Sue Kerr
Founder and editor, Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents
Aerosmith's 'Dude (Looks Like a Lady)': The Real Story
Posted: 09/03/2013 7:34 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sue-kerr/aerosmith-dude-looks-like-a-lady_b_3848538.htmlSeveral years ago I listened to an interview with Desmond Child, a massively successful songwriter you might not have heard of but whose music you've definitely heard. Desmond is gay and has been openly gay for a long time. He was describing working with Aerosmith on their hit "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)," and something really caught my attention (WARNING: this interview contains an offensive slur for transgender people):
Desmond: ...Because of my success with Bon Jovi, John Kalodner -- the famous John Kalodner, legendary A&R man -- asked me if I would go up to Boston and meet Aerosmith. They had never written with an outside writer, and they were not happy to see me. They were going along with it to please John Kalodner, but they were not that happy about it.
Steven (Tyler) was much more friendly, as he is, and was very generous, really, and showed me a song that they had started called "Cruisin' for the Ladies." I listened to that lyric, and I said, "You know what, that's a very boring title." And they looked at me like, "How dare you?" And then Steven volunteered, sheepishly, and said that when he first wrote the melody he was singing "Dude Looks like a Lady." It was kind of a tongue twister that sounded more like scatting. He got the idea because they had gone to a bar and had seen a girl at the end of the bar with ginormous blonde rock hair, and the girl turned around and it ended up being Vince Neil from Motley Crue. So then they started making fun of him and started saying, "That dude looks like a lady, dude looks like a lady, dude looks like a lady." So that's how that was born. That's the true story of how that was born.
