The Flashback Interview: Letha Weapons
Although the 80s is my favorite decade for adult film, the 90s run a close second, and my newest interview subject, Letha Weapons, is one of my favorite performers of that era. Letha was active in adult entertainment as both an actress and a dancer all throughout the 90s. She would also gain some notice in the mainstream through appearances on shows like The Howard Stern Show and Married…With Children. Letha is currently active as a singer and songwriter, creating music in a wide variety of genres.
I spoke to Letha last month, and today, you’ll all get to meet her. I hope you all enjoy reading this interview. A brief note: Although there’s no nudity or hardcore pictures in this interview, adult subject matter is discussed, so this article is NSFW.
Say hello to Letha Weapons!
Johnny: How did you come up with the stage name Letha Weapons?
Letha: When I was first a dancer, I worked at a club with 100 girls a night, and one of the only people that was nice to me was named Letha. When I started doing modeling, my agent said all these girls have silly names. First I thought of Starry Knight, but that was already taken, and there may have been another one I thought of, but one day I was driving down the street. I was talking to my boyfriend, and I thought of Letha Weapons. He said, “Yeah, that sounds cool” (laughing). It was because I thought that girl’s name was name was so cool. I kind of stole the first part of her name, but it is a normal name in the world. It’s just rare.
Johnny: Well, that is a lovely way to honor someone who was kind to you.
Letha: (Laughing) Well, yeah. She was a very nice lady.
Johnny: Alright. When it comes to your adult film work, instead of asking about specific movies, I’ll give you the names of some talents you worked with, and you can give me your thoughts on them and what they were like to work with. We’ll start with Jake Steed. What do you recall about working with him?
Letha: Well, I only worked with him once, and that was with Domonique Simone. He was really hot (laughing), and a nice guy. That’s about all I remember of him. I mean, with a lot of people, you just go to work, you do your job, and you leave. You don’t really hang out and fraternize. You know what I mean?
Johnny: I understand. To go to my next question, you were matched up with John Wayne Bobbitt in one of his porn films, John Wayne Bobbitt: Uncut. What comes to mind about him?
Letha: What do I feel about him? (Laughing) Well, Ron Jeremy was the director of that. He called me one day about that movie, and he said, “We’re going to do a movie with John Wayne Bobbitt. You know, that guy who had his dick cut off?”. I was like, “Is this a joke?”. I couldn’t believe it, but I agreed to do it.
When I got to the set for the first time, I’m all decked out in a really cool outfit. I don’t know if you’ve seen John Wayne Bobbitt: Uncut, but I was wearing this custom green-and-black riding coat. When I walked in, John was sitting at this bar in the house where we were shooting. I went up to him and I said hi, and the first thing he said to me was, “It’s not right to mutilate someone’s body!”. I was like, “Um, I know” (laughing).
He was probably feeling really angry. He probably wanted to do porn with his real dick, not with the chopped-up one. They seemed to think everything was normal, but basically, they sewed the skin back on while the cock was only about an inch-and-a-half of his original. For the rest, they put in an implant, and they didn’t sew the rest of the dick back on. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was too intricate of a surgery. They had to wait about 20 or 30 minutes before he fucked, but they didn’t think his dick could handle it. He had this pent-up animal energy, and he clearly wasn’t too bright.
Johnny: I see.
Letha: He was a really odd character.
Johnny: Alright. What do you recall about working with Rodney Moore?
Letha: Oh, Rodney Moore. Well, Rodney Moore was a one-man show. He had hired a makeup artist and was planning on shooting everything himself, I guess. He tried to talk the makeup artist in shooting some footage for him. He gave me a shirt that said something naughty. I don’t remember, but he was alright. Nothing to write home about. It wasn’t a great experience, and the makeup artist was kind of turned off to him because he kept wanting her to shoot, and he wasn’t offering a whole lot more money.
Johnny: I see. Finally, you did mention Ron Jeremy, and considering what he’s been in the news for recently, was it rough to share scenes with him?
Letha: Well, Ron is very unique in a lot of ways. He’s funny. He was pleasant to be around, but I would always tell anyone I never knew someone who was so driven by sex in all my life, so I can’t say I’m quite that surprised what happened with him.
All that being said, he had a lot of stuff going on in his life. He hooked me up with the job on John Wayne Bobbitt: Uncut. In regards to the movie, that was ultimately why I knew him for a long time. We had negotiated the scenes I was going to do in the movie, and then the day of the shoot, he wanted me to do a scene with him and not get paid for it. I was like, “Ron! We didn’t negotiate this, and I’m not getting paid”. He basically whined and whined, and was like, “Why won’t you?”. I said, “Fine, I’ll do a scene with you. Five minutes”.
On that day, in that house it was, like, 100 degrees, and somebody turned the air-conditioning off, so I was about to die. I think, in the scene, we were on a couch, and literally as soon as I was done, I said, “I’ve got to get the fuck out of this house, or I’m going to die in here”. It made me sick to shoot everything. I walked outside, and then someone realized, “Oh, shit! The heater was on, and not the air-conditioning”.
We were on The Howard Stern Show at some point after that, and everyone said, “Oh, it was Ron that was making Letha sick”, but it wasn’t. He was a very nice person. He had a playful way about him, and he stayed friends with Kayla Kleevage and my girlfriend Europe DIChan. It’s just terrible, that whole situation he’s going through right now, but perhaps 30 people can’t be wrong. We’ll see what happens.
Johnny: On a lighter note, the late Robin Williams named the trope I Call Him Mr. Happy to describe giving nicknames to the genitals. Do you have any nicknames for yours’?
Letha: (Laughing) Growing up, my mother always called it a wee, and sometimes I’ll refer to mine as my junk.
Johnny: Alright. From the adult film screen, we go to your mainstream work. For many years, you were a regular guest on the aforementioned Howard Stern Show. Which appearance on that show was your favorite?
Letha: Well, I think probably the most memorable time was when I went on for the first time. I was the court stenographer for the Homeless People’s Court. It was such a big deal for them all when I got there, you know? After the show, all the directors and producers, everybody on the show took a picture with me and Howard.
I talked about The Robin Byrd Show when I was there, and since I had mentioned The Robin Byrd Show, a Manhattan show where girls took off their clothes, they ended up taking down their introduction that they had for, like, 11 years, and putting me in the introduction because I was talking about them. That was super-cool.
Johnny: Cool. As an alumni of The Howard Stern Show, what do you think of his pivot to more in-depth and serious conversations, as opposed to the freeform chaos of his 90s work?
Letha: I don’t really keep up with him. I would like to see him again. He used to promote me back in the day when I would headline in New York. “Any time you’re in town, give us a call. We’d love to have you on the show”. I was on that show a lot of times, whether on their E! show or as part of the Butt Bongo Fiesta, but I don’t know how to get a hold of him these days.
Johnny: It’s kind of interesting to see how he changes over time. I mean, one of my favorite mainstream talents is Gilbert Gottfried…
Letha: Oh, yeah. I love him.
Johnny: For years, Gottfried was a regular on The Howard Stern Show, but then was told by one of the producers, “We don’t book comedians anymore”, never mind that talents like Amy Schumer and Nikki Glaser are regulars on the show. I guess it’s part of Howard’s pivot to basically a more refined form of work, but of course, we’ll always miss the sleazy times.
Letha: Well, I haven’t watched his show in forever, so maybe it’s not quite as exciting as it once was (laughing).
Johnny: Well, to get back to you, according to your HotMovies page, you once appeared on an episode of The Jenny Jones Show to confront a childhood bully. What was the end result of that appearance, peace or further fracturing?
Letha: (Laughing) Oh, let me tell you. The Jenny Jones Show used to beg me to come on their show. It’s funny. That bully was actually my first husband, and it was all bullshit. It wasn’t real. I was never bullied in school. I was very popular and treated very nicely.
The Jenny Jones Show would call me every week and beg me to come on their show, and I would charge them. I was headlining at the time and doing very well. I would have to take off a whole week to be able to go on their show, so I charged them $500 every time I was on their show, which was five or seven times. They would say, “Don’t tell anybody we pay you”, so every time I was there, some girl would come up to me and go, “Do you know if we get paid for this?”. “Well, they tell me they don’t pay, so…” (laughing).
There’s a lot of fakery on those shows. You know what I mean? One of the shows I was on was Flaw Makeovers, and they would say, “You don’t look dirty enough. Put some mustard on here, rip your shirt, and cover your hair”. Whatever.
Johnny: That’s interesting. I’ve been told that there’s no reality in reality shows, but the idea that there’s no reality in talk shows, either? I mean, I kind of had a suspicion, but this definitely confirmed it.
Letha: Well, I mean, there’s some reality to it. It’s just exaggerated. I mean, a lot of those stories are true. I remember, on Jenny Jones, there was a show where this girl came on to tell this guy that her male friend was in love with him, and he went and killed that guy because he was embarrassed. I don’t know why you’d kill someone over it.
Johnny: I do recall that story. Well, returning to you, and on a lighter note, you played Rocki Mountains in the Married…With Children episode The Naked And The Dead, But Mostly The Naked. I’ve interviewed several Married…With Children guest stars, like my friends Kimmy Robertson and Sandy Helberg, and they spoke fondly of their appearances, so what was it like appearing on the show?
Letha: Oh, my god. It’s funny. Well, the director was kind of squirmy. Ed O’Neill was very fond of me. I ended up in his office jerking him off. He had a pent-up sexuality, but he was afraid of sickness and STDs. We played around in his office. He was nice. David Faustino was trying to get with me. His friend, who was a writer, was trying to get with me. Katey Sagal was nice. She didn’t really talk to me much. Christina Applegate was half-asleep through all the rehearsals.
Johnny: Now I would like to change gears from your acting work to your singing work. Had you always been interested in singing, or did that only come about in recent years?
Letha: I was always interested in singing. I was married for eleven years, and I actually started dating my ex-husband because he was a music producer and we knew a lot of the same people. That was how we got to know each other, and we had done some music together about twenty years ago, but he wanted to hide me under a rock.
We did a couple of songs that we got some international action from, but then he wanted to hide me from the world, so he didn’t want to do anything else with me. It wasn’t until I left him that I started doing my own thing, and I will never stop. I love it. I love writing songs.I just love everything about it, and that’s where I’m putting my focus for the future, in songwriting and being a singer.
Johnny: Well, speaking of which, who have been your biggest influences as a singer and a songwriter?
Letha: Well, I think Prince is the greatest singer/songwriter that ever lived. He did everything. He wrote the music and songs. He wrote songs for other people. He sang. He was very brilliant. I just hope to be a fraction of what he was (laughing). I don’t write my own music. I eventually will, but for now, I do not. I have a friend that I started co-writing with a while back. I just think it’s more fun co-writing with someone instead of writing by myself. I don’t anticipate stopping writing with him, but I love it all. I’m addicted.
Johnny: Very cool. One of your earliest songwriting endeavors was the dance song Money Music And MaryJane. What was the inspiration behind that song?
Letha: I like weed, I like money, and I like music. I don’t know how I came up with it. I was just talking to someone one day about my favorite things. I think that’s probably my least best song, really, overall.
Johnny: Well, I thought it was a nice dance song. I could definitely hear it being played in a club. Anyway, your song, I’m Yours’, sounds like it could’ve been performed by Nancy Sinatra or Shirley Bassey. Was that the vibe you were going for with that song?
Letha: I’m not really familiar with those two singers that much. My friend Harry, whom I get my music from, had sent me that music. It was a completely different song. First he asked me if I could resing the song it already was. I really wanted to do my own thing, and after I did Money Music And MaryJane, I was looking to just have music and write my own songs.
He said, “You can do whatever you want with it. I’ll give you the music, and if you want to write something else with it, that’s cool”. You should hear the original, but its’ writer said, “You made it 100 percent better than it was”, so he was super-thrilled with what I did with it. I’m very happy with that song. My girlfriend Europe DiChan always says, “That’s my favorite song!”. A lot of people tell me that’s their favorite song that I wrote, so that’s pretty cool.
I’m a big Amy Winehouse fan. I like bluesy kind of stuff, so I really want to do some more of that kind of style at some point. Right now, I’m concentrating on dance, and my friend whom I’m co-writing with likes to do guitar-based stuff. I have a couple of songs, one that’s dance and one that’s guitar-based, that I haven’t released yet, but hopefully it’s within the next couple of weeks. After I had appendictis, I was having to recover and not doing anything. That sucked.
Johnny: That actually leads well into my next question: Your song Don’t Stress came out on YouTube in the very early days of the current coronavirus pandemic. Have you been able to go by that song’s words in our current chaos, or has it been difficult?
Letha: I think I’m holding it together pretty well. It was tremendous about the first three months of COVID. Someone had sent me this project in the mail called Diamond Paint. You stick a million beads onto a picture. It’s sort of color-by-numbers in the form of little stones, and I told myself, “When this picture is done, I’m going to go back to my life the way it was. I’m not going to live my life in fear”. That’s pretty much what happened. I decided I’m not going to live my life in fear, and whatever happens happens. I try to make good decisions and don’t put myself in harm’s way, but the world is a dangerous place these days.
Johnny: I get where you’re coming from. If you could collaborate with any famous musicians on your next songs, which ones would you most like to sing with?
Letha: (Laughing) You know, I never really thought about that too much, but maybe Busta Rhymes. Someone like Lady Gaga would be cool.
Johnny: I could see that.
Letha: Snoop Dogg. The Weeknd.
Johnny: I could see you collaborating with them. Your music certainly does remind me of all those artists in a good way because you definitely are talented at what you do, and I could see you collaborating with them in the future. Finally, to jump back to adult film for a question, where has been the most unusual place, whether it’s a theme park like the Disney Parks or just simply out and about, that you’ve been recognized for your adult film work?
Letha: (Laughing) Walmart. Bed Bath And Beyond. I don’t really go anywhere too exciting, but people often won’t come up to me. They’ll e-mail me or text me later as they find my phone number, and they’ll say, “Were you at such-and-such place?”. “Yes, that was me at various places”.
Johnny: That’s a good answer, and that does it for my questions. I thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to speak to me. It has been an honor to speak to you. I started seeing your work years ago, back when I had to hide that habit from my late mother. It was pretty hard to keep that a secret, but I liked what I saw, and it’s been an honor to talk to you today. I do find you to be very talented, and I wish you all the best with your musical endeavors because you really have a great talent, and I look forward to hearing your next music.
Letha: Well, thank you!
I thank Letha Weapons for taking the time out of her schedule to speak to me. For more about Letha’s work, you can visit her official website, which has links to all her social media.
Coming soon to the Flashback Interview are conversations with producer and convention booker Sean Clark, acclaimed dancer and actress Sandahl Bergman, and actress and photographer Tiffany Helm. Thank you as always for reading.