oppdatert 08:34
Warning: Lou Reed is coming. On Friday he is in Bergen, then he'll go to Stavanger
and Oslo. Simultaneously the New York-rocker is releasing a new DVD, «Live
in Spain».
Just now, Lou Reed is sitting in the other end of a telephone line to USA. His
contempt for journalists and is world known, but is he just as bad as the rumour
says?
- Norway? OK. I always have fun in Norway, he says with his dry offset voice.
- You are doing three shows here?
- What?
- You are playing in Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo.
- Are you sure?
- Absolutely.
- I hope so. You are also opening a music festival in Bergen?
- Wow, a whole festival. Amazing. No one tells me anything.
- Do you have any special relationship to Norway?
- I'm half Norwegian!
- What are you?
- I'm half Norwegian; didn't you know?
- Not really. How is that?
- My soul is half Norwegian.
- OK ...
- I like Norway. It's dark there half the year, right?
- And you like the dark?
- No. That's why I go to Norway in the spring.
- How are things going in USA? Is everything OK with George W. Bush as president?
- It's insane. I don't understand who voted for him. I don't know any.
- But he did get elected?
- Some must have voted for him but it couldn't have been anyone here.
- Here? Where is that?
- New York, of course. That's where I live. I don't think any in New York voted
for Bush.
- How long do you think the Iraq-war will last?
- My God. D It's so terrible what's happening down there. I don't think it will
end before they decide that everybody has to go in the military in USA. So that
it's not just the poor black kids who goes down there and die.
- Are we talking about a new Vietnam?
- That would be terrible. Let's hope that don't happen. But it was weird seeing
the Iraqians voting. There are people down there who mean that democracy doesn't
fit. But people went out for voting even tough they risked their lives. It was
quite amazing. They're not remarkably scared.
- Have you been following the news from Rome? You played for pope
John Paul II during a festival in 2000. Did you meet him?
- No no. That is just something that stands in the press release. He was there
during the beginning of the festival, but we played late in the evening. By
then he had left the area long ago. It was a 1.May arrangement I have attended
several times. Somehow the Church got mixed in, and all of a sudden it was a
religious affair. But we did not play for the Pope. Only for his aura.
- Another strong person just died, the writer Hunter S. Thompson?
- Oh, that is so sad. He was one of the funniest writes ever lived. It is horrible
to think that it'll never come anything new from him. He is a classic. He told
the truth. I was really sorry when I heard he was dead. I was going to do a
reading with him in New York a while ago. He had used one of my lyrics in something
he had written. But then he got stuck in traffic, and the whole thing came to
nothing. Everything he wrote was good. And funny. He was speaking out against
everything that was stupid. Against every sick powerful people. He was a real
star.
- And without compromises? Like yourself?
- I remember the first time I read, «Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas».
I know the opening of the book by heart. It was one of the funniest things I
have ever read. When authorities destroy what is true and rightful, it is always
important to work against them. Hunter S. Thompson did that.
- Are writers an important inspiration for your own work?
- Always. I have always been reading Raymond Chandler. The things he could do
with simple words! Fabulous. Many good poets have inspired me: Hubert Selby
Jr., William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg. People who write simple and to the point.
Who don't use difficult words.
- Like yourself?
- Yes, that's me. I write so everybody can understand. I'm a democrat.
- In your shows, you often play new versions of your own songs?
- When you record a song in studio, it gets a certain expression. Two hours
later, this expression could be totally different. There are so many ways to
play a song. One song has many faces. It can always be different. And better.
- You are also a photographer. What does that mean to you?
- Photography is visual music.
- You are doing self-portraits?
- I can make myself look like anything I want. Just like Andy Warhol. He made
a self-portrait where he fixed his nose. I will always remember that. I can
make myself interesting by giving me a new face.
- What kind of face?
- For instance, look at the poster for the tour I'm on now. That's one of my
faces.
- How many are there?
- How far can you count?