The lead singer of Crazy Town, who were behind the huge 2000s hit ‘Butterfly’, has died at the age of 49, according to the LA county Medical Examiner. Seth Binzer, who went by the stage name Shifty Shellshock, founded the band in LA alongside Bret Mazur in 1995. According to the County examiner’s website he died yesterday at his home, but no cause of death has yet been revealed.
Shifty Shellshock met Bret Mazur, his Crazy Town co-founder, in 1992 and they first began creating music together under the name Brimstone Sluggers. By 1999 they had changed their name to Crazy Town and had accumulated new members in Rust Epique, James Bradely Jr. (aka JBJ), Doug Miller, Adam Goldstein (aka DJ AM) and Antonio Lorenzo “Trouble” Valli. They released their debut album in November 1999 which was titled “The Gift of Game”. With the first two singles failing to even chart, their debut album had limited initial success.
Their fortune turned in 2000 however, as they released their third single, Butterfly, which sampled ‘Pretty Little Ditty’ by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, who they had toured with following the release of their first album. The song featured Shellshocks laid-back rapping with the signature lyric “Come my lady, come-come my lady, You’re my butterfly, sugar baby”. The song topped the charts in the USA for two consecutive weeks and peaked at number 3 in the UK charts.
Crazy Town’s second album, ‘Darkhorse’, released in 2002, failed to gain the same success leading to the band breaking up from 2003 to 2007. Shifty Shellshock then pursued a solo career where he released the 2002 hit ‘Starry Eyed Surprise’ which saw him collaborate with British DJ and producer Paul Oakenfold. Binzer then released his first solo album, ‘Happy Love Sick’, which had some success in Europe.
Seth Binzer was quite open with the fact that he struggled with addiction as he appeared on reality TV shows ‘Celebrity Rehab’ and in its follow-up ‘Sober House’ during which he relapsed.
Crazy Town reformed in 2007 before releasing their third album in 2015 titled ‘The Brimstone Sluggers’, after their original band name. This unfortunately failed to chart leading to Bret Mazur leaving the group in 2017. Shellshock then renamed the group Crazy Town X and continued to tour with them until last year. The band toured with nu metal band Hed PE but were kicked off it after Binzer got into a fight with Hed PE’s frontman, Bobby Reeves
In April, Shellshock posted about his sobriety on Instagram, saying that “I’m a lover than a fighter …but the one I need to love more Instead of fight with is myself .. mr shifty true Love # Sober alive and grateful.”
The death of Binzer follows the deaths of his Crazy Town bandmates Rust Epique, who passed in 2004, and DJ AM, in 2009.
Shifty Shellshock is survived by his three sons, Gage, Halo and phoenix.
We send our condolences to Binzer’s family and friends at this difficult time.
