During a recent appearance on ‘Talk Is Jericho,’ famous songwriter Desmond Child talked about his hit single, ‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady),’ which was a collaboration with Aerosmith in 1987.

The song was co-written by Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry and Desmond. In the interview, Desmond has revealed the story of how the song came through. And also replied to the LGBTQ members who claim that the song is against transgenders.

Here’s what Desmond Child stated:

“Joe was off on the side of the stage where the sound guy was and they were looping a guitar loop, it’s kind of like what they call a boogie-woogie. Then, Steven started singing, ‘Cruisin’ for the ladies.’

And the very first words out of my mouth – and they stopped and looked to me – I said, ‘That’s really bad. I don’t think Van Halen would put that on the B-side of their worst record.’

And I said, ”Cruisin’ for the ladies,’ like, top-down Sunset Strip, that’s the most tired imagery.’ And Joe’s now getting all curled up, arms crossed, looking at me sideways, and Steven, who’s still trying to be nice, ‘Well, when I first started singing that riff, I was singing, ‘Dude looks like a lady.'”

He continued:

“And I go, ‘What?’… ‘Dude looks like a lady.’ Then Joe just interjected and said, ‘Well, we don’t know what that means,’ and I said, ‘Okay, guys, I’m gay, I know what that means, bear with me.’

Little by little, I got them to make a song about this normal dude, you know, working-class dude, that just walks into a bar and sees this gorgeous blonde up on the stage and then goes backstage after the show and then she ‘whips out a gun, tries to blow me away.'”

He also mentioned that the song received criticism from the LGBTQ community, but he claimed that the song is not against any community at all.

Here’s how he continued:

“And the wonderful thing about the song is, especially the second verse which goes, ‘Never judge a book by its cover, or who you’re gonna love by your lover’ – that’s a song of acceptance.

It’s not like he ran away because later he says, ‘My funky lady, I like it, like it, like it, like that,’ so, I mean, sometimes the song’s being criticized by LGBT or whatever it is now, all these different things started adding to the lineup, and sometimes we’ve been criticized that ‘Dude (Looks Like a Lady)’ is kind of an insult to transgender.

Like, ‘No, man, listen to the second verse.’ ‘Never judge a book by its cover, or who you’re gonna love by your lover.’ If that isn’t, like, ‘Open your heart,’ I don’t know what is.

That song helped put them right back on the map, straight to the top and, you know, then we went on from there. We wrote [1987’s] ‘Angel’ and [1993’s] ‘Crazy and [1989’s] ‘What It Takes’… I think I’ve written 20-something songs with them, through the years.”

Click here for the source of the statement.