


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.

| Food |
Mexican (my home made chicken
enchiladas), Chinese, Italian, and Dark Chocolate! |
| Bands |
KISS, Poison, Mötley Crüe |
| Singers |
Ronnie James Dio, Sebastian Bach, Tom Keifer,
Stephen Pearcy |
| Guitarists |
Jake E. Lee, Vivian Campbell |
| 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. |



