Looking back at Lou Reed's interviews throws up many uncomfortable moments: monosyllabic answers, irritability, awkward silences, personal abuse.

The iconic New York musician, who has died at the age of 71, was notorious for leaving reporters with battle scars.

Some had been thrust into an interview they weren't quite ready for, and some were lifelong fans who apparently caught him on a bad day. Some just plain deserved it.

1. Up close and personal with Australian reporters - 1974

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2. 'What's the matter with you, lady?'

Australia was treated to another awkward Lou Reed moment 21 years later, when Rachel Kerr spoke with him on the phone for triplej. He didn't wait for her to hang up first.

3. Journalists 'the lowest form of life'

Niklas Kallner, an extremely nervous Swedish TV reporter sent to interview one of the most notoriously prickly rock stars ever to plug in a Telecaster, says it was years before he was able to watch this interview again.

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4. He didn’t like TV much either.

Asked by 7.30's Geoff Hutchinson in 2000 whether there was still authenticity in the music industry:

"It's funny having someone from TV ask that question; it's the lowest medium there is. Look what's on it. Garbage."

5. He had an ‘editorial asshole of the month’ section on his site.

The section itself is gone, but a Lou Reed fan club site quotes his "disgust" at a Filter journalist's "English know-it-all attitude". Time Out, he says, has a "woebegone attempt to woo young readers by being as crude and nasty as possible towards their betters". A German journalist's question: "Are you happy?" was "stupid and pointless".

While promoting The Raven he vented to an NPR host, who wanted to know how other journalists had somehow mixed up Reed's original lyrics with the writings of Edgar Allan Poe.

"Well, if you're deaf, dumb and retarded, it's easy. I can't believe people interview me for this stuff and don't notice. I grade them and I put them on my website when they fail really badly, to warn other people, other musicians: 'Watch out for this interviewer.' It's like talking to a squirrel."

In the end, the number of stupid journalists became overwhelming:

6. Marc Riley, 'are you serious?'

Music journalist Marc Riley has two Lou Reed stories. The first is a heart-warming tale of returning an old award to the rocker and receiving a grateful phone call. The second is about an interview for 6 Music, focusing on the album Berlin:

Eventually he started the interview. So I asked him, 'How did this seed of one song from your first album grow into this big concept album?' And he just said, 'Are you serious?' And inwardly I just went, 'Oh God.' And in the end I just had to say to him, 'I think we're done aren't we?' And he said, 'Yeah, I think we're done.' It lasted about seven or eight minutes. It was a nightmare.

7. 'Why are you being so horrible?'

This classic encounter between Reed and the Guardian's Simon Hattenstone in 2003 has many uncomfortable moments. The interviewer, a big fan, enters into the conversation aware of Reed's reputation but convinced he can win him over. Wrong.

Reed makes me feel like an amoeba. I want to cry. Look, I was a huge fan of yours, I say. " Was ?" he sneers. I still am, I say, but I'm less sure by the second.

8. Marc Spitz: "Hello? Lou?"

Vanity Fair's Marc Spitz had to interview Reed and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich about their 2011 collaboration Lulu. The latter interview went swimmingly; the former, not so much:

Q: You sound like you don’t even care what anyone thinks of it.

A: I really don’t.

Q: So why do press about it at all?

A: Well, we don’t have to do any—

[Click.]

Q: Hello? Lou?

9. Melinda Newman's scariest interview

Melinda Newman felt like she was "being thrown into the deep end of the pool" when she was assigned an interview with Reed while working for Billboard magazine. She says it was the most scared she's ever been before an interview:

I remember sweating in the taxi ride down from Billboard's Times Square office because I was so nervous. So now I was worried about making a fool of myself and about sweating on a cranky legend.

But the lead-up to the chat was the most painful part of it. He was a "pussy cat".

He was downright sweet and, here's a word you don't hear said about him much, warm. I remember at one point we were laughing over something he said and I almost had an out-of-body experience.

10. Who are you talking to that's so stupid?

David Marchese was at the receiving end of some pretty blunt responses when he interviewed Reed for SPIN.

I followed up my one big hit with Berlin; Berlin has got this rap that it's depressing. Are you joking me? You can't handle it? You ever read Hamlet? Who are you talking to that's so stupid? Are you joking? You're kidding me.

But Marchese has updated his story today, with this summary of Reed's character and motivation: