Lou Reed Willed His Estate to His Wife and Sister
Lou Reed is gone, but his legacy lives on -- and the wealth his music generated during his lifetime will now be used to care for the loved ones he left behind.
Billboard reports that Reed's last will and testament has been filed in a New York court, and its terms are as elegantly simple as his best songs: He left the bulk of his estate to his wife Laurie Anderson, including a pair of homes owned by the couple in Manhattan and East Hampton, N.Y. Reed also made provisions for his sister, setting aside "about a quarter" of his holdings, on top of which he added $500,000 for the care and comfort of their mother.
It's a suitably straightforward settlement for Reed, who, by most accounts, lived a fairly simple life during his last few decades. While he enjoyed his fair share of the trappings of rock stardom earlier in his career, Reed settled into something approaching normal domesticity during the '80s and '90s. While he wasn't averse to the periodic high-profile project (including 'Lulu,' the record he cut with Metallica in 2011), he became increasingly engaged in less-mainstream pursuits like 'Hudson River Wind Meditations,' his album of instrumental music designed for aiding tai chi meditation.
Reed, who was 71 at the time of his passing last week, had no known children. As NME points out, his death leaves John Cale and Moe Tucker the only surviving members of their hugely influential former band the Velvet Underground.