The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said Tuesday that the June death of Crazy Town frontman Shifty Shellshock had been linked to the effects of fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine.
Shellshock’s manner of death was ruled accidental, with no other medical conditions listed as contributing factors.
The ‘Butterfly’ singer’s body was found in his Los Angeles home on June 24. He was 49.
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In a statement to The Sun days later, his family acknowledged that Shellshock, whose real name was Seth Binzer, had struggled with substance abuse throughout his life.
“He did so on a very public platform, which was particularly challenging,” the family said. “God knows he tried so hard to beat his demons but sadly he lost his battle. Our hearts are shattered by his loss. Seth’s larger-than-life presence touched so many.
“Seth was a troubled soul, but he was a beautiful one and he had a heart of gold.”
Crazy Town’s manager, Howie Hubberman, told People around that time that Shellshock had died from “a combination of prescription drugs and street purchased drugs.”
The singer had been open about his sobriety journey since 2008, when he appeared on the first season of VH1’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew to tackle a cocaine addiction. Though the finale saw him agree to enter a transitional sober living home, he later relapsed and returned for the sophomore season later that same year.
Shellshock also appeared on two seasons of the reality show’s spin-off series Sober House between 2008 and 2010. In 2012, he was hospitalized and briefly lapsed into a coma, but eventually recovered. In 2022, he was arrested for a DUI.
As a musician, he met and began collaborating with Bret “Epic” Mazur, his Crazy Town co-founder, in 1992. After a few years releasing music under the name the Brimstone Sluggers, the pair had settled on Crazy Town by 1999. The rap rock band’s rotating cast would include Rust Epique, DJ Adam 12, and DJ AM.
The group’s debut album, The Gift of Game, hit shelves in November 1999. It would go on to sell more than 6 million copies, with sales picking up nearly a year later, when ‘Butterfly’ was released as its third single.
Shellshock told a Billboard reporter years later that the shuffling romance of ‘Butterfly’ was inspired by a new girlfriend who’d expressed shock at some of the sexism in his earlier songwriting.
“She was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is that what you’re like?'” he recalled. “So that made me come up with the concept of writing a song to her. Instead of writing a male chauvinistic song, I was going to write something nice and sweet to a girl I cared about.”
Anchored by a Red Hot Chili Peppers sample and a lazy-sexy hook rapped out by Shellshock (“Come my lady, come-come my lady, you’re my butterfly, sugar baby”), ‘Butterfly’ peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in 2001.
Seth Binzer aka Shifty Shellshock is seen out and about on August 21, 2023 in West Hollywood, California.
MEGA/GC Images via GettyThe band’s second, rock-heavier album, Darkhorse, failed to gain much traction after its 2002 release. Crazy Town went on indefinite hiatus the next year, with Shellshock releasing his first and only solo album, Happy Love Sick, in 2004. It was a modest success in Europe.
Shellshock also worked as a songwriter, producer, and sound mixer for a number of other artists, and reunited with other Crazy Town members in subsequent years to tour, release another studio album in 2015, and an EP earlier this year.
In April, he posted to Instagram for what would prove to be one of the final times. “I’m a lover than a fighter,” he wrote. “...but the one I need to love more Instead of fight with is myself .. mr shifty true Love # Sober alive and grateful.”
