The Grateful Red: Jayden Cole on Branding, Dancing & Performing

This is the cover story of the September issue of AVN magazine. Click here for the digital edition. LOS ANGELES—The star of the "Grateful Red Tour” knows that first impressions matter. So when Jayden Cole lands in a new city to headline a gentlemen’s club, she finds reasons to smile regardless what may be going on around her. "It's important to me no matter if I had a rough travel day or whatever to put it to the side and just present myself as a professional with a positive attitude that I’m happy to be there,” Cole says. “And that really sets the tone for the entire weekend. “It will always make it a good show. It doesn't matter if you had a bad day, if you got three hours of sleep… it really helps the weekend go very smoothly.” And thanks to her sunny personality, stunning look and electric stage presence, Cole has presided over countless smooth weekends at clubs across the country in the past decade, gaining hundreds of thousands of fans and collecting a few awards along the way. It’s no wonder why Cole’s weekly “Bathtub Tuesdays” live sessions have become appointment viewing. “I try to bring that to the live shows as well,” explains Cole, who made her porn debut in 2009 and has performed exclusively with women for her entire career. “It doesn't matter what's going on or what happened two hours before—if my doggo was sick or anything negative—putting that aside is super important. And just remembering that I am still a goofy, silly person and to allow people access to that I think is what helped me be successful.” Jayden’s success is a source of inspiration for seasoned entertainment executives such as Brian Rosenberg, who co-owns Gossip N.Y. in Long Island. The upscale club has become one of Cole’s favorite stops on the dance circuit for several reasons, not the least of which is because of the way Rosenberg advertises her shows. It was Rosenberg, the 37-year veteran concert and event promoter, who coined “Grateful Red Tour” years ago as a way to market one of Cole’s upcoming dance bookings. "I’m in the music business and for me everything I do needs themes,” Rosenberg tells AVN. “Everyone just does the generic. If it was a music group like The Rolling Stones you don’t just go out and say it’s ‘The Rolling Stones Tour.’ Whether it be a new album or an anniversary I believe when you go generic that’s just like dry toast. It’s just another day at the office for people in the industry. “But when you come up with something like the ‘Grateful Red Tour,’ I think it sparks interest that you normally wouldn’t get if it said, ‘Jayden Cole appears at so-and-so club.’” Rosenberg in the past seven years transformed Gossip into a premier nightlife destination on Long Island—now 30 percent of his customers are women who come in for the exclusive party atmosphere. “It’s more of a nightclub that has dancers than a strip club,” he says, adding that his stake in Gossip is separate from his Brian Rosenberg New York (BRNY) company that produces concerts for top recording artists. He recalls when he first connected with Cole that “we had an inauspicious start.” “I had an agent put me in touch with her and she was very cautious about her personal number. So we got off to a tough start but once we got to know each other, the second time she appeared I put the theme to it,” Rosenberg says. “Her fans love to come out and the red comes from her red hair. She’s developed quite a following on Long Island. … She’s a friend and I’m glad it worked out for her.” Did it ever. To say Cole took that slogan and ran with it would be an understatement. Not only does she now use it as her main Instagram—it had been her backup page—she also uses the website URL to direct to her Hubzter profile with all her social media links to go with a line of Grateful Red merchandise that includes mugs, magnets, coasters, mousepads and t-shirts that can be purchased through Shopify.com. “I actually started just hash-tagging it on all of my upcoming feature dancing events, like the ‘#GratefulRedTour is coming.’ I love it,” Jayden says. Call it Brand Goals. And make no mistake, 15 years after Cole first appeared in the pages of Playboy for their “Girls of the OC” pictorial, her brand is stronger than ever. For starters, Cole stands among a rare group of performers who have had longevity doing only lesbian sex scenes for their entire career. Now without question one of the top all-girl performers in the industry, Cole enters the fall of 2021 with the type of resume befitting of a future AVN Hall of Famer. In addition to starting off as a Playboy model, her titles include Penthouse Pet, Twisty’s Treat, Danni Girl, Juliland JGrrl of the Month, Strip LV cover girl, pole dance marathoner and three-time Exotic Dancer award-winner. Cole won Exotic Dancer Magazine’s Best Newcomer Feature Entertainer in 2011 and then a year later was named Miss ExoticDancer.com. In 2016, she captured the coveted prize of Club Favorite Feature at the Exotic Dancer Awards, which are widely regarded as the highest honor in the gentlemen’s club industry. A perennial AVN Awards contender who has become a fixture in AVN’s most prestigious all-female performing category, Cole has amassed more than 300 credits since 2009. Adult industry vet Lisa Sloane tells AVN she has known Cole since just about the beginning of her career, doing her hair and makeup for many years and now occasionally booking her through her agency, Sloane Models. “I can’t say enough great things about her,” Sloane says. “I think she’s always stayed classy. She’s so sweet to everyone. She’s very responsible and she’s absolutely beautiful. “She’s come a long way. I remember back in the day when she was Exotic Dancer of the Year I would travel to Vegas with her and do her makeup.” Sloane, who also is an experienced production manager that worked for Gamma for six years, considers Cole part of her family. “She just has this vibe about her,” Sloane continues. “She has a lot of charisma. Her live presence is extremely comfortable. Her fans feel like they know her.” The way Cole connects with her audience is not lost on Moose, the owner and president of iconic lesbian studio Girlfriends Films, where she has amassed no less than 38 credits alone. Jayden has appeared in five volumes of the most awarded all-female series in porn history, Women Seeking Women, beginning with Vol. 86 in 2012. She also has starred in four editions of Pin-Up Girls, four volumes of Lesbian Seductions and three installments of Lesbian House Hunters. “From the first time she was booked, I think everyone could see that Jayden Cole was a classic Girlfriends girl,” Moose tells AVN. “She fit right in on the set, always friendly and professional. “Jayden has that timeless quality, perfect for our Pin-Up Girls series and the kind of versatility fans really could dig. So she was cast in some of our most popular series.” Moose adds, “There aren’t many performers who can pull off mainstream and adult, much less only girl/girl. But Jayden is truly the epitome of a star, and we feel very lucky to have had the honor of featuring her in so many of our titles.” Jayden says she loves performing for Girlfriends Films because she’s always up for “something different.” “Each company is different to shoot for,” she says. “Penthouse is a long day, but you get super glammed up and it's your Penthouse family. It's just such a different experience… But with Girlfriends Films, it feels so natural and it feels so comfortable. And it feels so inviting for you to be yourself.” Not surprisingly, Cole has become a regular in Elegant Angel’s annual showpiece, Lesbian Performers of the Year, directed by Pat Myne. In the 2021 edition, Jayden paired off with Adira Allure. “I honestly think it was my best one for Performers of the Year,” Jayden confesses. “This was like a culmination of all the years that I'd done it, even though I love all the girls I've worked with for that particular series. “Elegant Angel was one of those companies that I was a fan of before I got in the industry. Even when I was in the industry when I first started the Asa Akira, Tori Black and Alexis Texas showcases were coming out from Elegant Angel. And I thought they were the most amazing movies. I would watch the trailers all the time. … And I was like, this is why I got into porn—to do stuff like this. Just the high-end gonzo aspect of it was always my favorite.” *** Now a full-time resident of Las Vegas with a second home in Montana, Cole was born in Huntington Beach, Calif., and moved to south Georgia when she was 12. “I'm a Georgia girl. I'm a girl raised in the south. I know what it's like to only have a Walmart for a two-hour radius,” she jokes. “I think that's why I got so comfortable feature dancing in small towns.” When Cole moved back to Southern California when she was 18, she got a job at Disneyland in Anaheim for a few months. She was a performer in the Disneyland parade and even played Snow White. “And then I also got approved as the fairy in Pinocchio for the parade. But I never ended up getting booked to do it,” Jayden adds. It was a fun job, but didn’t pay much, she says. “And then I just started waitressing because it allowed me a lot more freedom. But I ended up working like two waitressing jobs,” Jayden continues. She cocktail waitressed and bartended at a local bar in Orange County and also worked in Oceanside, Calif., at the harbor. “There was a fish restaurant that was super fancy,” Cole says. “So it was right on the harbor. We got to serve people during the sunset and people that worked on the boats, and I thought it was beautiful. I literally worked on the harbor during the sunset during cocktail hour. “I was just sort of really into making money and eventually wanted to start my own business of some sort. I just hadn't quite nailed it yet.” She remembers submitting her photos to Playboy on a whim when she was 19, living in Long Beach. While at the test shoot at Playboy’s studio in Santa Monica she filled out a questionnaire with all her interests, naming surfing as one of them. That caught the attention of the model recruiter. "So that was the setup,” Jayden recalls. “When I got to the shoot that day it was me like leaning against a surfboard with a bunch of scuba dive equipment. I was like, ‘This is dope. This is exactly what I would have thought about.’ "I was surprised to see how much Playboy really allows the models to be involved with the set. I was very impressed.” Cole’s first shoot with Playboy also marked the first time she had been naked in front of lots of people. “I was very excited to do it. I was confident. I was feeling good about myself,” Cole says. “It was so cool to have like a wardrobe lady and a makeup lady. It was very calm, cool, collected. I wanted to try to make it as normal of a workday as possible.” *** Cole explains that she always had adult in the back of her mind. So about three years after her Playboy issue hit the newsstands, she took action, researching adult talent agencies and getting a meeting with L.A. Direct Models owner Derek Hay. She was still working her two bartending and waitressing jobs when she sat down with Hay. Cole says her rationale was why not? “I want to try this while I don't have any any commitments within a monogamous relationship. I don't have kids. I’m off on my own. This is the time I want to explore it and see if it's something I'd be interested in doing,” Jayden says was her thinking at the time. “I recall having girl/girl always be sort of not really necessarily a goal, but definitely something I was open to and I really wanted to try.” Cole continues, “I’ve only been promiscuous with women in my personal life. I was never really promiscuous with men. So that wasn't something I thought about doing. But with girls I was like, ‘Oh my god, can you imagine like hooking up with this beautiful girl and getting glammed up.’ It just seemed like such a fantasy. “So I had Tuesdays and Fridays off. I gave Derek those two days to see if I was comfortable and I liked the experience. And I would get booked every Tuesday and Friday and then eventually I had to add on more days because I was enjoying it.” *** It did not take long once Jayden hit the all-girl performing scene for mainstream producers to notice her, leading to several opportunities to act in softcore films. Her softcore debut came in Bikini Frankenstein in 2010. A natural on camera, she appeared in more than 10 other B-movies in the ensuing years. Perhaps Cole’s most notable role was as Melissa in Season 2 of the popular series Life on Top in 2011. “We went to Romania. Heather Vandeven was the other co-star and she was amazing to work with,” Jayden says. “And she was like the big sister leading me down the whole process of shooting a series, which so different. “I don't think I'll ever have an experience in my life compared to it. It was really exciting to be there for six weeks and just throw yourself into one project. And it was before social media. So it wasn't like all of us were on our phones the whole time. We were connecting.” A former competitive show jumper who started riding horses at age 5 and competed until she was 12, Cole says her life is coming full circle in some aspects as she has rediscovered her passion for the scene while in Montana. Her sense of adventure extends to the sea, too. Cole also loves scuba diving because she enjoys “just being somewhere where nobody else is.” “And nobody else wants to be,” Jayden says. “The scuba dive instructor was telling me that they now have scuba dive masks where you can talk to each other and he was like, ‘That defeats the whole purpose.’ “The whole point is that you're in nature, immersed in nature. But the people get scared of sharks or whatever… I haven't been. I was always that kid that would watch Shark Week every week. I'm not afraid of sea creatures at all. They kind of just look at you like you're just a weird, hairless ape down there. They don't know what you're doing. They don't really care. They don't judge.” Meanwhile, Cole says her journey in adult has made her feel “more stable and confident in who I am.” “I really haven’t changed that much,” she says. “I’ve just learned that it’s OK to be silly and goofy. You can still work hard and not take yourself too seriously. “That balance has come a lot more natural to me.” Photography by Miles Long