"Again, talent is the real import of being in the business"
About this Quote
“Real import” is also telling. It’s slightly formal, almost corrective, like a reminder slipped into a conversation that’s gotten too transactional. Sherman isn’t just praising skill; he’s drawing a line between being in music as craft and being in music as commerce. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, he was a teen idol in a system that often treated performers as products first and musicians second. Coming from someone whose fame was tightly interwoven with television, marketing, and teen-magazine mythology, the insistence on talent reads less like branding and more like a defensive reclaiming of authorship.
The subtext is a quiet rebuke: if you’re in this “business” for the business, you’ll be hollowed out by it. Talent becomes the one durable asset, the thing that outlasts trends and survives the fickleness of attention. It’s an artist reminding the audience - and maybe himself - that legitimacy isn’t granted by spotlight. It’s earned in the work.
Quote Details
| Topic | Career |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Sherman, Bobby. (2026, January 17). Again, talent is the real import of being in the business. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/again-talent-is-the-real-import-of-being-in-the-51900/
Chicago Style
Sherman, Bobby. "Again, talent is the real import of being in the business." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/again-talent-is-the-real-import-of-being-in-the-51900/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Again, talent is the real import of being in the business." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/again-talent-is-the-real-import-of-being-in-the-51900/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.







