In a new biography by Howard Sounes, the British author who has also released bios on Bob Dylan (2001’s Down The Highway) and Paul McCartney (2010’s Fab), multiple interviews with those close to the late Lou Reed reveal an even grittier side to the already controversial life and times of the legendary rocker. 

Notes from the Velvet Underground: The Life of Lou Reed details Reed’s music career and personal life through over 140 interviews with friends and colleagues, as The Daily Beast points out, and some of those accounts color a dark picture of Reed’s relationship with women. Bettye Kronstad was married to Reed in 1973 and came on tour with the musician. She recounts their sometimes violent relationship, saying, “He would, like, pin you up against a wall. And then one time he actually gave me a black eye.” 

This and other interviews reveal a pattern of behavior, which even spilled over to Reed professional relationships, notably a physical spat with David Bowie. The singer also reportedly called Bob Dylan a “pretentious kike.” Sounes notes Reed’s mental issues, including bipolar disorder and multiple depressive episodes, in his conclusion about the singer’s often contentious relationships with many of those close to him. It certainly wasn’t a one-off interview that told the story. “The word that kept coming up was prick,” Sounes tells The Daily Beast. “Girlfriends called him a prick, people he was at school with called him a prick; people in his band called him a prick.”

Sounes’ book is out October 22 via Transworld Digital. Two other biographies on Reed, one by Relix contributor Anthony DeCurtis and one by Rolling Stone‘s Will Hermes, are in the works as well.