Velvet Underground legend Lou Reed is currently recovering from a liver transplant operaton which took place last month in Cleveland, Ohio, according to his wife Laurie Anderson.

"It's as serious as it gets," Anderson told the London Times about the surgery. "He was dying. You don't get it for fun." The Guardian quoted her account of the process: "You send out two planes -- one for the donor, one for the recipient -- at the same time. You bring the donor in live, you take him off life support. I was completely awestruck. I find certain things about technology truly, deeply inspiring."

This news may help explain why Reed cancelled his scheduled performance at this year's Coachella Festival. Anderson revealed that Reed had the surgery in Cleveland because the hospitals in their New York City hometown are "dysfunctional."

The singer, who's been together with Reed for over 20 years and married to him since 2008, explains that while she doesn't think "he'll ever totally recover from this... he'll certainly be back to doing [things] in a few months. He's already working and doing t'ai chi. I'm very happy. It's a new life for him."