The King of Content: A Conversation with Randy Blue

(Ed. Note: This interview has been redacted to assure clarity. Or at least that was the goal.)

The first few minutes off mic with Randy sort of froze in time when he told me he told his performers not to read "the blogs." I felt my heart gurgle. I was a blogger. Was I persona non grata in Randy Blueville? I hoped not. But I could understand why one of the biggest names in Gay Porn might caution his extremely loyal, and extremely diverse, staff to avoid the gossip factories. It means nothing, I could imagine him saying, without us there is no them. And we bloggers can be a surly bunch. After all, gay porn coverage wouldn't be gay porn coverage without its wannabe drama. I mean, hello?

But Randy Blue isn't about gossip or drama or hate or snark even. He's Oklahoma wholesome and extremely busy when I spoke with him the other morning. I had worked hard to get this interview; and by hard, I mean pestering my friend Jeremy until his testicles couldn't take it anymore and he arranged for Randy and I to speak. We spoke for a few minutes initially but when Randy announced the rest of his morning schedule, and I was not on it, I had to make a decision: Pick one issue and ride him for the time I have him or ask him a lot of the questions I'd like answers to? I realized that both options generate more questions but since nothing would get fully answered in so short a time, I reasoned two was a better use of my time. Either's imperfect as it turns out.

Randy is many things; avuncular, confiding, open, warm, the guy you tell your problems to because he doesn't seem strange and he makes sense, as well. He was also a little nervous at first, going to lengths to insure that I know how diverse the makeup of his staff is. Was that for my benefit? My readers? Both? Didn't he get the memo? I loved his site precisely because of his commitment to diversity, and not just by race or ethnicity but by body type, too.

And because his name is the Bavarian Motor Works of gay online porn, he also gets the pick of the litter insofar as models go. As he calmly explains, they are the very best in who they represent: Hairy-chested, Biracial, Muscular Muscular. Whatever. It's a brand synonymous with the top of the food chain and he hasn't gotten to be the king of the sandbox by doing the same thing over and over - and in some cases - over and over and over again.

MOC: Randy Blue, thank you very much for joining me here on MOC Blog.

Randy Blue: Well, thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to answering your questions.

MOC: I want to begin with a discussion of Randy Blue just prior to the launch of your website. Where were you in your life right before you launched RandyBlue.com?

RB: Well, I was shooting  content for the industry and getting
better and better at it..and looking at what was available for most content companies. At the time, hardly anyone shot their own content. So, you know, people were putting up all these websites and they needed content for them. So I started shooting for those [and] then realized that there was very little content that I liked; not just quality but just the look of the guys. For awhile you could be, you could have been my grandfather and posed nude on an adult site. People making content. There just wasn't that much and the quality of the guys wasn't that much. The quality of the shoots wasn't much. It was horrible. So, we decided to start shooting content for the industry. Well it got to where you had all these sites that were primarily owned by industry-owned companies that would have a few gay sites and they do nothing for the gay consumer. They do nothing. And they would buy up all of this content. It might have a guy that's 43, a twink guy thrown in with a black guy thrown in with 25-year-old bodybuilder.  There was no rhyme, reason, anything. So we started, you know, saying let's pay more attention to the details. Let's pay more attention to the quality. We thought that would really make us a lot of money in the industry. We found that no matter how good our content was or how good-looking the guys were, we would get passed over by companies because there content was cheaper. So we obviously knew that the guys running straight-owned gay Internet companies had no idea what they were doing. So my business partner and I were, like, well, this is the last thing that we wanted to do was to start our own site. We knew it would be a lot of work. He knew more about it than I did. We both knew it would be a lot of work and, you know, we just  bit the bullet and we thought, why are we shooting for other people? We should be shooting for ourselves. So it was a process. I would go around shooting models for the site and I would keep the best  for myself. And then we started doing video and I learned how to "video." And I would shoot more video. I'm kind of an easily intimidated person and I knew nothing, not even about photography, when I started this company. I didn't even own a  camera let alone the, you know, anything about lighting and equipment. It was a growing, a learning process. We got to the point where we felt we had a product that we could put out there that would be unique. And people would like it. The rest is history.

MOC: Who did you want your target audience to be and do you think you've succeeded?

RB: You know what I thought was always idiotic? It's one thing to like one particular type of guy. But to limit your audience to one particular thing or type to me is very limiting. You know, in this day and age maybe it's a good way to get your readers or to get people loyal to what you do. And I won't say a name but there's a lot of sites out there that just particularly like to use white, athletic men. So here's a site that has white athletic men. After months and months and months. There's no tattoos, there's very little variance on body color - you know as far as tanning - or ghost white. Everyone is, you know, doesn't have much body hair. They all have blondish hair. The same cut and smile. I mean, once you try to step out of that, it's almost nearly impossible. So my thing was to create something that had so many..it would move and flow and ebb with culture. In other words, Ink is part of culture. Some people hate it, some people love it. But no matter what, it's hear to stay. You know? And I wanted that. I wanted different types of men that are showing the growing diversity in sexual preferences. I mean people think diversity is only one or two. People have different tastes and I think especially in this younger group of men we have on Randy Blue, it shows. People are much more diverse in their tastes and what they like. And like I said, I wanted a site that would be very organic and roll with the times ..every guy may be different [but] every guy is the absolute best example of the types they represent.

MOC: How do you find the models you use?

RB: They come from everywhere. We have over 600 people that apply a month, no lie. And they come from headhunters, they come on their own and apply on the site. They're referred by friends. They're referred by family. I mean, we've had people approach us at live events. I mean, they come from everywhere - all walks of life. Everything we've had..we've had every type of professional apply to be on Randy Blue.

MOC: You mentioned a little bit about diversity. I want to address that now. You've used about 40 black models. About 26 of them were used in your first year alone. And there was a precipitous drop in your use of black models over the next few years...

RB: I can tell you exactly what that is...Probably some of it you'll find hard to believe - but it is the truth - and you know we had discussions about this in our office. Different ethnic backgrounds and different people come from different types of cultures, of course. And everyone comes from a different type of background. You know, I don't doubt that if you grow up in the South, it might be different if you grew up in Oregon. I also know that if you grow up young, African-American there can be difference from growing up a suburban Caucasian in the city. But what I used to shoot so many black men before was much easier to get them to work with us because it was photography not video. And in the solo and not with another model. There is a taboo and you can ask any of the guys that work with me and my assistant (who is African-American) we've had lots of discussion about this. There's deep, deep, deep fear that when young African-American men do any kind of gay work on my site that it will be incredibly hard for them and they will be ostracized by the communities they come from. Now, I'm not going to waste copious amounts of money in front of someone to get them to do something that is not in their best interests to do. I don't believe it's right. I don't think porn should ever have people compromising or being uncomfortable doing something that really do not want to do. There are a lot of young, African-American men who have contacted me and would like to do more work but they just don't feel like they can. So back when I did photos, I could do a lot more just photography and they're like, okay, let's just do photos. Once you start seeing the video, you get a percentage that don't want to do that. And as you move towards male on male interaction, the numbers dwindle quite a bit. I know a lot of people don't want to hear that because they want to see what they want to see. But the reality of it is: It's very hard, a lot of times to get young African American men to be on the site having gay sex.

MOC: You are one of the few sites that prominently features men

of color. Perhaps, one of the only in your niche that has featured Asian men. What do you think..what's your opinion..why do you think these other sites are reluctant to feature men of color?

RB: Because I think they developed that audience. I never wanted to develop an audience that liked one particular race, one particular guy over another and that's what we had talked about earlier in the interview. I think that's vitally important. When you start catering to one particular age group. I mean this is what I love about Randy Blue: Our age group is not some 18-22 year old white boy group. It is 18 to 35. And, again, within that, we have different races, body shapes, everything. And I mean, Randy Blue is about diversity. it's not about people trying to fit into the stereotype. It's not about people doing anything they're uncomfortable with. It's about...if you look at every single one of these guys, you can tell that they want to be there. They enjoy it, especially when they've been working with us two or three years. Because Victor, you and I both know they could go anywhere else and work if they want to. You know that. And it's, like, you know everybody enjoys this feeling here. And I like it because I do want different people from different backgrounds. I mean that's what sexuality is about. That's what sex is about. And I think if you develop the culture where you think in your head that only this is going to sell, that only white boys that are 20 are going to sell, than that's the type of audience you're going to get. Obviously, I don't have that audience.

MOC: Okay switching gears a little bit..there was a lot of controversy when Reese Rideout won Men Magazine's "Man of The Year."  Many people felt it was inappropriate for a purportedly straight man to win a spot on a gay magazine catering to a gay audience. Do you feel that anger was justified?

RB: Absolutely not. I know I'll probably take a lot of heat from this..Gay men, you know, gay men keep wanting this role model. And I mean, you know, it's kind of like the role model you need to find is you. It needs to be inside of you. You cannot sit there and scream: "He shouldn't have it because he's straight." I mean,  that's just the same thing. It's reverse discrimination. That magazine is about beauty of the male physique. And nowhere does it say it's going to be about a gay man winning. It's about somebody that people want to look at. They enjoy looking at. And quite frankly I know homosexuals that I cannot stand because they're racist, bitchy assholes. Why in the hell should that, why in the hell should that opinion be held above someone like Reese which is absolutely one of the kindest, most endearing, most engaging..one of the people who has done a lot for our community and marched in parades. Has openly talked about his support for the gay community, that has done fundraisers for the gay community. I mean, it's kind of like, I hear that and I think aren't our priorities a little messed up? Aren't they a little fucked up when we don't even care that someone who actually likes us, works for us and believes that we should get married and we should have equal rights. It mean, it's kind of like a little self-loathing in itself.

MOC: How have changes in the gay porn landscape - for example, the explosion of content...

RB:...let me add one of thing to that, Victor...American gay men need to get over the gay/straight labels. [Alfred] Kinsey (an American sexologist who penned The Kinsey Report with his wife)was right. We don't want to listen to him. We want to hear how gay everyone is. But we don't want to hear about the real message, his message, which is that most people lay somewhere in the middle. There are more bisexuals out there, by and large, and most people lay somewhere in the middle of the scale from one to ten then there are people on both sides. There is! They don't like to talk about it because it's something a lot of people don't understand and they don't know how to identify. It's true. Most people are bisexual. Most people are right in the middle somewhere between one and ten. People enjoy sex with both. There's one they may prefer. There's one they may be curious about. But we need to realize that this is not a gay/straight thing. This is a gay/bi/straight world. And we need to realize that there is a huge percentage in the middle that we just do not want to talk about.

MOC: Okay, I know you're a little pressed for time. I just have a few more questions.

RB: Sure..(laughing) Am I giving you good answers, Victor?

MOC: You? Yes. Absolutely. I just wish we had more time. Now how have changes in the gay porn landscape - the explosion of content, free filesharing - how is that changing the way you are doing business or has it? And how do you see that impacting your business in the future.

RB: If people don't start learning to protect their content, there's nothing they're going to be able to do to ever grow their business. I mean, you hear all this DRM talk - and all this sort of for and against - and it's not about people being for or against DRM. It's about  people realizing that it's their business and it's only as good as the last video they put out and that as far as the money that it makes. And that everybody is doing worse. Do the math in your head. I mean, what do you expect to happen? Do you expect some miracle to come down from the sky and save your business? It's like you are doing something like any major industry: the music industry, the movie industry, the television industry. When should those industries not strive to protect their product? Protect their content? And we live in this industry where everyone says they are, they want to have their cake and eat it too which means not doing anything to protect themselves because they're afraid of offending a small minority of viewers to letting it trample their business. And I do believe this industry with all that's occurring and the bitchiness that goes on...they need to come together. There's some very important issues facing us this industry and sadly no one really..we have all these - you know, Victor, you go - we have all these silly mixers and cocktail things and no one talks about serious problems plaguing our industry. No one wants to sit down and discuss it because everyone is so paranoid and bitchy with each other and they don't even trust each other enough to sit down and really talk about the issues that are affecting our industry.

MOC: Do you plan on launching any other websites?

RB: You know what? Never say never. But I can say some ideas have been tossed around.

MOC: My last question for you..Other than RandyBlue.com, what adult sites do you like? Who do you think is doing a good job out there?

RB: Oh..I will only say this..I think Men At Play is an awesome site. I think they do an amazing job. My hat's off to their creativity and their standards. They are just really good people. I think..I'm really excited about seeing "L.A. Zombie." You know Eddie Diaz, who works for us and he's in that movie so, of course, anything with Eddie in it, we want to see. And I think that's going to be very interesting. And those are really it. I mean I really - t0 be honest - I don't really, I don't really go onto other people's websites because, you know, because people have been known to copy us so why look at what somebody's copying you [is doing.] Too many people are afraid to step out of a box of what they think is profitable or what they think is going to make them money. It's like they're in this ever increasing, getting smaller..it's like being in a elevator where the walls start closing in. And they're so afraid to do anything different. You know, we're not a DVD company but we did that "70's gay porn" movie and, you know, in doing so, we wanted to do something that was totally different that what we were used to. And, you know, did it make money? Yes. Was it expensive? Yes. Was it different that what people were used to? Yes. Did some people love it? Yes. Did some people not? Yes. But the reality of it is, we're going to do something like that all of the time because it is edgy. It's creative. It spurs our creativity. And it gives people out there something different that they weren't expecting. Isn't that what it should be?

 

MOC: Okay, I lied. I actually have do have one more question for you.

RB: (laughing) Okay. I'm fine.

MOC: May I have Johnny Angel's phone number?

RB: No, you cannot. But I want you to know he is one of the sweetest guys I think I've ever seen.

MOC: Sweet indeed. Randy, thank you so much. I really do appreciate you taking time out of your morning to speak with me.

RB: You're welcome. And please feel free to contact me whenever you have any questions.

Comments

[Orestes]

More people like Randy Blue please..so many overself concern people in that..and quite good what he said about bisex gay...lots of people in the midle, Will be us , the persecuted ones, who will judge others? , and camon....gay for pay...hahaha just feel better saing they do it for money ;o)
I would like the people working in porn were having the same rights as th common actors, in general the are quite bad paid...no image rights, and if the movie was done on east Europe..really disgusting.
All the best for Randy Blue and this website.
Kind regards from Tenerife, Spain.

[www]

I think this Kinsey scale is bullshit and is rife with problems when presented... a 'scale' of gayness really doesn't help our cause, in fact might reinforce perceptions that 'conversion therapies' are valid forms of because human sexuality exists on a scale-- when in reality the only type of therapy that should be accepted are the kinds that encourage self-acceptance not self delusion and loathing. Homosexuality and Heterosexuality are the only two forms within human nature; bisexuality doesn't exist.

[Demetrius]

Excellent interview score, nice candid Q&A between you - kudos

[Tiggah]

Congrats on the interview! It was a very good and interesting read. :)

[Victor]

Thanks, Demetrius. Tiggah. I would have liked to have asked him why, if black men are so reluctant to perform, this is no shortage of black men performing on "thug" sites? Perhaps, next time.