‘I Don’t Want to Be Erased’

In 2010, Lou Reed planned to perform with Gorillaz for their headlining set at the Glastonbury Festival, a highlight of a busy summer. Then his health took a downturn. The trouble began in Australia, where he and his partner Laurie Anderson had been invited to curate the Sydney Vivid Festival. They’d invited Hal Willner, Emily Haines, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and Master Ren Guang Yi, who gave free tai chi lessons; Anderson performed a low-frequency outdoor concert composed primarily for an audience of appreciative dogs. (“They barked for five minutes,” she recalled. “That was one of the happiest moments of my life.”) At a press conference, Reed answered questions patiently, in marked contrast with one at Sydney Airport 30-some years prior. When asked about plans for his next album, he hedged. “I haven’t figured out just what would be a great thing to do right now, that would make a difference — for me, for you,” he said, noting that he was trying to come up with something “really astonishing.”