JULILAND NEWS: Welcome the newest addition to our Juliland Universe… Troy Michael. From the moment Troy Michael saw “Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park” on Halloween of 1978, he knew he wanted to be in music.
As his life progressed, Troy immersed himself in any music that he could get his hands on. In fact, he candidly remembers watching countless hours of MTV (when MTV was actually cool) and waiting anxiously for the latest issues of Metal Edge, Hit Parade, or Kerrang to hit the shelves. Troy even took up guitar in the sixth grade when he saw a Def. Leopard on MTV for the very first time. Needless to say, music shaped Troy’s life.
With his dreams of becoming the next guitar god like idol George Lynch of Dokken, Troy hung out at the local indie CD store, which was nearly his second home. He would constantly ask for a job, and finally after years of persistence, he scored a weekend gig selling music. It was about time! This amazing opportunity ended up leading to another music job, weekdays at a local “mall chain store,” in which he would become the manager. But when the music industry started to change and indie CD stores were becoming dinosaurs, Troy still managed to find another job at an indie CD store on the local University of Illinois campus. It was at this time that he also started to follow his passion of writing.
A late bloomer, Troy’s “career” didn’t really kick off until he hit 30. Fed up with what editors told him what he could and couldn’t write about, Troy decided on starting his own publication – an indie magazine that would not only cover bigger name artists, but would cater to the fledging indie bands that just needed to get their name out there.
Innocent Words Magazine, Troy’s baby, was launched in February of 2002 and recently celebrated its 10th anniversary! Going from a print to an on-line-only publication, Innocent Words continues to thrive to this day, and Troy still has that same passion for music he did back in 1978…
Leave A Comment