


Rock Candy is produced and hosted
by Troy Correia. Troy got interested in music and entertainment when
he was about seven years old. His first musical interest was "The
Partridge Family". Troy says "I was the oldest of three kids so I
had no one to influence what I listened to. The Partridge Family was
right there on TV and had kids my age playing in a famous band. I
guess it was easy to relate to for me. Back then, I wanted to be like
David Cassidy. He was cool, had long hair and the girls were interested
in him."
A couple years later came the DeFranco
Family, again with kids close to Troy's age that were famous and making
records. As a teenager he discovered Alice Cooper and by fourteen
was introduced to the music of KISS by his good friend Steve Acquistapace.
"I had seen pictures of KISS in my Columbia House Record Club catalog
and thought they looked pretty wild. I always liked things that were
different. When Steve lent me his Destroyer album, that changed my
life forever. Since 1976 KISS has been my favorite band and Hard Rock
& Heavy Metal my favorite type of music. I'll admit that I had to
make myself listen to Destroyer a few times before I took to it" says
Troy.
Although he favors Heavy Metal, Troy
likes many different types of music. His collection contains everything
from his favorites in Metal (KISS, Poison, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper)
to Rock (The Babys, Boston, Rod Stewart), Big Band & Jazz (Glen Miller,
Billie Holiday), Top 40 & Pop (Olivia Newton John, Belinda Carlisle,
Abba, Neil Diamond), Disco (Saturday Night Fever, Disco Hits). "The
only things that I don't listen to is Alternative / Grunge, Country,
and Rap. They just don't appeal to me" states Troy.
Troy has always aspired to be involved
in the entertainment field. Troy's background in television and entertainment
started when he was very young. Starting out musically playing drums,
he later turned to guitar briefly and finally settled on playing bass.
In elementary school Troy wrote and performed in two plays, "A Christmas
Before Christ" and "The Last of the Daredevils". Both performed in
sixth grade with the later performed to four sixth grade classes.
In High School Troy took a year of Drama, three years of Filmmaking,
and a semester of Tech Theater (where they built the sets for the
school plays). Troy spent a lot of time during high school working
on short movie projects.
From the time he was fourteen until
he was twenty-one, Troy headed up a group known as the KISS Impersonators.
During their eight year run, the group dressed up like KISS and made
appearances all around their hometown of Fremont, California each
Halloween from 1976 to 1983 and again in 1986. Troy created most of
the costumes from scratch using newspaper patterns he would make himself,
then turning them in to elaborate finished full costumes. They looked
very much like the real thing once completed.
During their run, The KISS Impersonators
put on two lip-synch concerts with KISS replica stage sets, visited
elementary schools all over town each Halloween, and made a visit
to the hospital to see sick kids that could not get out to Trick-or-Treat.
They also made a nineteen minute movie (produced, directed, and written
by Troy) titled "KISS and the Mad Scientist" which in the past few
years has began circulating across the U.S. amongst KISS fans. To
top this all off, they made the local Fremont paper, the Argus, twice.
Making the front page in 1980 and making the Community section in
1983. Troy also made it in to 16 Magazine in 1981. In 1984 the group
made it in to Star Hits Magazine.
The KISS Impersonators 1980

Troy as Gene Simmons, Joey Capelli as Ace Frehley,
Bin Avery as Eric Carr, & Tim Branson as Paul Stanley
After high school, Troy went on to junior College where he studied
film for three semesters, took one year of sound recording, and
also gained a certificate in photography.
In the late 80's Troy put together
the Kiss Tribute Band "Black Diamond", that never got off the ground
due to lack of dedication from some members. From there he began
working on material for a solo demo to draw interest from other
musicians in order to form an original band under the same name.
Over a six month period Troy wrote several songs with his friend
Dave Hoeflin. At that point, Dave liked Troy's ideas and asked about
working together in a band situation. That is when Troy felt things
were starting to take off in the right direction. After a year-and-a-half
of writing and demoing songs, the two hooked up with Drummer Chuck
Palansky and spent the next year rehearsing and auditioning singers.
"We had no luck finding a singer, but we all improved as musicians
and came up with a good amount of original material" said Troy.
In June of 1992 things fell apart. Chuck moved back to Arizona,
Dave hit the road with a Top 40 Band, and Troy was just getting
out of a long relationship and decided to take some time out.
A year later Troy tried to put things
back together. "No one was dedicated to investing what it takes
to make things happen so I gave up on working with other people
in a situation where you have to count on them" said Troy.
In 1993 Troy discovered Public Access
Television in Vacaville through his old music theory teacher Ralph
Martin. Troy says "In 1994 I came up with the idea for Rock Candy.
In February 1995, I took a class to become certified as an Access
Producer". Once certified, Troy began to contact record companies
in order to get things rolling. He spent six months trying to get
the show off the ground, but unfortunately most record companies
were not responding. Troy took a break through the holidays and
then started working at making Rock Candy a reality. It was not
until a year later in March 1996, that things started to come together
for Troy and Rock Candy. "Record companies were starting to respond
and I was able to get my first real interview lined up" remembers
Troy.
In May he was contacted by Anne
Leighton who was the publicist for Great White. By chance an interviewed
with the band was offered to Troy during the same time he was to
be in Southern California on vacation. Perfect timing and some luck
lined up his first interview with a top name band. " I feel
this really opened the door to get Rock Candy off the ground"
says Troy.
Taping for Rock Candy began in April
1996 and by June three episodes were in the can and ready to air.
The show kicked off in Vacaville on June 27, 1996. "The feedback
was slow but by early 1997, the viewers were letting me know that
they really liked what I was doing and the positive response just
continued to grow" states Troy. "I always enjoy hearing from people
that state they really enjoy the show. Since I don't make any money
doing this, it actually costs me quite a bit at times, their response
is my payback".
Troy says "I really enjoy doing
the shows. Since I handle about 98% of all production, I don't have
to worry about anyone else not being as dedicated to the cause.
At times though, it does become very demanding. Especially since
it is all volunteer time and work. I do get to meet a lot of nice
people (the viewers) and get to associate with and interview really
cool bands. With any luck, these shows will lead me into a real
TV host or acting job. I can't express enough how much I appreciate
everyone that watches, writes, or talks to me out on the street.
Thanks"!
Rock Candy had been on the air for
over 11 years before it went on hiatus. Troy's reaction to that
is "I am kind of surprised at how popular the show became.
I knew it was a good idea and hoped people would watch. Once they
did and the response was coming in, I was pretty amazed." There
have been several times over the years that Troy almost gave up
doing the show due to problems at Access in Vacaville, a very busy
personal life, as well as wanting to pursue an actual career in
the entertainment field. Troy had continued to keep the show going
when time permitted, "It gets tough at times and I have almost
called it quits on a few occasions. But it's too hard to do when
I love doing it so much and the show has a dedicated following.
It's too hard to just walk away."
Troy has produced a few other shows
for Public Access since 1995. His first side project was "Trivia
Quest" which first aired with the first episode of Rock Candy.
Another of Troy's productions, and
a very popular one at that, was "Rock Talk". "Rock
Talk was the result of eliminating our "Hot Wire" Music
News segment from Rock Candy. Those segments took an hour or more
to produce for a two minute piece. By developing Rock Talk as a
live call in show, it allowed me to give the viewers music news,
take their calls and answer their questions, and give me a better
idea of how much of a following Rock Candy actually had" said
Troy. The show ran from January 1997 to June 1999. "The reason
I gave up Rock Talk was because we were having a lot of problems
at Access 15 with producers coming in an rewiring the whole place
when they were not supposed to be touching any of that. It got to
the point where you could not count on going in and flipping a few
switches and being live on the air, so I called it quits. I was
not the only producer having these problems. Eventually several
producers lost interest in Access 15 and gave up producing shows
all together.
Troy also produced several episodes
of "Music Vision" and "Rock Candy Sound Bytes".
Music Vision had a short run and featured a half hour of back to
back music videos that the record companies sent Troy but did not
fit the Rock Candy format. Rock Candy Sound Bytes was an occasional
show that is basically radio on TV. It was hosted by Troy who played
cuts off of new albums from hard rock and heavy metal artists. "It's
was a way to let people hear new music from bands that are not making
videos or getting radio air play" said Troy.
In 2002, Troy produced and hosted
three episodes of a live free form talk show called "Free For
All". Unfortunately a change in his work schedule caused the
show to be put on hold indefinitely and then eventually shelved.
Troy says his other interests include
"Comedy - either watching it on TV or going out to a comedy club.
In 2007 Troy began doing stand-up comedy at open mics and has continued
to do that as he has time and is having a lot of fun with it. He
is also interested in Art, I'm always drawing or creating something.
I love animation art and old cartoons. Reading when ever I have
a chance. I never have enough time to read near as much as I would
like to. I have several other interests, but not enough time to
keep up with them. Troy also tries to work out a few times a week".
In 2005 he got his first gig as
an extra in the E! Channel TV show "My Crazy Life". Troy
hopes to move on and pursue an actual job in the entertainment field
in the near future.
Did You Know? Troy's
first appearance on television was in December 1982 on
the game show Starcade.

| Food |
Mexican (my home made chicken
enchiladas), Chinese, Italian, and Dark Chocolate! |
| Drink |
7-Up, Canada Dry Green Tea Ginger
Ale |
| Bands |
KISS, Poison, Mötley Crüe |
| Singers |
Ronnie James Dio, Sebastian
Bach, Tom Keifer, Stephen Pearcy, Ann Wilson |
| Guitarists |
Jake E. Lee, Vivian Campbell |
| Drummers |
Tommy Aldridge, Eric Carr, Tommy
Lee |
| Album
(of all time) |
Lita Ford - Dangerous Curves |
| TV Show
|
Twilight Zone (All time favorite)
Pawn Stars, American Pickers, Storage Wars (Current Favorites)
Two and a half Men, That 70's Show
|
| Movies |
When Harry Met Sally, Back To
The Future, Planet of the Apes (the original), National Lampoon's
Christmas Vacation. |


