(LOS ANGELES, CA) — A previously undisclosed taped interview with then 16-year-old porn star Traci Lords has surfaced just days before her tell-all autobiography hits the bookstores, revealing her as “one seriously troubled teenage girl” who had sex with 500 men and 200 women. Obtained by the porn industry trade journal Adult Video News for its AVN.com Website, the interview is the only known recorded conversation in existence with Lords while she was an underage porn star.

Chicago journalist Bob Ellison taped the telephone interview in 1985 with Nora Louise Kuzma, then 16 years old, who was posing at the time as Kristie Nussman and working in the porn industry as Traci Lords. She was the biggest and soon to be the most controversial porn star of the 1980s, who nearly brought down the industry when it was revealed she was well under the legal age of 18 when she started performing. Her autobiography “Underneath It All” to be released nationwide later this week, says publisher HarperCollins, describes a world of “pain and desperation.” But the audio interview obtained by AVN reveals a teenager who apparently loved sex and the life she was leading.

“By 1985, after performing in more than 50 adult films and videos, Traci was dubbed one of the hottest sexual performers in porn history,” reports AVN. “She also appeared as the centerfold in the September 1984 issue of Penthouse in an issue featuring Vanessa Williams and George Burns on the cover. Traci’s secret was she was 16 1/2 years old and nobody but Traci knew the truth.” In the often-contradictory interview she claims to be 22, but also says she started acting one year earlier when she was 19.

“Many people in the porn industry will be anxious to see what Traci Lords will choose to present about her past,” according to Tim Connelly, Editor and Publisher of AVN. “Traci was known for being a nymphomaniacal woman-child who seemed wise beyond her years while simultaneously suffering from what some called the worst case of arrested development the world of porn had ever seen. She certainly gets tangled up in her own lies in this tape, particularly when it comes to discussing her age, her mother and her investments.”

Among the revelations on the tape:

– Ellison asked her, “How many men at this stage in your life, professionally or socially do you think you’ve slept with?” Lords responded, “I’d say about five hundred,” adding that she’d had sex with 200 women.

– Asked about her feeling about the porn industry, she replied: “I get paid for things I enjoy doing.” On the other hand, when asked what she did not like about the porn business, she said, “Sometimes I get a lot of jerks as the director. You get on set. They tell you how to f***. They tell you when to scream. And I don’t think that’s right. I think for the best results, you should just be able to go with what you feel and act how you want to act.”

– Asked whether she preferred having sex with men or women, she revealed she liked having sex with men more than with women, but when it was with women she liked them blonde and big breasted.

– When questioned about her personal life, she said she had had five or six boyfriends, each relationship lasting about two months. She said the boy friends stayed around “as long as instant breakfast lasts.”

– At one point she said her mother “answers my fan mail,” but when asked again about her mother’s reaction to her XXX films, she said: “Well, she’s not thrilled with it. She doesn’t like the movies but whatever makes me happy.” She said her mother was an airline stewardess in her 40s who gave birth her to her when she was 16 (which would actually have made her 38 at the time).

– She said she was investing her earnings, which included $1,000 to $1,500 for making an adult film: “I’m buying a condo in Palos Verdes…and, I already own a house in Redondo Beach. And I have a Corvette and I also own a Trans-Am.”

AVN.com points out that by the time word got out that Traci was underage for the majority of her career she had performed in more than 70 adult films, videos and loop carriers. Every movie and magazine with Traci Lords appearing in any way had to be recalled and destroyed at an enormous cost to the producers and publishers.

Subsequently, Nora legally changed her name to Traci Elizabeth Lords and has appeared in more than two dozen mainstream films, ranging from John Waters Cry Baby to winning a Best Actress at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. She’s also appeared in dozens of TV shows and made for television movies.