Gary Telgenhoff

Steve Marcus

Gary Telgenhoff’s day job as a medical examiner in the Clark County coroner’s office influences his night job as writer of heavy-metal songs for his band.

By Abigail Goldman (contact)

Monday, Aug. 25, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Gary Telgenhoff is a dark human being. He’s also a doctor. The Clark County medical examiner does autopsies by day and writes morose heavy-metal music by night, as the front man of band Skinner Rat.

Next month, Telgenhoff’s newest album, “You Kill Me,” comes out, featuring Blue Oyster Cult current and former members Eric Boom and Danny Miranda.

What don’t people know about being a medical examiner?

There is no black and white in this profession. You study medicine, but what you see every day is really not based on hard science. You get stuck with cases in the gray zone. You rely on daily experience, street smarts, common sense and other ingredients.

Does your work influence your music?

Directly. My music is about what I do. I was a musician before I went to medical school, but I had no ideas for tunes. As soon as I got into the profession, ideas started falling from the sky and I can’t stop writing. Everything I do really wraps up into one strange package.

You give slide show presentations of curious deaths — do you delight in grossing people out?

I enjoy it and I feel safe doing it because I’ve found almost everybody has this side to them. Everybody has got that morbid curiosity and I exploit that. Why not?

What is it about the work of behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner that prompted you to name your group after him?

He showed how behavior can be influenced. I see the way we are socialized is the way we behave; not only are movies and music reflecting culture, they’re forming culture. I see a lot of the result of that in the morgue.

What scares you?

People who have no self-imposed control. Extremists. People that can’t use logic, that I can’t present an argument to. People who are so sure of what they believe that they ignore all other evidence. Ignorant superstition scares me. In 2008, I’m not sure we have progressed much from the cave.

Has your job made you a misanthrope?

I was a dark person before, but this job hasn’t helped. I have a lot more faith in human nature, I know what people are going to do — the wrong thing. I was born a little adult, and I spent a lifetime perfecting cynicism.