Dat komt ervan om idolen te gaan interviewen en er veel van te verwachten. En Lou Reed is natuurlijk geen gemakkelijke mens.

After a quick snack, he is ready for a photograph. He’s a small man but well-built – big pecs, big belly, tight T-shirt. He’s 61 years old. He grips my hand and eyeballs me. Hi, I say. He stares. “He’s not doing the interview in here, is he?” he asks the PR. No, she says. “So he doesn’t need to be here for the pictures.”

I’m sent off upstairs to a sterile, empty room to wait for him. He’s not been that friendly, but once I tell him how I grew up to Walk On The Wild Side, we’ll bond.

[…]

He walks in silently, with swaggering B-movie menace. Of course, he’ll act the hard man, but my copy of NYC Man is on the table and once we start talking about his greatest songs he’ll relax. I know he will.

Het is allemaal redelijk downhill vanaf dan: Reed wil niet over iets anders dan muziek spreken, en zelfs dar wil hij eigenlijk niet veel over zeggen:

Reed makes me feel like an amoeba. I want to cry. Look, I was a huge fan of yours, I say. “Was ?” he sneers. I still am, I say, but I’m less sure by the second. I desperately try to stick to the music. Soon after his most commercial album, Transformer, Reed made his least-commercial record, Metal Machine Music, an album of feedback. Some critics said it was his joke on the pop business. Is there any validity in that? “Zero.” Is it something he can enjoy? “Well, I can.” Which of his songs does he like best? “I don’t have a favourite.” Favourite album? “I like all of them.”

En nog een beetje later is het helemaal de soep ingedraaid:

“Why are you so aggressive to me? What have I done to you? Why are you being so horrible?”
“I’m just pointing things out to you.”
I’m lost for words. “I used to buy your records,” I say pathetically.
“You used to.”
“Are you really this aggressive in real life?”
“Didn’t we just go through this? OK, fuck, you don’t want to talk about music.”

Ik heb mijn verwachtingen op dat vlak altijd redelijk realistisch gehouden en dus ook nooit echt teleurgesteld geweest.