Lou Reed, the man who helped shape the music industry, has died at the age of 71.

Rolling Stone reports that Reed died today. The cause of death has not yet been disclosed, by the veteran rocker underwent a liver transplant in May.



Best known as the founder, guitarist and lead singer/songwriter of 1960s band The Velvet Underground, the star went on to have an illustrious solo career, with hits such as 'Walk On The Wild Side.'

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Rocker: Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground were part of 1960s New York's thriving artistic scene

Reed died in Southampton, New York of an ailment related to his recent liver transplant, according to his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, who added that Reed had been in frail health for months. Reed shared a home in Southampton with his wife and fellow musician, Laurie Anderson, whom he married in 2008.

The punk, New Wave and alternative rock movements of the 1970s, `80s and `90s were all indebted to Reed, whose songs were covered by R.E.M., Nirvana, Patti Smith and countless others.

Many celebrities, both fans and friends, took to Twitter to express their grief at Reed's passing.



Okkervil River tweeted, 'Lou Reed might have been the single biggest influence on my music and his encouragement changed my life. I'm devastated.'

'R.I.P. Lou Reed and thank you and the Velvets. U were my inspiration in the '70s, 4 without you there would have been no punk rock!' tweeted Billy Idol.

Writer and chef Anthony Bourdain wrote, '“heavenly wine and roses…seem to whisper to me….when you smile ..” RIP Lou Reed.'

'@loureed my grumpy uncle joe this is so sad, "berlin" will always be the most beloved of the beloved,' wrote Courtney Love.

Seminal: The Velvet Underground (pictured in 1970) were (left to right) Sterling Morrison, Lou Reed, Maureen 'Moe' Tucker and Doug Yule

Pop scene: Artist Andy Warhol with Lou Reed in New York City

Author Salman Rushdie wrote, 'My friend Lou Reed came to the end of his song. So very sad. But hey, Lou, you'll always take a walk on the wild side. Always a perfect day.'

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea wrote, 'I love Lou reed so much. Always.'



'R.I.P. Lou Reed. Just met at the GQ Awards. The music of my generation. Still Relevant!' wrote actor Samuel L Jackson.

Born Lewis Allan Reed in Brooklyn, New York in 1942, Lou Reed grew up in Freeport, Long Island.

He developed an ear for rhythm and blues, forming several bands while still in high school after teaching himself to play guitar simply by listening to the radio.

Hard rock: Lou Reed outside a Hard Rock Cafe in London

Heady days: A made-up Lou Reed performs with Ray Colcord on keyboards at Crystal Palace Bowl in London Top billing: Lou Reed (second left) with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Leslie West at the Beacon Theater in New York, 1974

Icons: Lou Reed with The Pretenders' Chrissy Hynde in 1989

Reed was one of rock's archetypal tough guys, but he grew up middle class - an accountant's son raised on Long Island. Reed was born to be a suburban dropout. He hated school, loved rock n' roll, fought with his parents and attacked them in song for forcing him to undergo electroshock therapy as a supposed 'cure' for being bisexual.



'Families that live out in the suburbs often make each other cry,' he later wrote.



Reed introduced avant garde rock to mainstream music and has been credited as having a significant impact on American culture.

He never approached the commercial success of such superstars as the Beatles and Bob Dylan, but no songwriter to emerge after Dylan so radically expanded the territory of rock lyrics.



And no band did more than the Velvet Underground to open rock music to the avant-garde - to experimental theater, art, literature and film, to William Burroughs and Kurt Weill, to John Cage and Andy Warhol, Reed's early patron.

Wild side: Lou Reed pictured with singer-songwriter Garland Jeffries in New York, 1977

Solo: Lou Reed (pictured in 1982) launched a solo career in the early 70s that would span decades

Warhol incorporated the Velvet Underground's music into his Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia events, with Reed revealing that Andy would 'show his movies on us'.

'We wore black so you could see the movie. But we were all wearing black anyway,' he explained.

Honored: The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 by Patti Smith

'I was just writing down everything that was going on around me,' he says of his songwriting process during that period. 'And look where I was - I was next to the greatest artist of the 20th century. Not that I knew that at the time.'

The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1996.

'I always thought we were easily the most sophisticated, articulate group in the world,' Reed stated. 'We didn't get to keep going because of strife. But there was no one near us - to this day.

'If you look note by note, word by word, subject by subject, my idea was essentially: What would happen if you had the lyrics of Tennessee Williams or William Burroughs and you put it in a rock context? That was my idea, and I was trying to write up to that.'

As a songwriter, Reed broke new ground by writing songs about taboo subjects as S&M, transvestites and transsexuals, prostitution, and drug addiction.



Following his departure from The Velvet Underground in 1970, Reed began a solo career that would span several decades.

He collaborated with many artists over the course of his career, including David Bowie, Antony and the Johnsons and Kate McGarrigle.'

Reviewing Reed's 1989 topical album 'New York,' Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote that 'the pleasure of the lyrics is mostly tone and delivery - plus the impulse they validate, their affirmation that you can write songs about this stuff. Protesting, elegizing, carping, waxing sarcastic, forcing jokes, stating facts, garbling what he just read in the Times, free-associating to doomsday, Lou carries on a New York conversation - all that's missing is a disquisition on real estate.'

Reed's New York was a jaded city of drag queens, drug addicts and violence, but it was also as wondrous as any Allen comedy, with so many of Reed's songs explorations of right and wrong and quests for transcendence.

