R.I.P. Shifty Shellshock, Crazy Town frontman and “Butterfly” singer

Seth Binzer, the Crazy Town frontman also known as Shifty Shellshock, has died. Various reports cited the L.A. County Medical Examiner’s website, which says Binzer died in his home on Monday, June 24. No cause of death is listed. He was 49 years old.

Binzer co-founded the band Crazy Town with Bret Mazur in 1999. Their 2000 single “Butterfly” became a hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and boosting sales for their debut album The Gift Of Game to over 1.5 million. Over the years the group had a rotating roster of members that included Binzer, Mazur, DJ Rick One, Mark White, Adam “DJ Adam 12" Bravin, Charles “Rust Epique” Lopez and Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein. Crazy Town broke up in 2003 after the commercial failure of their second album Darkhorse. They reformed in 2007, eventually releasing their third album The Brimstone Sluggers in 2015. Mazur and several other members left Crazy Town in 2017, after which Binzer renamed the group “Crazy Town X.”

Binzer struggled with addiction throughout his life. He appeared on several addiction-based reality shows with Dr. Drew Pinsky: Celebrity Rehab 1, Celebrity Rehab 2, Sober House 1, and Sober House 2. He experienced various legal troubles throughout his time in the public eye. In 2011, he was arrested for having outstanding warrants after police responded to a report of domestic disturbance. He was sentenced to three years probation for battery and possession of crack cocaine in 2012 and was arrested for driving under the influence in 2022, per Newsweek. Binzer was open about his addiction from the earliest days of the band—when most of his fellow bandmates, too, were struggling with drugs. “I was running from my emotions, just submerging myself in psychoticness. And loving it,” he told Rolling Stone in 2001. “I have to scrape my ass along that bottom before I can save myself. I don’t think I’d be such a professional drug user if I wasn’t such a professional asshole selling them. Someone might look at me and go, ‘He’s got it going on.’ And I do. At the same time, I have a really hard time keeping it on. I have a problem with drugs.”

Binzer is survived by his three sons. R.I.P.