Crazy Town Frontman Seth Binzer, Known as Shifty Shellshock, Dies at 49

Seth Binzer, who was known to fans as Shifty Shellshock and the frontman for the rap-rock band Crazy Town, died on Monday, according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office. Binzer was 49 years old.

Binzer died at a residence in Los Angeles, according to the Medical Examiner. No cause of death has been released and an investigation is underway as to the cause and manner of his death, according to the entry for the late musician on the office’s website.

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After years of collaborating as The Brimstone Sluggers, Crazy Town was formed in 1999 when Binzer and Bret “Epic” Mazur brought in five musicians — Rust Epique, Doug Miller, James Bradley Jr., Antonio Lorenzo Valli and Adam Goldstein — to round out the band. Success came quickly to the group when its single “Butterfly” was released. The track quickly rose to No. 1 on the charts and helped the band sell 1.5 million copies of its debut album, The Gift of Game.

This would be the band’s lone major success, as their follow-up album Darkhorse failed to produce a hit single, and the group broke up in 2003. Binzer found a bit of success outside of Crazy Town when he collaborated with British producer Paul Oakenfold, contributing vocals to the hit 2002 single “Starry Eyed Surprise.”

Crazy Town reunited in 2007 and, in 2009, released three songs and played a gig in Hollywood. Occasional single releases followed and in 2013, Mazur and Binzer spent time working on an album called The Brimstone Sluggers, which was released two years later. In 2016, they toured with other ’00s bands with the Make America Rock Again concert. Mazur left the band in 2017.

Binzer then had some low-profile skirmishes with the law and made headlines in 2023 when a fight between him and guitarist Bobby Reeves led to Crazy Town being kicked off the Nu Metal Madness Tour 2 by headliner Hed Pe as an opening act. He had spoken about his longtime misuse of drugs and addiction and appeared on VH1’s Celebrity Rehab 1 and 2.

Binzer is survived by two sons, Halo and Gage.

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