Shifty Shellshock, Crazy Town co-founder and 'Butterfly' singer, dies at 49

The band's biggest hit cracked the top of the Billboard charts for two weeks and was featured in films like "Orange County."

Shifty Shellshock, the lead singer of rap-rock band Crazy Town who performed hits like “Butterfly,” has died, according to a Los Angeles County Medical Examiner report. He was 49. 

The singer, born Seth Binzer, died at his home on June 24. A cause of death was not given. A representative for Crazy Town did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly’s request for comment.

Binzer began his music career after meeting Bret “Epic” Mazur in 1992. The pair collaborated for years under the moniker The Brimstone Sluggers before going on to co-found Crazy Town alongside bandmates Rust Epique, James Bradley Jr., Doug Miller, Adam Goldstein (a.k.a DJ AM), and Antonio Lorenzo “Trouble” Valli.

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The band released their debut album, The Gift of the Game, in 1999, but it wasn’t until the release of their third single “Butterfly” the following year that they achieved mainstream success. The track, which samples Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song “Pretty Little Ditty,” cracked the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks and was featured in films like Orange County and Something’s Gotta Give.

Crazy Town's follow-up album, 2002’s Darkhorse, did not receive critical acclaim and the band broke up shortly after its release. However, they continued to reunite over the years and released their third album, The Brimstone Sluggers, in 2015. After Mazur left the band in 2017, the band changed their name to Crazy Town X. 

Binzer was open about his struggle with addiction throughout his life and appeared on multiple seasons of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab and Sober House. He also had several run-ins with the law and was most recently arrested on a DUI charge in 2023, TMZ reports. That same year, Crazy Town was also kicked off their tour with Hed PE after Binzer and guitarist Bobby Reeves got into a violent fistfight. 

In addition to Crazy Town, Binzer also performed as a solo artist and released his own album, Happy Love Sick, in 2004. He was also the frontman for the band Shifty and the Big Shots.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.