That's what one would definitely think at first, but read this:
http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/maga...hp?article=325
Lou Reed:
a Walk on the Wild Side of Tai Chi
by Martha Burr
This is the story of two survivors – one a rock and roll legend, the other a tai chi master. One has survived the mean streets of New York, a career of rock n’ roll. The other came from grinding years of hardship and poverty in rural China, struggling to perfect his art, sleeping in the cold winter streets, surviving the Cultural Revolution and a lonely sea change coming to the new land and new life of America. They are Lou Reed and Ren Guangyi. Together now in NYC they are student and teacher, both masters of their craft, both artists exploring the higher realms of their respective arts, music and Tai Chi Chuan (a.k.a. taijiquan.) With Ren Guangyi as Lou Reed’s tai chi master, it is both a traditional relationship and an untraditional one as well. It is also a journey of friendship, discovery and a mutual love of martial arts.
Lou Reed’s cult status as the godfather of punk, vanguard of the avant-garde, and rock n’ roll survivor has made him the stuff of legend. He was the main force and songwriter of the seminal (and Andy Warhol-produced) band the Velvet Underground whose subject matter and themes changed the course of music forever. Lou Reed rests on no rock n’ roll laurels. This past Halloween he performed at UCLA at a Hal Willner produced Halloween performance-art extravaganza devoted to Poe; he was joined onstage by his teacher Ren Guangyi, who performed tai chi sword with Reed’s musical accompaniment. Reed’s latest CD based on this work was recently released this winter. It is called “The Raven.” He is also active in music and politics, having played for various presidents in various situations and benefits, earning the French Legion of Honor Award and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Long known for a variety of interests from Harleys to photography to electronic music to architecture, Reed’s subsequent passion became kung fu, and specifically tai chi. Having studied since the 1980s in NY with Eagle Claw master Leung Shum whom Reed credits with first firing his interest in tai chi and then haveing the patience to continue teaching him for the next 15 years until Sifu Shum retired. Reed initially began his study there doing the Wu Hao style. About a year ago a friend introduced him to Chen style tai chi chuan, and to Ren Guangyi. When Reed first laid eyes on Chen style, it was love at first sight. Chen had all the intensity of motorcycles and rock n’ roll, but was imbued with intense health, self-defense and philosophical applications that also suited a metaphysical interest.
Reed now studies privately with America’s top tai chi master, Ren Guangyi. Ren himself immigrated from a poor province in Mainland China to New York City a decade ago, surviving in various menial jobs and gradually making his name as top tai chi teacher in the field. Ren’s own rags-to-riches American dream immigrant story has made him a “superstar” of tai chi here in the States, strangely paralleling Lou Reed’s musical superstardom. Together they have an easy friendship, a real camaraderie, a mutual respect, and a drive to perfect their art that forms an intimate connection between them. It is also a great New York story, a tai chi story, an accidental but somehow fated destiny. While Reed is modest about his kung fu and pays traditional deference to his master, his story sets an example for all students of the martial arts. Read on, and discover how an artist becomes a martial artist.