The Weeknd is a self-proclaimed superfan of American Dad, and in May he guest-starred on the show in an episode he co-wrote with Joel Hurwitz. "A Starboy is Born" saw the "Blinding Lights" singer portray a fictionalized version of himself, but most importantly he played a version of himself that also happens to be a virgin. In an interview with Variety, Hurwitz revealed that he was apprehensive about pitching the idea at first.
In the episode, his character sings a song about maintaining his "purity," and it turns out The Weeknd was immediately on board with the idea because he pitched it to Hurwitz before he had a chance to. "We thought the original song should play against The Weeknd’s brand," Hurwitz explained. "One day in the room, I wrote 'Weeknd is Virgin' on the board. I instantly regretted it. I was crying from laughing so hard, but I still didn’t know Abel that well. I thought it would offend him."
Despite worrying the idea would offend The Weeknd, Hurwitz was thankful to find out that he thought the idea was funny. "Like, asking The Weeknd to call himself a virgin isn’t quirky—it would straight up damage The Weeknd’s image if the episode sucks," he added. "So I didn’t pitch the virgin idea. Then that night, Abel called me and said 'Hey, what if I was a virgin?'"
Chiming in, The Weeknd gave a shout-out Asa Taccoone, who co-wrote the song with him. He said that Taccoone is "a fucking genius producer/writer," and that he will "definitely" be collaborating with him "in the future."
