The KISS Impersonators 1980

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. 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 with Dave and his friend Jerry Ramirez on drums. "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 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 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 pay back".

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 the Public Access station, 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." Unfortunately Troy's work schedule became too great to keep the show up and it was put aside until he can dedicate time to it again.

In February 2014 Troy finally secured the Rock Candy name as a Registered Trademark. Troy explains "It took years to secure the name. Back in the early 2000's VH1 actually took the name for a music show that only lasted one episode. Before the VH1 show hit the air I was contacted by a lawyer in San Francisco that informed me of their using the name. Somehow he was aware of my show. There was no way I could have afforded to fight a big company like VH1 for the name even though I had been using if for more then five years and would have easily won. Their trademark rights ran out five years later and I eventually went after the name again only to have it held up for a few more years. Now that I have the name secured you can be sure I will eventually get Rock Candy back up and running."

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 the "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, 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 the Public Access station 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 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 that 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 "Free For All" to be put on hold indefinitely, then eventually shelved since he no longer had time to try and focus on two shows.

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 said.

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.

On July 24, 2018, Troy launched a Rock Candy Podcast that is a sort of radio version of the TV show. Within a month, the show was in the Top 5 on the Podomatic Metal Charts. The show finally hit #1 just shy of being in production for three months. For the next month and a half to two months, it bounced up and down in the Top 3 before dominating the #1 position until Troy pulled the plug on the show in July of 2019. "I had other priorities come up in my life and I didn't have time to continue prodiucing the show so I put it on hiatus. I would love to bring it back at some point, but it has to be at the level of quality I expect from it. Even though it's a hobby, it has to be done at a professional level."

Did You Know? Troy's first appearance on television was in December 1982 on the game show Starcade.