goldy

Once upon a time, there was a bold little girl filled with curiosity, talent and determination who suddenly found herself in a world of extreme risk and wild opportunity. But this particular blonde babe ain’t looking for porridge. As for the bears, know that she could – and would – kick their hairy butts. So shut your pie hole, because this is no fairy tale. This is the story of Goldy Locks, the hard-rocking, straight-talking 100% Hardass American Woman.
She’s a songwriter, a guitar slinger and a professional wrestling personality who plays three instruments, designs her own line of clothing and sings in five languages. But for Goldy Locks, that’s just the beginning of a career filled with outrageous creative contradictions. “I know that I say I don’t care what people think, and I don’t,” she laughs. “But I do care when what I do makes people happy. I’m just a normal chick from Minnesota, but I’m doing so many things. And if I can do it, anyone can. I grew up without a lot of opportunity or resources. And what I learned was that if you really want something you need to shut up, get off your ass and do something about it.”
Born to Harley-riding, music-loving hippie parents, Goldy’s real name – no kidding – is Moon Shadow. And for a little blonde girl growing up in a "financially challenged" neighborhood in North Minneapolis, it was only the beginning of a lifetime of being different. “I had to be tough,” she remembers. “I was one of the only white kids in my neighborhood, but I wasn’t raised to see color. I thought I could be friendly with everyone. It was funny; the older I got, the more black kids accepted me for who I was and became my friends. And it was the white kids that beat me up for that.”
Throughout her childhood, Goldy’s obsession with music reached epic proportions. But with no money for professional instruments or formal musical training, the precocious Catholic schoolgirl had to devise an ingenious way to buy her first keyboard. “I saw where a grocery store in a really bad part of town was having a two-for-one coupon sale on Ho-Hos and Twinkies. So I went down to this store and stood outside the door whispering that I would buy people’s food stamps. People would sell me a dollar’s worth of government food stamps for 50 cents, or $10 in food stamps for $5. I had my own two-for-one sale going. Then I’d take the food stamps and the coupons and buy a ton of Twinkies and Ho-Hos. Back in Catholic school, we had ‘fasting weeks’ during lent where you were only supposed to eat the sour gruel that they served you. I’d smuggle Ho-Hos into school taped onto my legs under my skirt, then sell them under-the-table for a buck. When my parents found out, all they could do was laugh. I was making some serious money.” Before long, Goldy had purchased keyboards, guitars and a violin and soon taught herself to play them all.
By high school, Goldy’s fierce individuality continued to rattle cages. “I’m very sensitive, but I’m can also be a tough bitch,” she says. “I was raised to never judge people, but at the same time, people have always judged me. I was always different. I dressed colorfully and was always outspoken. I would stand up for the ‘rejects’ that were being picked on, so I got the shit kicked out of me all the time. But even when it was five-on-one, I held my own. By the end of high school, my attitude hadn’t changed so I figured that I might as well get paid for it and become an entertainer.”
Goldy had already begun to write and produce her own songs, performing anywhere there was an audience and banging on every door within the Minneapolis music scene. “I was,” she admits, “a total pest.” Soon she was in the studio with some of the city’s hottest musicians, including alumni of The Time and Prince’s Paisley Park. By 1999, her first batch of demos had landed her opening spots for artists like L’il Zane and Pink, as well as the attention of independent label Futuristic Records. In 2000, Futuristic released Goldy’s single “Kiss,” a song she’d written and recorded in English, French and Spanish versions. Within weeks, the edgy funk track had become a runaway regional hit, remaining a Top 10 smash for over 17 weeks. In addition to concert gigs throughout the Midwest, Goldy performed at high schools all over country for D.A.R.E and at military bases all over the world for the U.S.O. Her website (which she also designed) averaged 70,000 visits per month, including rabid fanbases in Latin America, France and especially Japan, where she’d been asked back to perform seven times. “Audiences there went wild,” she laughs. “Apparently they don’t see a lot of blonde girls speaking and singing in Japanese.”
But while “Kiss” brought her international attention, it wasn’t the musical direction that Goldy wanted to follow. “There was a lot of cookie cutter pop stuff out there,” she remembers. “And the I didn’t see myself as the diva with the background dancers and a headset.” Instead, Goldy went back to her true roots: a hard-rocking, hardcore American Smartass. “This is what I always wanted to do,” she says proudly. “I’m playing guitar, singing hard and fronting a wild live band. It allows me to be spontaneous. Plus I’m playing to a much older audience than I used to. I grew up, and so did my fans. The music is edgy hip-hop, hard rock and a little bit of everything in between. When I leave a show, I know I’ve been real.”
It was one of Goldy’s ass-kicking concerts that brought her to the attention of professional wrestling organization NWA/TNA. The up-and-coming franchise was looking for a smart-mouthed and dynamic but intelligent hottie to anchor the backstage mayhem of their weekly live pay-per-view telecasts, and the 100% Hard Ass American Woman was the perfect choice. “I just go out and be me,” Goldy says, “and it’s a wild world to be apart of. It’s a new league, and these guys are all working their butts off to prove themselves. They come out of the ring bruised and battered and I don’t ever hear them complain. Their attitude is that this is what they’ve signed on for. It’s a lesson we can all learn from. Plus, I’m one of the only chicks backstage and in the locker room. I try to act like I’m not looking, but holy shit!”
These days, the real ‘holy shit’ comes from Goldy’s new music, a one-of-a-kind combination of chunky riffs, melodic vocals and blunt attitude that rocks like a Detroit muscle car with ghetto speakers on a backcountry washboard road. And with her EP “Sometimes,” Goldy delivers a classic anthem that both shakes and kicks ass with the chorus ‘Sometimes I wanna, $..%&@ explode-Sometimes I wanna, I wanna just unload-Sometimes I wanna kick & scream-Sometimes I wanna be left alone to live my little dream.’ “Subtle, right?” Goldy laughs. “You can consider that song to be my true feeling in life…Sometimes.”
If there’s one thing Goldy has proven so far, it’s that anything is possible. “The best thing my dad ever taught me was that the worst people can say is ‘No.’ That lesson is in my head, my heart and in every step I take every day. I’m gonna keep doing everything that I want to do. For me, that’s as real as it gets.” For everyone else, the proof is in the music she writes, the band she fronts, the crowds she rocks and the songs she sings. Once upon a time, there was a bold little girl who did it all. But fairy tales are for kids. The 100% Hard Ass American Woman has arrived. And the Goldy Locks story has only just begun.