“No personal questions allowed,” we were told, as a craggy-faced Lou Reed showed up at Cannes Lions for his first public appearance since his life-saving liver transplant.
But the surgery didn’t seem to have sapped his legendary attitude.
Taking the stage with Grey Group’s worldwide Chief Creative Director Tim Mellors, Reed, 71, lamented the quality of digital music, which he said “sounds like s–t,” compared to “the beautiful warm sound you get on vinyl.”
Reed next took aim at digital downloads, joking that he received a royalty check of $2.60 from his first record when he was 14.
“It’s pretty much what I get from downloads now,” he added, “I’m back where I started … I understand young people were brought up on downloading and Steve Jobs tried to make it into some kind of business which benefits Apple but you get about a sixteenth of a penny … The musician doesn’t get paid anything.”
He went on to say that he was shocked by Edward Snowden’s revelation of NSA surveillance: “It’s very disturbing. A lot of the things [George W.] Bush would have done, Obama has continued. How did that happen?”