Updated, 12:30 p.m. ET: Lou Reed is recovering after receiving a liver transplant last month, the Guardian reports. Reed's wife, musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson, recently spoke about his health troubles in an interview with the Times of London, saying, "It's as serious as it gets. He was dying. You don't get it for fun."

The 71-year-old former Velvet Underground frontman had been due to play at Coachella in April, but had cancelled the dates along with a few other performances in California. At the time of the cancellation in March, the only explanation given by one of the venues was "unavoidable complications."



Lou Reed Joins Metric Onstage at Radio City Music Hall

"I don't think he'll ever totally recover from this, but he'll certainly be back to doing [things] in a few months," Anderson told the Times. "He's already working and doing t'ai chi. I'm very happy. It's a new life for him."

On Saturday, Reed posted a message on his Facebook page: "I am a triumph of modern medicine, physics and chemistry. I am bigger and stronger than stronger than ever. My Chen Taiji and health regimen has served me well all of these years, thanks to Master Ren Guang-yi. I look forward to being on stage performing, and writing more songs to connect with your hearts and spirits and the universe well into the future."

Anderson said that Reed had the surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio instead of his New York hometown because of the "dysfunctional" state of hospitals in New York.