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Shifty Shellshock: Crazy Town singer who sang Butterfly dies

Shifty Shellshock: Crazy Town singer who sang Butterfly dies

Crazy Town lead singer, Seth Binzer, who shot to fame with the song Butterfly, has died at the age of 49, the LA Medical Examiner has said.

Binzer, who went by his stage name Shifty Shellshock, founded the band in LA in 1995 alongside Brett Mazur.

He died on Monday, according to the examiner’s website. A cause of death has not been revealed.

Rap rock band Crazy Town are best known for their third single, Butterfly, which reached number one in the US singles chart and number three in the UK singles chart, and became an early 2000s anthem.

The band also had UK hits with Revolving Door in the same year and Drowning in 2002, which reached 23 and 50 respectively.

He continued with the group under the name Crazy Town X and last toured in 2023.

Binzer, who also had a career as a soloist, had struggled with drug addiction, appearing in two seasons of reality TV shows Celebrity Rehab and Sober House.

Image:
Binzer in 2010. Pic: Startraks/Shutterstock


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During an interview with Rolling Stone in 2001, the Californian admitted to selling drugs over a period of several years and also spending three months in the California Institution for Men following an attempted burglary.

In an Instagram post in April, the singer uploaded a picture of a man in a black vest and a black balaclava surrounded by people clad in the same items but in white.

The picture read: “Real is rare, fake is everywhere.”

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It was accompanied by a caption where Binzer wrote: “To the ones who stay even when I try my hardest to scare them away.”

Binzer had three sons, Gage, Halo and Phoenix, with three different partners, Melissa Clark, who he married in 2002 and was divorced from in 2011, Tracey Shelor, and British model Jasmine Lennard.