I Was a Teenage Lot Lizard

By now, everybody knows twenty year-old writer JT Leroy. His recently published autobiographical debut novel, Sarah, is a vivid account of the time Leroy spent blowing truckers and wearing pink miniskirts while hustling and hitchhiking through West Virginia. It is also a surrealistic portrait of the truck-stop "lot lizard" kiddie whore subculture, whose adherents are identifiable by the roadkill raccoon penis bones they wear around their necks (you can actually buy ossified 'coon dongs for $13 at jtleroy.com). While Sarah is gut-wrenchingly explicit, Leroy himself is understandably sensitive about discussing his personal life. He nearly hung up on us several times and it took over two hours to finish the interview. Here's why: VICE: What does JT stand for? JT Leroy: J is my birth name and T is Terminator. What would your mom call you? Whatever she felt like. It depended on where we were and if she wanted me to be a boy or a girl. You ever know your dad? Not until very recently. How'd you know he was your dad? My grandmother went into rehab and I guess she got into religious twelve-step programs and so she told me. I've been wanting to know who my father was for the longest time. Meant everything to me. You actually met him in person already? No. He didn't want to have anything to do with me. He's got a family and he don't have no interest in me. I've just been thinking that if I dressed up as a really cute girl, I could go up to where he lives and see if I could seduce him. Did you ever fantasize about your mom in the same way? What do you mean? The same way you fantasize about seducing your dad? No. What's your first-first memory? (Pause) You're for real, right? You're a real magazine and all. Yeah, why? I don't know, you're just asking me some creepy questions. I mean that's pretty fucking creepy, man. Which part? I mean, it's pretty personal asking about my mom and all. I mean, why do you ask me that? I don't know. Man, you want me to open up, like have my legs splayed and my ass in the air and you play proctologist. I'm done with those days. I wrote a book. That's it. So that's it? You just want people to look at the book and interpret what they will? I think I say too much about my life (silence). So how'd this whole lifestyle begin? (Silence) You and your mom live near a truck stop or what? No, we were living out of the car a lot and we'd just drive around and sometimes we'd go to lots, you know, truck stops - just to make money. That's what a lot lizard does. It lends itself well for a transient lifestyle. How does a trucker know where to go? Or do you guys go to them? The way it works is the prostitutes solicit over the CB. So you'll be on the CB and you'll hear, "Hey honey, Big-titty McGraw here, take it to channel 52," and the trucker'll go over to that channel if he wants to hook up with her. Or him. What was your name usually when you went out? Sarah. You think there's still guys out there who remember Sarah? I don't know. The FBI probably caught them by now. They liked little girls. What made you finally decide on becoming a lot lizard? If you've already had sex, sex is not a big thing, you know. I knew the value of money and sex is just something you can trade to get money. It's not something where you're like, "Oh my god, I can't believe I'm going to be doing this sort of stuff." I bet you've seen some scary shit. I guess the scariest thing that happened to me was having a truck driver say, "You know what, I'm taking you with me." He said, "You're mine now," locked the doors and pulled on out the lot. I took off at the next stop but it was close. Sarah is in bookstores now.