thanked artist Andy Warhol as he was honoured for his artistic achievements with a plaque on Hollywood's RockWalk.

"Everything I do is from the outside and if it hadn't have been for Andy (Warhol), who knows whether I would have had a chance to do anything"

http://www.itv.com/news/137493.html

Tue June 24, 2003 06:57 PM ET
By Matt Carmichael
CHICAGO (Billboard) - On a chilly late spring night, Chicagoans were treated to a lesson in Zen and the Art of Rock'n'Roll: words and music by Lou Reed, Godfather of Punk, Poet Laureate of Rock, Master of the "Four-Chord Flurry" technique of guitar.
He begins the lesson with a familiar riff. As he walks onstage, clad in the traditional garb of black jacket and black leather pants, Master Reed begins to rip into the Velvet Underground anthem, "Sweet Jane." Teasing the audience, he stops midway through the intro.
"I want to explain how you can make a career out of three chords." Master Reed pauses to demonstrate what many people feel "Sweet Jane" sounds like: playing the intro in a simple three-chord fashion. Then he repeats it as it's actually played and shows the profound difference that is made by slipping in a fourth chord.
It's a scene reminiscent of an infamous MTV clip where Vanilla Ice tries to explain the difference between the hook of "Ice Ice Baby," and the Queen/Bowie song, "Under Pressure." And yet the outcome is entirely different because here you see how the subtle change amplifies the power of the song exponentially.
Over the course of two-plus hours Reed proceeds to demonstrate by example both good and bad, the difference between a hack knock-off and a true Master.
Reed is touring in support of his latest offering, "The Raven." It's both an homage and a recasting of some of Edgar Allen Poe's better-known work. The ever-ambitious Reed is about the only artist with the chutzpah to pay tribute to great works of literature by rewriting them himself.
Over the years he's proven that he's perverse enough to perform the entire two-disc version of this album in its entirety and call it a night. However he has taken some of the "Raven" collaborators on the road with him and is using the unusual arrangement of guitars, cello, bass and vocals to showcase an eclectic collection of critically acclaimed non-hits spanning his career. However the decision to tour without a drummer was a costly one. Bassist Fernando Saunders would occasionally play a small set of electric drum pads, but the loss of that aspect of the rhythm section cut the drive out of some of the rockers in Reed's repertoire.
It was truly a connoisseur's set. Pulling as many songs from the 30-year-old "Berlin" as from the new album (including "The Bed," which was reworked for "Raven") may still seem a touch perverse from those who only wanted to hear "Rock and Roll" and "Walk on the Wild Side." But the chance to hear Reed perform vintage Velvet's tracks "Venus in Furs" and "All Tomorrow's Parties," as well as his own "How do you Think it Feels," was well worth the price of admission.
Reed even dug out "Sunday Morning," which he commented that he didn't get to play live very often way back during a live recording when he was still with the Velvet Underground some 35 years ago. During this, and several other pieces, Reed's Tai Chi Master Ren Guangyi appeared on stage and performed the martial art in time with the music.
While it is always nice to see Reed backed by longtime collaborators Mike Rathke on guitar and Saunders, not enough can be said about the singer Reed has brought on this tour who simply goes by Antony. During down time, he was seated in a dark corner of the stage, sometimes sitting on his hands to keep them in check, but often bouncing both legs and swinging his arms in a nervous sort of chair dance. But when he sang, either backing Reed or taking verses and songs himself the effect of his wide-ranging vibrato caused all to take notice.
On the obscure Velvets gem "Candy Says," originally sung by Doug Yule because it was outside Reed's narrow range, Antony's otherworldly voice came through as quizzically gendered as the song itself. And taking over "Perfect Day," from Reed, Antony showed us that the ageless song is still good for more than just milking cows.
In pulling out these treats the Master reminded us of the details that made the individual songs able to stand up against, really, anything recorded before or since.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=reviewsNews&storyID=2982988

http://www.loureed.org/new/index_lou.html

http://www.rocknroll.net/loureed/

http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/default.asp?oid=291

16. May 2000
The Daily Telegraph
The 24-hour city is already a reality for art-lover Lou Reed.
Reed was dining with a friend - the Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein - on Sunday night, when he decided he wanted to see Helnwein's new show at the Robert Sandelson Gallery.
"I had just taken to my bed when I got a phone call from Gottfried", says Sandelson. "But I'm an old fan of Lou Reed so I went as I was and opened up at midnight." For nearly an hour, Sandelson stood in his nightwear and "yawned away while they analysed the pictures in detail".
The 24-hour city is already a reality for art-lover Lou Reed.
Reed was dining with a friend - the Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein - on Sunday night, when he decided he wanted to see Helnwein's new show at the Robert Sandelson Gallery.
"I had just taken to my bed when I got a phone call from Gottfried", says Sandelson. "But I'm an old fan of Lou Reed so I went as I was and opened up at midnight." For nearly an hour, Sandelson stood in his nightwear and "yawned away while they analysed the pictures in detail".
Afterwards, he drove Reed back to his hotel where, the star explained, he was looking forward to doing tai chi exercises on the balcony at dawn.

http://www.helnwein.com/news/update/artikel_20.html