Lewis Allan Reed was a musician, singer and songwriter born on 2nd March 1942, in Brooklyn, New York City USA, He was known for an extraordinary music career both as the guitarist, vocalist and main songwriter of the Velvet Underground band, but also his solo career which lasted for nearly five decades. Two of his albums entered the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. He passed away in 2013.
Have you ever wondered how rich Lou Reed was? According to sources it has been estimated that Reed’s overall net worth was $15 million, accumulated during a 55 year- long successful music career. Even after his death, his net worth continues to increase through his copyrights and publishing interests.
Lou Reed Net Worth $15 Million
Although born in Brooklyn, Lou spent most of his childhood in Long Island, New York City, where he grew up in a Jewish family. He started showing an interest in music from an early age, and played guitar in several bands during his high school years. Later, he enrolled at Syracuse University, from which he graduated with a degree in writing and film. He moved into New York City, where he began writing songs for Pickwick Records. When he scored a minor hit with his parody single “The Ostrich” in 1964, Pickwick hired a band to back Reed’s vocals, and that’s when he met his future band-mate John Cale. The two became good friends, roommates and collaborators, and eventually founded “The Velvet Underground”; the band gained the attention of artist Andy Warhol who introduced them to the New York art scene and claimed some ownership of the band. Their first album, “The Velvet Underground & Nico” is considered to be one of the most influential in rock history. However, due to disagreements among the members, the band fell apart by 1970 after releasing two more albums. Regardless, Lou’s net worth was well established.
After leaving the band, Reed shortly worked temporarily as an accountant for his father’s firm, before signing a solo recording contract with RCA Records. His first self-titled album contained versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, but did not achieve much success. Soon after, in 1972, Lou released his second album, “Transformer” which was co-produced by David Bowie and contained the hit singles “Walk on the Wild Side” and “Perfect Day”, which are widely considered to be the best of his solo career. In 1990, there was a short-lived reunion of The Velvet Underground, which was interrupted by a quarrel between Cale and Reed. Lou continued performing and recording for several more years, releasing more than 16 albums over the years, all widely differing in styles, and including a period of so-called ‘glam rock’, and other experiments during the early 2000s, some popular but never quite with the consistency he was searching for.
Apart from being an extraordinary musician, Lou also compiled and published two books of photographs: “Emotions in Action” and “Lou Reed’s New York”.
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