Rock hard: A guitar-slinging porn star bares it all

Longtime PACIFIC readers may recognize Aaron Thompson from the September 2010 issue, in which the hard-rocking musician and bartender spoke about abandoning his religious upbringing in favor of slinging drinks to sinners at Analog and Vin de Syrah. As if that weren't rebellious enough, the heavily tattooed Thompson has since taken another step away from the church by making a name for himself as a bona fide porn star. Born and raised in San Diego, Thompson worked as a graphic designer by day and moonlighted as a bartender until two years ago, when he moved to L.A. in pursuit of a full-time career in adult entertainment. It didn't hurt that he was then dating his now-wife, Joanna Angel, an icon in the industry and a co-founder of Burning Angel, a video production company and website (BurningAngel.com) specializing in hardcore, punk rock porn. Today, Thompson works full-time in the industry, performing under the stage name "Small Hands," a pseudonym derived from the modest size of his metacarpals with a wry reference to the myth about the size of a man's hands (wink, wink, President Trump). He's starred in more than 150 films for Burning Angel, Penthouse and other studios, though he's not simply a dick for hire. Thompson also does all of the editing, art direction and graphic design for his wife's company, and he composes soundtracks for Burning Angel's movies as well. More than six years after our original interview, we spoke with Thompson about his transition from pouring doubles to double-penetrating. PACIFIC: What's the best and worst thing about being a porn star?AARON THOMPSON: I have tons of sex with really awesome people and I get paid. And I have the love of my life that I'm married to. I don't get to drink and party as much as I used to, because you have to be physically capable of the job. So, if there's a downside, I guess I don't party as much. But being healthy is kind of cool. What's your favorite type of scene to shoot?My favorite is the stuff I work on for Burning Angel. Sometimes I'm in a scene with Joanna, sometimes I'm with other girls, but it's kind of our home base. Those are my favorite scenes because they're the ones that we pour our hearts into. She'll write a script, and we'll work on it together. Or I'll write music for it, and we'll cast it ourselves. Anything with our company is kind of my passion. Headlines that didn't make the cut Small hands, big heart Dicking around Chocolate-covered nuts The naked truth It takes balls to be a porn star Gives good headline Do you have a least favorite?I like to do scenes that are on couches or beds or things that people normally f*ck on in the real world. Shooting scenes outside on a rock in 10-degree weather when you're freezing isn't the most exciting thing in the world, but you kind of have to treat it like a fun challenge and see if you can make it work. What's the freakiest scene you've ever been a part of?A scene we did for a movie called Cindy, Queen of Hell. I was double-penetrating my wife with another man while we both had devil horns on in prosthetic makeup. It was set in the '80s, and we were playing Satan and Satan's Helper. It was pretty wild. And we shot it in a freaking airplane hangar. It was like 115 degrees that day. It was quite the challenge, but it was cool, and the scene ended up getting nominated at the 2016 AVN awards for the best double-penetration sex scene. How does boinking other people affect your marriage?I think it's made our relationship stronger. Obviously, there's context to that, and you can't really explain it in a few sentences, but Joanna and I were together for almost two years before I did any films, and I would say that our bond has grown stronger over the course of this crazy life. What do you get paid per film?It ranges from $500 to $1,300 per film. How many people are usually on-set during filming?It really varies. The bigger the company, the bigger the production. Some of the big, big companies, it looks just like a Hollywood movie set with grips and multiple lighting guys and audio guys and PAs running around. And then there are some smaller companies where it might just be a makeup artist, a camera guy and a lighting guy. At minimum, there's always a few, but I've been on sets where there's been 15, 20 people in the room.  What does your family think of your chosen profession? They're not into it. It's something we don't see eye to eye on, and that's OK. Is there anything you're unwilling to try? Not really. Part of being a male in this industry, and this is what Joanna always told me, is that if you're a real guy who wants to do this, you should be able to do anything. Any girl, any time, any place, with any dumb outfit on and on any surface. If you could bang anyone in the world, who would it be? Taylor Swift. I've been a fan for years, but somehow I think her family-friendly image doesn't quite vibe with mine. I doubt we'll be running into each other at the same parties. How long do you plan on doing porn? Until people don't want to see me do it anymore. Or until my dick breaks. Expose yourself to Thompson's small hands (and then some) by typing BurningAngel.com into the nearest incognito tab, or by searching for "Small Hands" on Google. It's a bit more extreme than The Bachelor, so don't say we didn't warn you.