Lou Reed died on Sunday morning "looking at the trees and doing the famous 21 form of tai chi with just his musician hands moving through the air," his widow has revealed.
Fellow artist and musician Laurie Anderson penned an obituary for her late husband for her local newspaper, in which she described the veteran music-maker's final days in the Springs, New York home they shared.
Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson were longtime partners, and married in 2008
"Lou was a tai chi master and spent his last days here being happy and dazzled by the beauty and power and softness of nature,” Anderson wrote.
She added:
"What a beautiful fall! Everything shimmering and golden and all that incredible soft light. Water surrounding us.
Lou and I have spent a lot of time here in the past few years, and even though we’re city people this is our spiritual home.
Last week I promised Lou to get him out of the hospital and come home to Springs. And we made it!
Lou was a prince and a fighter and I know his songs of the pain and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life. Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us."
Anderson signed the piece, "his loving wife and eternal friend."
Lou Reed died of liver disease, aged 71. Funeral plans have yet to be announced for the pioneer who, with the Velvet Underground, helped define the sound of a generation, and for whom tributes have been pouring in this week from fellow artists and fans around the world.