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."

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, Alice Cooper, Motley Crue) 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 continues 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 has been on the air for over 9 years now. 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 past few 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 has continued to keep the show going though, "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." With his business venture of Correia Productions becoming a full time operation, Troy has had to slow production down but hopes to get things back on track once the business takes off.

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. "I've been the only one to continue on on a regular basis" relates Troy.

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. For now, Troy is concentrating on Rock Candy and Correia Productions.

Troy says his other interests include "Comedy - either watching it on TV or going out to a comedy club. 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. I try to work out a few times a week too. I also enjoy to going to Disneyland each year and getting away to Tahoe when I can. In 2001 I took my first trip to Las Vegas and I plan to make that a get away destination too."

On a personal note, Troy has been single since October 2004 and is currently looking to find that special someone to settle down with.

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. Until then, look for more of his work on Access Television.

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

 

Color Black
Food Mexican (my home made chicken enchiladas), Chinese, Italian, and Dark Chocolate!
Drink Pepsi
Bands KISS, Poison, Mötley Crüe
Singers Ronnie James Dio, Sebastian Bach, Tom Keifer, Stephen Pearcy
Guitarists Jake E. Lee, Vivian Campbell
Bassist Steve Harris
Drummers Eric Carr, Tommy Aldridge, Tommy Lee
Album (of all time) Lita Ford - Dangerous Curves
TV Show

Twilight Zone (All time favorite)
Two and a Half Men, That 70's Show (Current Favorites)

Movies Planet of the Apes (the original), Back To The Future, When Harry Met Sally, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

 



Rock Candy Web Pages Created and Designed by Correia Productions.

Rock Candy is a non profit television show produced for Public Access Television.
"Rock Candy" is a Trademark.
© 1996 - 2005 Correia Production