In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2000, a new collaboration with Robert Wilson called Poe-Try was staged at the Thalia Theater in Germany. As with the previous collaboration Time Rocker, Poe-Try was also inspired by the works of a 19th century writer: Edgar Allan Poe. Lou became obsessed with Poe after producer and long-time friend Hal Willner had suggested him to read some of Poe's text at a Halloween benefit he was curating at St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn.[17] For this new collaboration with Robert Willson, Lou Reed reworked and even rewrote some of Poe's text as well as included some new songs based on the theme explored in the texts. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001 the New York Times published a Lou Reed poem called "Laurie sadly listening" in which he reflects upon the events of 9/11.

Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of an overdose. In 2003, he released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on "Poe-Try". Besides Lou Reed and his band (guitarist Mike Rathke, bassist Fernando Saunders and drummer Tony "Thunder" Smith), the album featured a wide range of actors and musicians including singers David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, Kate McGarrigle & Anna McGarrigle, The Blind Boys of Alabama and Antony Hegarty, saxophonist and long-time idol Ornette Coleman, and actors Elizabeth Ashley, Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe, Amanda Plummer, Fisher Stevens and Kate Valk. The album consisted of songs written by Reed and spoken word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by the actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. At the same time a 1-CD version of the albums, focusing on the music, was also released.

A few months after the release of The Raven, a new 2-CD Best Of-set called NYC Man (The Ultimate Collection 1967-2003), which featured an unreleased version of the song "Who am I" and a selection of career spanning tracks that had been selected, remastered and sequenced under Lou's own supervision. In April 2003, Lou Reed embarked on a new world tour supporting both new and released material, with a band including celliste Jane Scarpantoni and singer Antony Hegarty. During some of the concerts for this tour, the band was joined by Master Ren Guangyi, Lou's personal Tai Chi instructor, performing Tai Chi movements to the music on stage. This tour was documented in the 2004 double disc live album Animal Serenade, recorded live at The Wiltern in Los Angeles.

2003 also saw the release of Lou's first book of photographs, called Emotions in Action. This work actually was made up out of 2 books, a larger A4-paper sized called "Emotions" and a smaller one called "Actions" which was laid into the hard cover of the former. After Hours: a Tribute to the Music of Lou Reed was released by Wampus Multimedia in 2003. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song, "Satellite of Love" (called "Satellite of Love '04") was released. It reached #10 in the UK singles chart. Also in 2004, Lou Reed contributed vocals and guitar to the track "Fistful of love" on I Am a Bird Now by Antony and the Johnsons. In 2005, Reed did a spoken word text on Danish rock band Kashmir's album No Balance Palace.

In January 2006, a second book of photographs called "Lou Reed's New York" was released. At the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, Reed performed "White Light/White Heat" with The Raconteurs. Later in the night, while co-presenting the award for Best Rock Video with Pink, he exclaimed, apparently unscripted, that "MTV should be playing more rock n' roll".

In October 2006, Lou Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far For Beauty" in Dublin, beside the cast of Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Antony, Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton, and others. According to the reports, he transformed Cohen's "The Stranger Song" into metal rock[20]. He also performed "One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong" and two duets - "Joan of Arc", Cohen's song about Nico, with Cohen's former back-up singer Julie Christensen, thus re-casting Cohen's duet with her from 1994 Cohen Live album, and "Memories" - which also refers to Nico - in a duet with Anjani Thomas. The tracks are available on unofficial recordings made by Cohen fans.

In December 2006, much to everyone's surprise, Lou Reed played a first series of show at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, New York, based on his now legendary 1973 Berlin song cycle. Reed was reunited on stage with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album as well as on Rock 'n' Roll Animal, as well as joined by singers Antony Hegarty and Sharon Jones, pianist Rupert Christie, a horn and string section and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The show was being produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The stage was designed by painter Julian Schnabel and a film about protagonist 'Caroline' directed by his daughter, Lola Schnabel, was being projected to the stage. A live recording of these concerts was also published as a film (directed by Julian Schnabel) which was released spring 2008. The show was also played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and throughout Europe during June and July 2007. The album of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, is due to be released in fall 2008.

In April 2007, he released 'Hudson River Wind Meditations', his first record of ambient meditation music. The record was released on the Sounds True record label and contains four tracks that were said to have been composed just for himself as a guidance for Tai Chi exercise and meditation. In May 2007 Reed performed the narration for a screening of Guy Maddin's silent film The Brand Upon the Brain. In June 2007, he performed live at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the town.

In August 2007, Reed went into the studio with The Killers in New York City to record 'Tranquilize', a duet with Brandon Flowers for The Killers' b-side/rarities album, called Sawdust. During that month, he also recorded guitar for the Lucibel Crater song 'Threadbare Funeral', which appears on their full-length CD The Family Album. In October 2007, Lou Reed gave a special performance in the Recitement song 'Passengers'. 'Recitement' is a CD that combines music with spoken word. The album was composed by Stephen Emmer and produced by Tony Visconti. Holland central was inspired by this piece of music and literature, which spawned a concept for a music video.

On April 12, 2008, Lou Reed married longtime companion Laurie Anderson in a private ceremony in Boulder, Colorado.

Source: Lou Reed - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia