The Famous Dude of Aerosmith ‘Dude Looks Like a Lady’

For the most part, jokes are only funny if we're not the butt of the joke. In the case of Aerosmith 'Dude Looks Like a Lady' the victim was unintentional... but he was still the victim.

Aerosmith was working with professional songwriters for the first time in their career and they were not happy about it. Desmond Child, one of the top songwriters of the industry was now working with the band. Desmond Child told the story of how the song came about to Songfacts.com. Child said the band was not welcoming but Steven Tyler did offer a song they had been working on called "Cruisin' for the Ladies." Desmond Child again, was not well received when he told them the title was boring.

Steven Tyler admitted that that wasn't the original title. He had written the melody using the lyrics "Dude Looks Like a Lady." In the interview, Child said of Tyler, "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.'"

The lyrics are clever (typical Steven Tyler) but not condescending.

Never judge a book by it's cover
Or who you gonna love by your lover

Vince was not. He was a really good sport about. Desmond Child said in an interview with The Huffington Post that he later told Vince the story and Vince "had a good laugh." Vince also mentions the events in his autobiography.