Before They Were Porn Stars: Dallas Steele Talks About His Life on TV News

A huge misnomer about the porn industry is that performers have resorted to this business because they were unable to succeed in "mainstream" entertainment and media. Nothing could be further from the truth. One of the best examples is one of the industry's favorite muscle daddies Dallas Steele. Before he stole our hearts (and other bodily organs) with his amazing work in gay porn, Dallas had already been performing in front of cameras for two decades as a hugely successful TV news anchorman. So hot to think about what that man in the business suit telling us about the big stories of the day looked like in the bedroom. With Dallas Steele, we finally got to find out. He joined us for an interview to share about his previous career including some of the major stories and figures he covered and some of his current projects in porn.

What is the latest with Dallas Steele?

I’m headed to Minneapolis in a few weeks for four days of shooting new content with Carnal Media. Looking forward to more Fun Size Boys, Twink Top, Boy for Sale, and all the great Carnal brands. I continue to produce new movies every week for my Only Fans and Just for Fans, as well as for my channel on Raw Fuck Club. I recently did a great still erotic photoshoot with my good friend Colton Ford, who also lives here in Palm Springs. The pictures are amazing!

You have always been very open about having an extensive career before your shift to pornography. Please share!

It’s way more complicated than people would imagine. After 23 years in TV news, I found what I thought was a great main anchor job at the NBC/ABC combo station in Fort Myers, Florida. I planned to settle in, work there for my final 20 years, and then retire and live happily ever after. (Aside: People call me the “weatherman” all the time, and while I covered hurricanes, I was a news reporter, not a meteorologist). Turns out, the station was an absolute pressure cooker with management you could never please. I was taking three medications just to get through the day, drinking lots, and sleeping 10-12 hours. About one year into my three-year contract, the boss tells me they’ve been doing “focus group” research and that “people here, just don’t like you.” I believed then and still do, that management was uncomfortable with me as a very “out” gay man. I was crushed and angry. They paid me out the rest of 2011, then I returned to Michigan where my late partner Kelly was the creative director for an auto magazine. I knew at that moment I felt I probably would not return to traditional TV news, so in the “mitten state,” I went back to doing personal training, something I’ve done part-time for a decade. When my partner’s job was consolidated with another on the West Coast, we decided to move back to Dallas, where we first met. We had been back one week when he landed a high-level creative job with Dallas-based Mary K Cosmetics. We soon bought a new house and moved in around Christmas. Kelly had suffered from depression his entire life and was on meds to combat it. The new job brought a new level of stress to his life. But I had no idea just how much stress. I was doing personal training and now bartending at the Dallas Eagle. On August 13, 2014, I came home at 3 AM after my shift and found him lying in a pool of bl*od and v*mit. I frantically tried to breathe life into his stiff, cold body, but it was way too late. Kelly had died from what the medical examiner termed “an accidental overdose” of Ethyl Chloride, better known as “Maximum Impact.” The night he died, I found nine cans around his body, consumed in thirty minutes or less according to the M.E. And yet, his computer was on, the cat food was out, and he had selected his clothes for the next day. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him and the 13 years we had together. I’ll never know if he meant to do it, only that he was hurting, suffering, and battling unimaginable demons. In 2014, you couldn’t be married to a same-sex partner in Texas. Kelly had no will. His family took everything. I had less than $2,500 in the bank and was looking at the real possibility of being homeless. My best friend Adam said, “You’ve always wanted to do porn, why don’t you apply with Colt or Titan?” The idea made sense. I applied with Colt and Titan, and each company called me in less than a week.

Photo courtesy of Dallas Steele.

How did you first enter the world of Broadcast News?

TV news was always the only thing I ever wanted to do, even as a 6-year-old boy. As soon as I got an audio tape recorder, I would record TV newscasts, type them up on a typewriter, and then read the scripts into the recorder while sitting in the mirror. At my junior college, I did news at the college radio station and served in every position on the college newspaper, ending as Editor-In-Chief. When I transferred to a four-year University (Cal State Sacramento), I interned at the local NBC and what would later become the FOX affiliate. Eventually, I landed a part-time morning editor job at an AM/FM country music station in Sacramento. I soon landed a job as an anchor/reporter at an AM Newstalk in Bakersfield, California. Two years into that, I said on the air one day that I’d love to do TV news. The news director of the local ABC station was listening and said I sounded good and he’d like to see what I look like. Appearance matters in TV news. I went for an interview and was hired to report on weekends. I worked 7 days a week for more than a year and then was hired full-time at the TV station. Aside: The news director was married to a woman at the time, but years later, came out to me.

Tell us about your career. What kind of broadcaster were you? What stations and roles?

I was a reporter for half of my career, and anchor for the second half. I started in radio (see above) then transitioned to TV news, first as a reporter, then weekend anchor in Bakersfield, then the big jump to a reporter at the CBS station in Dallas. Since Dallas is a big market and I wasn’t going to get the chance to anchor there, I moved to a small market and was the main anchor at an NBC station that became a FOX station, in Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas. My next jump was to a medium market, Fort Myers-Naples, Florida where I was the main anchor of NBC2. Aside: People give me a lot of cr*p saying I worked for FOX News. That is incorrect. I worked for a station affiliated with the FOX television network. There is a distinct difference. One of the best things about working in some of the smaller markets was the opportunity to mentor young reporters, sharing the skills I had learned throughout my career. Interestingly enough, I still feel compelled to share what I’ve learned in adult movies with guys who are just starting. No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for another.

Any major experiences you had reporting and interviewing? Major stories?

Trump aside, I’ve interviewed every living President, plus President Ford. I also covered President Nixon’s funeral. Some of the biggest stories would be the space shuttle explosion over east Texas, 9-11, the 2000 tornado that hit downtown Fort Worth, the execution of Timothy McVeigh, the execution of Karla Faye Tucker, and more hurricanes than I can ever remember. The last time former Texas Governor Rick Perry was running for re-election, President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush had been campaigning for him throughout the state. It had been a long day of flights crisscrossing the state for them, but their last stop was Dallas Love Field at about 11 PM. As a matter of policy, stations usually send someone to be there just in case “something happens.” I don’t have to describe what that something might be. It happened in 1963. Anyway, my photographer and me arrived 40 minutes early in the huge hangar. The Secret Service checked us over and we assumed our spot. As their arrival time grew ever closer, it became apparent that we would be the only media present except for a still photographer from the Dallas Morning News. Air Force One arrived outside, and the national media, exhausted from the day, blew right past us. Seconds later, the Governor, the President, and the former President were walking towards us. I suddenly had to think of something to say. “How’s it going, guys?” They all laughed and I think they appreciated my relaxed demeanor at 11:50 PM. They launched into parts of the day’s stump speech, but I fixated on H.W.’s tie. It was frayed and faded. “Sir it looks like you could a new tie,” I said. “Yes, Barbara threw this stuff together in a hurry,” the
former President said. As a reporter, you often eat in the news car and often get food on your clothing, so you have backups.

Do you miss it? What are some of your good and not-so-good memories of being a broadcaster and news anchor?

I miss the rush of being live on the air, of sharing breaking news, and I miss the opportunity to change lives. And TV news when it’s at its best, can change lives. I’m reminded of my favorite story — that of a young pregnant woman on a hike, whose baby malrotated. They got her to a hospital, but it was too late. She lost the baby and five critical organs. She went on liquid feeding for two years. None of her classmates at TCU had any idea. But one of her teachers did, and called me. “Jim, you’ve got to get this girl some help. She needs five organs soon or she’ll die. Her TPN (liquid feeding) will eventually stop working,” her teacher told me. Robin, just 26 years old then, couldn’t even get on the transplant list because she had no insurance. We interviewed her, and her parents, as well as her teacher. We went to air with the story at 5 PM. At 5:08 PM, my desk phone rang with a gentleman asking how much money she needed to get on the transplant list. She needed $450,000. He replied, “I’ll cover up it up to $700,000.” I quickly put them in touch. He refused to be identified, but it was real. But that wasn’t the end of it. It would be seven long weeks before there was a match for all five organs. Robin was hours from being beyond help when the news came. TCU chartered a private jet, and we flew with Robin and her family to the Lied Transplant Center in Omaha where Robin underwent an 11-hour surgery. She not only survived but three years later, ran a 5k marathon and at last check in 2018, was living a normal healthy life. That is TV news at its best. That was me at my best.

Would you be interested in trying it again? Perhaps in a different context?

I would be very interested in hosting a talk show about sex, relationships, and life in general. I think I have so many things to share that would be helpful, or at the very least interesting to so many people out there. What are some of the plans for Dallas Steele? I am contemplating retiring from porn in 2025 after ten years in the business. But if I do, I’ll be retiring because I’ve done everything I wanted to do and won almost every award I wanted to win — not because of the rampant ageism that exists in our society — perhaps perpetuated the worst by our own community. My first chapter was television news. My second chapter is/was porn. My third chapter will be something in public service — as a talk show host online or elsewhere and perhaps in politics. There seems to be a lot of support for me to run for city council here in Palm Springs. After five years here, I think I know our community very well.

Photo courtesy of Dallas Steele.

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