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Thursday, September 17, 2026

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Watch: Will Hermes dives deep into Lou Reed on Music Book Club

A Rolling Stone editor and professor takes on 'The King of New York' (and the state of music journalism).

Since Music Book Club launched in January in partnership with 48 Hills, we have hosted 13 honestly amazing live author conversations on Zoom, with many more on the way. It was a joy to welcome Will Hermes, author of Lou Reed: The King of New York, a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, a longtime contributor to The New York Times and NPR, a brand-new newsletter publisher, and an adjunct faculty member of the Clive Davis Institute at Tisch/NYU.

Hermes worked on this meticulously researched book on and off for a decade. It’s a true labor of love that’s a pleasure to read and is about much more than the late Lou Reed. We discussed that long process of creation, the conflicting emotions drawn out of the author (and the rest of us) by the subject and his art, and the state of music journalism in 2024. You can watch our conversation via the video below.

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