BUY THE RECORD. NOT THE BOD.
- Aug 12
- 10 min read
Only Talent Is Becoming a Movement, and It Started With One Really Bad Piece of Advice
There are moments in a career when someone gives you advice so insightful that it changes your direction. Then there are moments when someone gives you advice so completely unexpected that it changes your direction for an entirely different reason. Only Talent began with the latter. Goldy Locks was having a conversation with a longtime colleague, a highly successful entertainment executive, a billionaire, about taking the next step in her music career. She wasn't asking for money or a favor. She was looking for introductions, management possibilities, performance opportunities and the kind of guidance one naturally seeks from someone who has spent years at the highest levels of the business. His advice was surprisingly simple, start an OnlyFans.
For Goldy, the suggestion landed somewhere between disappointing and fascinating. She had spent decades performing, recording and touring, along with more than twenty years working in professional wrestling, television, photography and media. She had a record deal with Prince in Chanhassen Minnesota. She had built businesses, written songs, released records and spent most of her adult life figuring out how to survive in industries famous for changing the rules while you're still playing the game. Yet in a conversation specifically about advancing her music, the answer somehow had nothing to do with music.
It would have been easy to dismiss the exchange as one more strange entertainment industry story. Instead, Goldy became interested in what it said about the larger culture surrounding artists. If someone with decades of experience could look at an accomplished female performer asking about career advancement and immediately suggest monetizing her body, what message was being sent to the twenty year old singer trying to break through for the first time?
That question became Only Talent, and Only Talent quickly found its voice in a phrase that was playful enough to make people smile and pointed enough to make them think, Buy The Record. Not The Bod. If audiences were willing to invest in access to an artist's body, perhaps they could also be reminded to invest in the songs, albums and performances that artist had spent years learning how to create.
The first photograph captured that contradiction perfectly. Goldy, owner and photographer of The Factory Photography by Goldy, conceived and photographed the original Only Talent concept, posing behind stacks of her own albums and using the records themselves to strategically cover her body. At first glance the image appeared provocative, but the joke became obvious almost immediately. The thing people might have expected to see was hidden behind the very thing Goldy actually wanted them to notice. The body got your attention, but the records had something to say.
From the beginning, Only Talent was never intended to criticize sexuality or dictate how anyone else should present themselves. Goldy has spent much of her life in rock and roll, professional wrestling, and entertainment, so suggesting that she suddenly developed an objection to provocative imagery would be rather difficult to sell. Image can be fun. Sexuality can be empowering. Fashion, theater and visual identity have always been part of music. The concern begins when self-expression quietly becomes expectation, and when young artists start believing that being talented is no longer enough to earn attention.
That distinction is especially important in an era when artists are expected to be musicians, content creators, marketers, videographers, personalities and their own miniature media companies. Social media has opened extraordinary doors for independent artists, but it has also created an exhausting competition for attention. There is always another post to make, another video to upload, another trend to chase and another algorithm to satisfy. Somewhere in the middle of all that activity is the person who originally entered the business because they loved making music.
As Only Talent began reaching people, something unexpected happened. Other artists started asking to participate. Musicians connected with the photographs, but more importantly, they connected with the conversation behind them. They had their own stories about being underestimated, judged by appearance, pressured to market themselves differently or simply trying to understand how to financially sustain a creative life in an industry where music has never been easier to hear and, paradoxically, can be incredibly difficult to make a living from.
That is when a campaign begins to become something more. One artist making a statement is personal. Artists with completely different backgrounds recognizing themselves in the same statement creates a conversation, and every person who joins Only Talent expands what that conversation can mean.
The financial side of making music is a major part of it. To a listener, a song simply appears on a phone. There is something wonderful about that accessibility, but it can also make everything behind the song nearly invisible. A three-minute recording may represent years of learning an instrument, countless songwriting sessions, studio time, producers, engineers, mixing, mastering, photography, artwork, videos, rehearsals, equipment and promotion. Taking that song on the road adds transportation, hotels, fuel, trailers, repairs, insurance and the many expenses that begin long before anyone walks through the doors of a venue.
Rod Saylor understands that reality particularly well. He has spent more than a decade behind the drums with The Goldy lockS Band, and audiences naturally see the best part of the job. They see the lights, the stage and the performance. They don't necessarily see the hours on the road, the equipment maintenance, rehearsals, loading, unloading, repairs and all the wonderfully unglamorous details required to make the glamorous ninety minutes happen.
Rod's participation also helps tell another side of the Only Talent story. The photo shoots may appear provocative from the outside, but the environment behind them is built around friendship, communication, trust and respect. The goal isn't simply to create an image that gets attention. The goal is to use that image to challenge the assumptions people bring to it. If someone stops because of a photograph and leaves thinking differently about the musician in that photograph, then the picture has done its job.
Guitarist Barron Lackey represents a new chapter for The Goldy lockS Band, but his connection to Only Talent goes much deeper than simply being the newest member. For more than fifteen years, Barron has taught guitar and watched students discover that music can give them confidence, purpose, and a way to express things they may not know how to say any other way. His own decision to pursue music full time came after losing his father, who had always supported his passion for guitar. Walking away from his day job became a way of honoring the bond they shared and the belief his father had placed in him.
That experience gives Barron an interesting perspective on what it actually means to become an artist, especially at a time when technology can make creativity appear almost instantaneous. He embraces the possibilities of new tools, but believes they should enhance creativity rather than replace the years of practice, discipline and personal investment that develop a musician. His place in Only Talent is a reminder that there is still enormous value in learning the instrument, putting in the hours and building a craft that belongs to you. Technology will continue to change, but the human being behind the music should never become optional.
Singer and songwriter Sarah Ashley brings a very different perspective. Sarah has spoken openly about living with a learning disability that affects reading and writing, an interesting obstacle for someone determined to become a songwriter. She continued anyway, developing her voice, writing, performing, and building a career as a recording artist, songwriter, mentor, and advocate.
Her involvement expands Only Talent beyond the original conversation about bodies. Artists are judged in countless ways before anyone hears a note. They can be considered too old, too young, too heavy, too thin, too unconventional or simply not marketable enough. Today they can even be judged by the number sitting beside their social media account. Sarah's story is a reminder that none of those measurements can tell you what someone is capable of creating.
Amy Jo brings another layer to the project because she sees the changing entertainment landscape both as an artist and as a mother of five. Young people are growing up in a world where followers, views, and engagement are visible measurements attached to nearly everything they do. Social media has democratized entertainment in extraordinary ways, allowing independent artists to reach audiences without waiting for a record company or gatekeeper to give them permission. At the same time, visibility and accomplishment can begin to look dangerously similar.
For veteran, songwriter and storyteller Dawn Rix, music has always been about connection. Her album Broken Pieces reflects a belief that the most powerful songs are not necessarily the ones engineered to chase attention, but the ones honest enough for listeners to recognize pieces of their own lives inside them. That is why Only Talent immediately made sense to her. Dawn has spent enough time creating to understand how easily the years of work behind an artist can disappear once attention shifts to image, numbers, and marketability.
Dawn believes an artist's value should come from talent, heart and work ethic, not from someone else's opinion of how marketable they may be. Her voice within Only Talent is particularly important for younger artists who are growing up surrounded by pressure to constantly adjust themselves for an audience. Her message is refreshingly simple, you should not have to become someone else to earn the right to be heard. Develop the craft, tell the truth, do the work and give people something real to connect with.
Nashville songwriter, producer and live sound engineer Zaymah Lee sees the music industry from angles most people never get to experience. She knows what happens in front of the microphone, but she also knows what happens behind the console, where countless technical decisions, creative choices and long hours turn an idea into the song an audience eventually hears. That perspective gives Zaymah an especially valuable place in Only Talent because so much of the work required to make music happens completely outside the spotlight, often performed by people whose names the listener will never know.
As a woman working throughout those different sides of entertainment, Zaymah also understands the impossible balance women are frequently asked to maintain. Embrace your femininity and someone may decide you are looking for attention, pull back from it and someone else may decide you are not marketable enough. For Zaymah, Only Talent offers a better conversation, one where confidence and individuality do not have to be sacrificed, but appearance never becomes more important than ability. Her music, centered around healing, self acceptance and finding peace within your own journey, makes her a natural voice for a movement asking people to look beyond the packaging and recognize the artist who did the work.
A viral moment can introduce an artist to millions of people, but building a career still requires something much less glamorous: time. Learning an instrument takes time. Developing a voice takes time. Writing great songs usually requires writing plenty of bad ones first. Learning how to command a stage requires actually standing on stages, including the small ones and the nearly empty ones. Amy Jo's perspective helps keep that part of the conversation alive for the generation coming behind her.
With Rod, Sarah, Amy Jo, Barron Lackey, Dawn Rix, Zaymah Lee, and other artists becoming involved, Goldy has watched Only Talent begin to move beyond her original experience. That may be the most important development of all. Both she & Rod have no interest in creating a movement that exists simply to celebrate The Goldy lockS Band. The goal is exactly the opposite. They want the idea to become large enough that their story eventually becomes just one of many.
A country singer should be able to stand beside a rock guitarist, a blues musician beside a pop artist, an independent songwriter beside an established touring performer. Someone playing to fifty people has a place in the conversation, and so does someone who has spent decades on major stages. Their careers do not have to look alike, because the common ground is not genre, age, image, or audience size. The common ground is the belief that creative work has value.
That is also why the larger vision reaches far beyond Nashville. Somewhere tonight, a songwriter is coming home from a day job and opening a notebook because an unfinished chorus is still bothering them. A drummer is loading equipment after midnight. A singer is paying for another recording session without knowing whether the investment will ever come back. A parent is fitting studio time between family responsibilities. An independent artist is releasing a song into an ocean of new music and hoping somebody, somewhere, hears it.
Those stories exist in Nashville, but they also exist in Los Angeles, London, Toronto, Sydney, and in thousands of cities most people would never associate with the music business. Goldy's larger hope for Only Talent is to document those people, not simply through provocative photographs, but through their experiences. The images can open the door, but the people behind them are what give the project meaning.
The word record remains important for the same reason. Buy The Record is not an argument against streaming. Streaming is one of the greatest discovery tools artists have ever had, and listeners absolutely should stream, share, playlist, and introduce music to friends. The message is simply asking people to remember that when an artist becomes meaningful to them, direct support matters too. Buy the album, pick up the shirt, attend the show, purchase the vinyl or tell someone else about the artist you discovered. Small actions become significant when enough listeners make them.
There is something wonderfully ironic about the fact that Only Talent exists because someone suggested Goldy start an OnlyFans. A conversation that could easily have been forgotten instead became a photograph, the photograph inspired a phrase, the phrase started a conversation, and now other artists are stepping into that conversation with experiences of their own. One questionable piece of career advice accidentally created something far more interesting than the advice itself.
No one knows exactly where Only Talent will go from here, and Goldy is perfectly comfortable with that. More artists are participating, more stories are emerging, and the possibility exists for the project to move into other cities and eventually other countries. If that happens, the movement should not look like one woman, one band or one genre. It should look like the creative community itself, complicated, diverse, imperfect, hardworking and endlessly determined to make something.
Eventually social media will move on to its next obsession. Photographs will age, trends will change, and the ways people consume music will continue evolving. What matters is whether artists are still able to afford the time, energy and expense required to make the next song.
Buy The Record. Not The Bod. may have begun with a wink and a little rebellion, but there is something deeply sincere underneath it. Before asking artists to reveal more, post more and continuously compete for another few seconds of our attention, perhaps we can remember to support the thing that brought them to us in the first place. Look at the photograph, laugh at the joke and enjoy the spectacle, but when the music starts, listen. If it means something to you, support the person who made it.
Support independent music: Buy, don’t just stream.
To discover more about The Goldy Locks Band and the Only Talent: Buy the Record, Not the Bod movement, visit GoldyLocksBand.com
This movement isn’t just for musicians; it’s for anyone who believes in real art and honest voices. Here’s how you can be part of it:
Buy directly from artists (digital or physical, it all counts).
Support independent bands by attending shows & sharing their work.
Use the hashtag #OnlyTalent & #BuyTheRecordNotTheBod to join the conversation.
Rethink your playlists — and support those who put heart into every track.
