KING HEROD OR ROCK 'N' ROLL JESTER?GALEN HEROD TAKES YET ANOTHER STAB AT QUITTING HIS DAY JOB

Herod's now trying to get comfortable with knowing that Fix My Brain is finally in the bins. He says he's almost prepared for whatever happens next. He's putting the Skin People back together, and he's got "tons of new songs" ready to go. He also says he's willing to hit the road should the new CD warrant a tour, provided he and the rest of the band can find time away from careers and families.

Herod's own availabilities may have taken a hit recently when Channel 15 announced it was switching network affiliations from Fox to ABC. Until now, Herod's been able to balance music and TV to near blissful levels. He puts his promos together on an overnight shift, and spends his days working on songs at his home studio.

"There was a time when I hadn't played out in a while and I was down on my TV job," he says. "But when I went to play out, it was so humiliating and embarrassing, I couldn't wait to skedaddle back to the dark nighttime control room at the station, where nobody could laugh at what I was doing. There was a perfect point in there where music relieved the job and the job relieved music. That seems like a long time ago."

Still, Herod keeps learning.
A few years back, he was the director of a local late-night fright-flick show on Channel 15. The host was a guy who called himself Edmus Scarey. "One day he didn't show up," Herod says. "They told us he had hurt his back." In fact, Mr. Scarey was being held in Florida on child molestation charges. The TV ghoul was eventually convicted and served prison time. Co-workers were shocked. Herod took it personally.

"Here was an older guy who seemed to have it figured out," Herod recalls. "He'd have all these women picking him up at the station, everything. I was inspired. I would think, 'Finally, an older man, a single man in his 50s, doing his own thing. Maybe that'll stop people from thinking all people who go their own way like that are weird.'"

Herod shakes his head.
"Wrong again. I guess if you're not lock-step normal in this world, you really are doomed to failure. It's an incomplete story in my case. But I expect it. I expect doom and failure.