The star of scores of adult films has a schedule that he describes as "horrendous." During the week, he commutes from his Long Beach, Calif., home to the San Fernando Valley — a two-hour drive on L.A.'s grid-locked freeways — where he shoots for Hush Hush three times per week and for New Sensations three or four times per week. At night, he works at his job with an airline — a job he has held since before he entered the adult entertainment arena. On weekends, he drives four hours to his second home in Las Vegas.
On Monday, it all begins again.
"I look at this as a business," Diesel says. "I wanted to get enough money to buy a house and have some stability when I retire. Now I have two houses. I just bought the one in Las Vegas five months ago."
Diesel's contract star status with New Sensations is providing him with that financial stability. And as one of the biggest stars in adult entertainment, it's been a happy marriage.
"I'd been doing the 'Blackzilla' DVDs for Hush Hush for a year and a half," he recalls. "Then New Sensations contacted me through a friend, and they wanted to bring me in as part of the family. I tried a few series with them, like "SOS," "I Can't Believe I Took the Whole Thing," and all the DVDs are doing very well.
"I saw some of New Sensations' work years ago, and I liked the way they shot. Then when they first contacted me, I asked a few people who said they were a good company to work with — very professional."
Race Matters
One of the pleasant surprises for Diesel in his new partnership is how much control New Sensations allows him in his shoots. Diesel says he's permitted to choose his female co-star in about 75 percent of the New Sensations productions he does.
"They send me emails with pictures of girls, and I choose from that," he explains. "This is important to a male performer because shooting porn so much, you lose that thirst to get a girl. I'm an older cat anyway, so I don't have the sex drive like the younger kids have nowadays."
Of course, one of the keys to Diesel's success is that a viewer would never suspect this by watching his performances. The other key to success being his almost unbelievably large unit. Naturally, there are some who wonder if Diesel's movies might be considered racial stereotyping — a well-endowed black man having sex with lots of white girls. But Diesel has made it work for him.
"I actually fed off the stereotyping," he reveals. "That's how we got the 'Blackzilla' website started. I wanted to use all the stereotypes, pro and con, of the interracial and well-endowed black guy. I said, 'We're going to run with all the stereotypes and just have fun with it.' I was raised like, 'We're all Americans no matter what color,' and I thought we should start making fun of this stuff instead of taking it so seriously. I knew it would work, that people would get the humor."
Life Before Porn
As successful as Diesel is today, he resisted getting into adult films. He'd left his native Las Vegas at age 23 and came to Los Angeles hoping to carve out a career in bodybuilding. He was somewhat successful at the amateur level for nearly nine years but says he got burned out on bodybuilding because of the prevalence of steroids and worries about his long-term health.
"I had an opportunity to do porn when I was about 28," Diesel remembers. "I'd done a solo shoot — a Playgirl magazine-type thing where I posed nude and in different outfits. A lot of people thought I should do porn, but I had a little kid back then, so I just didn't want to do it at the time. I didn't think I was prepared mentally for it, either. So I just did stills and magazine stuff, which turned out to be a really big seller."
His change of heart came after 9/11, when he had to take a large pay cut in his airline job. Wondering how he would make ends meet, he saw something that would change his life.
"I was looking through Hustler," he recalls, "and there was an ad for a 'Big Cock Contest' in Miami. I emailed them some pictures, and I won the February 2003 contest. They flew me out and paid me a lot of money. From there, it kind of snowballed. A lot of people were asking me about doing porn, and I met a girl online named Lisa Sparks, who wanted to do a photo shoot with me. I did some stuff with her, which got me introduced to some Internet guys [HoDough.com], and I've been working with them ever since."
Now that he has success and financial security, Diesel wonders what might be in store for him in his personal life. He's single, because being an adult star carries its own set of difficulties in the dating arena.
"I tried the dating thing," he admits, "and dating girls in the business is tough because jealousy comes into play. A lot of times, the work is all they talk about, and I try to keep myself separated from that when I'm not doing it. That's why I live in Long Beach and Vegas, so I can do and think about other things.
"I also tried dating girls outside of the business, and it's too much pressure on them. They complain that I get girls all the time, or that I'm tired of sex, or they worry that they aren't as good as the other girls. And they worry about diseases, which they should, because it's one of the hazards that we deal with."
And the girls who might date or work with Diesel have another issue to deal with. He's a grandfather — twice over — and has a 21- year-old son.
"I love it," he says. "I love telling girls who are like 18 or 20 who say I'm in good shape, 'Yeah, I'm 43 and have two grandkids.' I always get, 'Whaaaaaat?' I laugh at it. It's a big joke for me."
And so, the age factor — like everything else — doesn't bother Shane Diesel.
He's too busy...
