Shifty Shellshock (born Seth Binzer), the lead vocalist in the rap rock group Crazy Town, has passed away. He was 49 years old.
According to Los Angeles County Medical Examiner records, the singer passed away in his Los Angeles home on Monday (24 June). No cause of death has been disclosed.
Best known for the 2000 hit Butterfly, the single got to #4 in Australia, #3 in the UK, and was a US #1 smash hit.
Binzer formed Crazy Town with bandmate Bret “Epic” Mazur in 1995 (then known as The Brimstone Sluggers) before changing the band name to Crazy Town in the late 1990s.
The band released their debut album, The Gift Of Game, in November 1999 and followed it up with a tour supporting the Red Hot Chili Peppers. They went on to release one more album before breaking up in 2003: Darkhorse, which was released in 2001.
The band reunited in 2007 and released their third album, The Brimstone Sluggers, in 2015. Mazur left the band in 2017, and Binzer, the last remaining member, renamed the band Crazy Town X.
Last April, Crazy Town made headlines after they were kicked off Hed PE’s Nu Metal Madness Tour 2 after co-vocalists Binzer and Bobby Reeves got into a brutal brawl.
The incident reportedly occurred after Binzer arrived late at a South Carolina show and left Reeves to perform solo.
Consequence Of Sound subsequently reported that Reeves apparently forgot the words to the group’s chart-topping hit, Butterfly, and later in the show, expressed his disappointment with his co-vocalist, telling the audience, “I’m so mad at fuckin’ Shifty right now.”
During the brawl, the pair went from “I’m gonna stab your kids while they sleep” to “Stop punching me, man, I love you!”
Announcing that Crazy Town were kicked off the tour, Hed PE’s Jared Gomes said in an Instagram statement, “Hed PE had to kick Crazy Town off the tour. We’re not saints by any means, and Hed PE has done some crazy shit, and I’m not passing judgment on Crazy Town, or Seth or anything like that.
“But whatever has gone on with us, we’ve always tried to come up with a good rock show,” Gomes said before mentioning Binzer’s health and history with drug addiction.
“He needs to get off the road and deal with that shit. If it was just a fistfight between band members, maybe I could be the first one to kinda mediate or some shit like that… But this is a lot deeper than that.”
In 2012, Binzer addressed his experiences with addiction. A source close to him said at the time, “Seth has completely changed his life around and has checked into a highly regarded drug and alcohol treatment center [sic] where he will be working with them to restructure his life over the next 2 years.”
Crazy Town last toured Australia in December 2019. The band put on shows to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album, The Gift Of Game.
This is a developing story.
