J.D. Slater - The Man Behind the Music - Part 1…

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There are few people who rise to the top n any industry, and even less in the adult world. Often, they are mega-personalities that are the result of created personas, or victims of publicity from their public antics. In this case, we get to have a rare look into the life of someone who fits neither of those profiles.

What we have here is a man of humility that has worked his way through the adult industry honing his craft, and finding a niche which has allowed him to bring forth an expression of his soul – his music.

If you haven’t heard of JD Slater - that’s not a bad thing. JD hasn’t been spending his time promoting himself like a mega-porn personality. He has been working passionately, and what has resulted is a body of work of which he is proud. And pride-worthy it is. JD’s work has a signature to it. And his music has revealed the true expression of his being.

While JD has had many interviews, all of which can be read on his website (JDSlater.com), none has been as personal and intimate as the time he spent with GayPornSpace. JD opens up in a way that invites you into the most private parts of his creative soul.

This is but the first part of the interview. After reviewing the interview notes, there were almost 30 pages of transcript. Most interviews can be substantially shortened given the amount of fluff you have to go through to get to the meat of any story. In this case, JD didn’t hold back, so it was a matter of finding a way to share everything, and capturing it in a way that you can truly discover the man.

In addition to this, I highly suggest that you read the articles on his website. Much of the information there is good background. I tried not to cross-over to the obvious, but build on what was already known about JD. So go to his site (JDSlater.com) and check out the existing articles. Then sit back and get to know the real JD Slater.

Currently JD Slater has a new album available entitled Naked. Oddly, it’s not about nudity, but rather an honest expose of his soul. Slater bares himself musically going into territory that is not normally availed to him. In the opening cut, Desert Hymn, you are taken by surprise with ethnic themes. There is a hypnotic quality that you almost immediately surrender to. The CD continues to seduce you with textures and layers of meditative themes. One of my favorite tracks, Manticore is so lush that I drifted away (when I should have been working - and that's saying a lot as I am a very “type A” kind of guy).

The tone of the album shifts with Hussein - almost like a rich wake up call. Think of the ending to a good massage where the therapist uses gentle scented oils to bring you out of a trance.

The CD ends with a fresh awakening called Sunrise. I can easily imagine listening to this CD while watching a sunset along the coastline. Its therapeutic tone cleanses you of stress, and awakens you with fresh energy at the end. It’s a great piece of work. If you have a copy of the CD, take a moment and hit play, and let’s begin with our exploration into the heart and soul of JD Slater…

GPS – So you made it to the half-century mark, you're 50 this year.

JD - Yes. If anyone would have bet me, I would have said I'd never have made it to 40.

GPS – Did you find that the year 2000 was like a big thing?

JD – Um… It was very odd. I never expected to see it. And then when it came, I was like, “Hello? Okay.”

GPS – Yeah, now what do we do?

JD – Exactly! I opened the door and there was no Messiah (laughs).

GPS – Kind of disappointing that the aliens didn’t come.

JD – The aliens didn’t come, the computers didn’t crash, we didn’t get plunged back into the stone-age. I was looking forward to that.

GPS – (laughs) A little Fred and Barney action.

JD – It was sure anticlimactic.

GPS – Absolutely. What month were you born?

JD –September, I’m a Libra.

GPS – Ah…do you give any credence to the stars and their thing?

JD – All the founding members of Raging Stallion are Libras. Yeah, Chris and I are born exactly 5 days and 5 months apart…

GPS – How did you guys meet?

JD – We lived 5 blocks apart. We met, not because we were such close neighbors. we met due to another friend of mine from Dallas who met Chris at IML 7 1/2 years ago.

GPS – How long were you into the whole leather thing?

JD – Since I came out.

GPS – When was that?

JD – 1976. I was lucky…I was in New York City.

GPS – What did your parents think? When did they find out?

JD – 2 years later. It wasn’t a big deal.

GPS – That’s a blessing.

JD – It wasn’t a big deal…my mother tended to ignore stuff she didn’t want to deal with, and, my father and I hadn’t been tremendously close when I was younger. Oddly after that, we became closer. It was sort of strange.

Now my entire discussion with my father about me being gay happened out one night. I was with lover #3, who was a rather famous painter. We spent almost our entire relationship traveling around the world. We were back in NY, after a few months of traveling. My father never ever called me…ever. And the phone rang, and it was my father and, he’s an Irish immigrant, and he said, “Hello Johnny!” I could tell that he’d been drinking a little bit and I said, (hesitantly) “Hi, Dad! What’s up?” thinking something was wrong. And he said, “Oh, nothing, nothing, I was just calling to say hi, how’re ya doin’?”

I was in my dressing room in the apartment, staring, deciding which fur I was taking to Aspen…and Dad says, “So, how are things going?” So, I looked at the clothes from Acapulco and the jewelry I was putting away from Acapulco and looking at the furs that were going out for Aspen, and the jewelry going out to Aspen and I just said, “Gee dad! I’m doing Fucking fabulous! How are you?” (laughs) He said, “Johnny, Johnny, Johnny! I had a question for you.” I said, “What is it?” He said, “I was wondering’…are you happy?” And I said, “Yeah, Dad, I’m extremely happy.” And he said, “No, no, no, no, no…and you HAPPY?” And it dawns on me that he can’t think of the word “gay,”

GPS - That's a revelation

JD - and so I said, “Yes, dad, I’m happy.” “Ya sure? And Gustavo?” And I said, “Gustavo’s VERY happy.” (laughs) And he says, “And?” And I said, “And all of the men that I’ve brought to the house for the past four years are happy.” And he said, “Ah…that’s a nice group of boys.” Yeah, “That’s it! Have a good night!” And that was it! That was the entire extent to our conversation.

GPS – That's pretty amazing! (Shifting the conversation). You were raised Catholic, right?

JD – Oh God, yeah.

GPS - Did you go to private school?

JD – Yeah.

GPS – You know I had a similar experience. I was wondering if you remembered anything from that generation that we shared that was uniquely Catholic dominant, nun type stuff.

JD – Oh god yeah…no, I had some of the meanest nuns in the world. And um, when I was in eighth grade, um, we had this one Sister, she must have been a thousand years old. I have three older sisters that are 15, 14 and 13 years older than me and they had all had her, and she was ancient THEN!

GPS – Did she have that thing on her head that made her look like she could fly?

JD – No, no, no…she didn’t have the Flying Nun head gear. She just had one of the regular nuns - normal clothes. And uh, tiny, tiny little woman and on her desk, she always kept…do you remember those windup alarm clocks with the bells on top?

GPS – Oh Yeah.

JD – She always kept three of those on her desk.

GPS – Three?

JD – And the woman had an arm like Sandy Kofax. And she could hit anyone in the room straight on with the damn thing. One day, we were getting ready for a test or something and I asked the kid next to me for a pencil. And, suddenly you hear the whistling through the air and I get hit in the head with the alarm clock. It hits me right above the eye and it starts to bleed. She comes running down the aisle to smack me up and, I had gone through a growth spurt that year so I was bigger than her, and I stood up in the middle of the aisle and she came running down towards me and I grabbed her by the shoulders and swung her back down the aisle until she smacked into the blackboard. And she just slid down to the ground and I walked up, and she started screaming, and I stepped on her neck and I said, “Shut the hell up, bitch!” (laughs)

GPS – There you go! Well, you know when you get hit in the head with a clock that will do that to you!

JD – And um, I went back to my desk, packed up my schoolbooks and walked out.

GPS – After that, did you go to private high school or public?

JD – Mostly private high schools. My parents were bound and determined to see me going, so I went to Regis, which is the hardest high school in the world to get into… It was a Jesuit high school and THE hardest high school in the world to get into. Every year they get 6000 applications for the entrance exam, out of that they pick 150. And out of the 150, they only bring in 50.

And what you do for your entrance exam is you sit down at this desk and they hand you the entrance exams to Harvard and Yale and Stanford and all this other stuff. And you have to sit there and go through this stack of entrance exams. The one nice thing about the mean, old nun was that she had a record of having the most kids make it into the good school. And all we did for the last half of the year was sit down and do entrance exams.

GPS – You know, I think there’s a double-edged sword to that private education, in that, while it was very disciplined, we did get great schooling.

JD – Yes, so I not only finished the entire stack before lunch, and, because they gave you a lunch break, I finished the entire stack before lunch. I remember going up and handing it to the priest and they said, “You can't leave before you finish." And I said, No, I’m done.” And he said, “You can’t be done. You’ve only been working on this for three hours, this is an eight hour test.” And I said, “No, I’m done!" I had broken the school record for time and had the highest score in the school’s history. I skipped a grade in grammar school so, then started Regis, and went from Regis to Chaminade. And from there to Loyola, and then to St. Dominic’s.

GPS – Loyola where? Chicago?

JD – No, no, New York.

GPS - When you were growing up, what community were you raised in?

JD – When I was younger, we were on Long Island - which was a very, very wealthy community. My father was an estate supervisor. He had originally been a jockey. And uh, my father was only 4’11 wee, tiny, little bit of a man.

GPS – Was your mom a “giantess?” (Harry Potter reference)

JD – No, no! My mother was a half an inch taller!

GPS – Wow! What happened to you?

JD – I am to this day convinced there was a horrible, horrible mistake at the hospital because I came from short, fat, ugly people (laughs).

GPS – And now you’re a dominant force in the leather community.

JD – (laughing) Yeah, that’s it.

GPS – When you think back to your childhood, growing up, you know I remember my first memory was kinda stumbling down the sidewalk smelling the fresh cut grass. What’s the first memory you have of your childhood?

JD –Horses.

GPS – Really?

JD – Horses. We had about a dozen horses on the estate. My father started putting me on horses when I was about 3. And that’s the first memories I have…being put on top of this gigantic animal! (laughte)

GPS - Espcially at that age, they’re like so huge!

JD – Yeah, they were gigantic! They didn’t put me on a pony, they put me on a big ass horse! And it’s funny, it looks like I’m a small package of potatoes on top of the horse.

GPS – What did you study in college?

JD – Clinical psychology, English, fine art, and theology.

GPS – That’s an interesting mix! You degree'd in Psychology didn’t you?

JD – Yes

GPS - Did you pursue anything with that or did you just find it as a good something to get you through life?

JD – It’s come in very, very handy with directing and just dealing with people in general. But, no, I never really did anything with it.

GPS – What was the first job you had whether it be at age 15, 12, 17 or whatever? What was the first memorable job you had?

JD – First job? I was always going to school. I didn’t work when I was in school and I went to school straight on scholarships so I didn’t have to work. And, I did other things for money, but we won’t discuss that (laughter). But, my first major job was right after I came out. I started off as a sound guy, I played in bands all the way through school, and started off in sound, then became Technical Director for the ensemble studio theatres in NY.

GPS – So it’s interesting having a background as a musician and an understanding of the technical side.

JD – My older sister married a guy who owned a recording studio and I spent a lot of time down there. That’s where my interest in the technical end of it came in.

GPS - Now, this is way back when they had big tape machines running at 15ips?

JD – Oh God, yeah. His studio was the studio where they recorded “Leader of the Pack.” It was wild! It was amazing! Most of those concerts were recorded at his studio and so I was at all of those shows. You would be like one of 40 people crammed into this tiny, little studio and you’d be like sitting on Fleetwood Mac’s lap.

GPS –What was your favorite experience in that room? Something that really changed your life?

JD – Let me think….uh…probably the Grateful Dead. The Dead didn’t stop playing. They just wouldn’t stop playing.

GPS – And they rolled tape through the whole thing?

JD – Yeah, they did, and the place was packed. We got in a couple of minutes late, just as they were starting…we had to sit right up in the very front, so I had to sit with my knees crossed in such a way where I wasn’t blocking Jerry Garcia’s guitar pedals. I sat there all night with like Jerry Garcia sweating on me just watching his fingers on the guitar.

GPS – Yeah, I would have kept that shirt in a bag for the rest of my life. Tell me something, when did music first come into your life? How old were you?

JD – When the Beatles came out. '62.

GPS – ’62…Ed Sullivan! Did you see that show?

JD – Oh, God yeah.

GPS – What did your dad say that night?

JD – My father got up and walked out of the room. “Nah, this doesn’t interest me.” And he got up and did something else.

GPS – I think he went to grab a beer with my dad.

JD – (laughing) Probably!

GPS – What did that evening mean to you?

JD – It changed music for me. I was like, “Whoa! I didn’t know they could do that!”

GPS – Had you been playing an instrument at that point?

JD – No.

GPS – What was the first instrument that you picked up?

JD – Guitar.

GPS - And what other instruments do you play?

JD – Some keyboards, bass, drums, some stuff like that. But, I’m bad at it, I’m a really bad musician.

GPS – Are you self taught?

JD – I took some lessons, but the rest of it’s mostly self taught.

GPS – What did you think of the teachers you had?

JD – The first guitar teacher I had was a complete idiot. Most of the one’s after that…I mostly took lessons in large classes, I never took private lessons. The teachers’ just never clicked with me. I understood more about where the music was coming from than they did. And that was pretty clear from the start.

GPS – So, you thought they were being intellectual about it and you were being spiritual?

JD – Yeah, I was always going for the feeling and they were like, “No, no, no, this way, and this way, and this way” And I was like, “Why?” “And you can’t mix this with that.” And I thought, “Of course you can. That’s why they put all the strings there!” (laughs)

GPS – That’s pretty funny. I’ve always, you know, come from the Eastern thinking to do something right, you have to be it.

JD – Yeah. But, most of the time in the bands, I was just the singer. I was a crappy musician and as I got older, I just got crappier because I broke my right hand three times and my left one twice.

GPS - And you did this for fun?

JD – No, no, no, no…I did them in fist fights - I was a bouncer for a club in Manhattan. I got stabbed once actually at that job.

GPS – What year was that?

JD – 1976.

GPS – That was before the wild ‘80s!

JD – Yeah. I was doorman at a club in NY which was the world’s largest drag bar. Massive, massive, massive club. We had 2 cabarets, 2 discothèques, a trapeze artist over the dance floor of one of the discothèques, 16 bars, a bar staff of 80, cabaret and entertainer staff of 115. Heavily Mafioso. Heavily, heavily, heavily Mafioso.

GPS – Well, that’s the only way it’d work with that kind of budget.

JD – Yeah. They loved me because I was this nice, innocent Irish-Catholic kid who didn’t look gay. And, so when I wasn’t working at the club, the owner’s wife needed to go to a Broadway show or something like that and he didn’t want to go, I was the one they sent. Or if his daughter had to be taken to a dance or something like that, I was the one they sent 'cause they knew I was safe.

GPS – That is hilarious. That’s quite a little piece of history right there. What do you recall of NY at that time besides that?

JD – NY was very exciting. Everybody was discovering everything at that moment. Gay had just become the new black. And basically, all you really had to do to have a fabulous life was to be somewhat good looking and gay. And people came along and handed you amazing careers. When I was 23, I was one of the editors of Blueboy Magazine, which at that time was the biggest gay magazine in the world. I was the guy in charge of the "what’s now and happening" stuff. They didn’t have a huge presence, so you ended up writing most of the articles yourself, so, I was the guy telling people what to wear, what’s hip, what shows to go to, what clubs were good…it gave you a ton of valor…as you were basically the style-maker. I had been gay for what seemed like 20 minutes at that time, and I’m telling everybody else how to do it. Then, I met lover #3 and we started traveling a lot so I went down to Associate Editor so I could travel with him. Mostly travel pieces…gay around the world and stuff like that.

GPS - I was thinking musically, as we grow older, sometimes we start to appreciate things that we used to hate…like I used to hate country western, and now I kind of understand it a little bit better. Obviously we know the music that you create today…and I know the list of music that’s inspired you, but what kind of things do you like or appreciate now that you used to hate or grown to understand better?

JD – It was very odd…at 11, I was listening to jazz…I was probably the only 11 year old that was actively listening to John Coltrane or Miles Davis. I had a country thing for a while. But, uh, all music made sense to me. Music and physics were the two things that always made sense to me…everything else I found a little confusing.

GPS – Music as they say… a genius is a mathematician type of person and music flows out of that genius, so do you think that that ties into your music appreciation?

JD – Oh, yeah. Definitely. And music is math…that’s the only way I can...I write as fast as I do because suddenly it becomes complete math to me. I don’t know if I can explain the algorithms that run through my head as I’m writing, but I can lay out 140 tracks and stop listening to them and start placing them in and out as I need them.

GPS – Do you hear it in your head before you start the work?

JD – Oh, yeah. I’ve written songs in less time than it actually takes to play the song.

GPS – So, it sort of like you have to get it out of you before you forget a nuance or a subtlety?

JD – Yeah. I know where they start but where they go is anybody’s guess…I just go with it.

GPS – On an esoteric level of physics, what do you think about the concept of time – past, present and future?

JD – Well, time is just an effect of gravity. I think you sort of live in all times all the time. At any point you can reach back or reach forward.

GPS – Interesting. Who, what group motivates you as of late?

JD – The one that probably predominated my music is U2.

GPS – What do you think of Bono’s politics?

JD – I love Bono. Bono should be President. They should have made Bono Pope. (laughs)

GPS – Well, anyone’s better than the one we’ve got.

JD – Exactly. Bono or the Nazi? Let’s see?

GPS – (laughs) Tough choice.

JD – I find most of the answers to the questions in life are included somewhere in U2 songs.

GPS – I personally love their very early stuff. To me, it was amazing before they became a commercial success. It seems like every other album they throw caution to the wind and do something off the hook.

JD – They’re astonishing in concert. I’ve seen them more times in concert than I care to admit. They’re sort of religious experiences for me.

GPS – Now, interestingly enough, most of the musical and entertainment community is not very fond of the current political administration, and Bono found an amazing way to bridge that achieve some amazing results with George Bush.

JD – And still make his point very clear. Did you see his last tour?

GPS – No, I did not.

JD – During the Auchtung Baby tour, when George Bush Sr. was in the White House, every night in the middle of the show, Bono would pull out a portable phone and call the White House. About halfway through the tour, the White House got tired of ignoring him and George Bush would actually answer occasionally. Bush answered. “Hi Bono…how are you doing this evening?” And the crowd would go nuts and stuff like that. This tour, about halfway through the show, they had them turn on all the lights in the stadium and said, “I want to see all the cell phones in the house.” And the stadium lit up with cell phones. And on the screen they flashed a number for them to text. And they said, “Everyone text this number right now. Punch in this number. Okay, you’ve all just texted Congress.”

GPS – That’s awesome!

JD – His politics and his ability to get an entire audience in on his politics and not being threatened by it was probably one of the most incredible things I’ve ever watched.

GPS – Yeah, it’s not angry, it’s just “Here’s what we need to do.”

JD – Yeah. It isn’t born out of anger. It isn’t born out of a negative space. It’s born out of the fact that if you just try hard enough, you can make things happen. You can effect change, and it doesn’t have to be a violent act.

GPS –On a planetary level, what would you like to see happen in out lifetime?

JD – I would like to go back to the world that I expected when I was a child. (laughs)

GPS – That’s very interesting! What do you think has disappointed you as you’ve become aware of the world?

JD – The fact that it’s not so much that people don’t hear each other, it’s just that they refuse to hear each other.

GPS – You mean they listen, it’s just that they don’t hear.

JD – Yeah. And they just don’t care! The fact that we seem to be going backwards, rapidly backwards to a point where politically we’re at a stage…When I first became aware of politics was in the ‘50s. I’d listen to my father, my father being Irish of course, we’d go on about politics all the time. Listening to my father rail on about stuff…my father was very conservative. I remember thinking as a child, “Okay, now that’s wrong.” (laughs)

GPS – Was he Republican?

JD – Oh, god, yes!

GPS – Have you decided to be a Democrat or what are you?

JD – I decided to become a Democrat or an Independent probably at age 3. I used to take my political cues from my parents…whatever they wanted, I was against. (laughs)

GPS – We were both at the end of the Vietnam War in terms of the draft. Did your number ever come up?

JD – They stopped the draft two weeks before my number came up.

GPS – Had you already thought about what you would do?

JD – Oh, yeah, I was on my way to Canada.

GPS – Me too. My father disowned me at that spot.

JD – I was just on my way to Canada thinking, “I’m not going to deal with this! No, no, no!” I’m glad I didn’t have to go because life would have been very different. No, I was not going to participate in that at all…I wasn’t willing to die for that cause.

Stay Tuned for Part 2.

For More Information on JD Slater, go to his site at JDSlater.com.

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