Lou Reed Left $30 Million Fortune to Friends, Family

Lou Reed, the infamous frontman of the American 60’s rock band the Velvet Underground, died on October 27th of last year due to liver disease, months after he received a liver transplant.

He was 71.

Though his influence on musicians today is gargantuan, the Velvet Underground hadn’t nearly achieved the same success as rock bands of that era like Pink Floyd or the Rolling Stones.

But, as Brian Eno put it, though the first Velvet Underground album only sold 30,000 copies in its early years, “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.”

Now it seems that the late musician was actually much more successful than many thought. According to Robert Gotterer, the longtime manager of the Velvet Underground, Reed left behind a $30 million fortune.

In fact, Gotterer has already collected $20,379,169 since he was appointed to oversee Reed’s estate back in November.

Page 6 points out that the $20 million doesn’t include money and other properties, and reportedly $10 million in gifts, that Reed left for his wife, performance artist Laurie Anderson, plus his mother and sister.

Regarding Anderson, Reed left her his $7 million apartment, clothing, cars, boats, and his company, Sister Ray Enterprises.

Much of the funds that Gotterer is currently in charge of are reportedly from Reed’s copyright and publishing interests. Since his death, record sales for Reed’s solo albums, and Velvet Underground albums, have significantly increased, particularly his solo albums Transformer and Berlin, which were named on Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums of all time.

Page 6 reports that $15 million of which will be presented to Anderson as well, with $5 million to go to Reed’s sister, Margaret Reed Weiner of Long Island. He also left her $500,000 to take care of their mother.

We always knew that he was a simple good Jewish boy at heart.