Shifty Shellshock, one of the creators and singers of Crazy Town, has passed away at 49 years old, according to information from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s website.
Born Seth Brooks Binzer, his parents were Leslie Brooks, a model, and Rollin Binzer, a director known for the concert film Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones.
Seth met Bret Hadley “Epic” Mazur in the early ’90s. Together they formed Crazy Town and dropped their first album The Gift of Game in late 1999. Their song “Butterfly,” which used a sample from Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Pretty Little Ditty,” became super popular and hit number one on Billboard Hot 100.
Although they couldn’t match the success of “Butterfly” again, their second album Darkhorse in 2002 had some hits like “Drowning” and included a track with Rivers Cuomo called “Hurt You So Bad.”
I think it’s really hard to make another big hit after having such a huge one.
After Darkhorse, Crazy Town took a break. Shifty released his only solo album Happy Love Sick in mid-2004. His most well-known solo track was “Starry Eyed Surprise,” made with Paul Oakenfold.
The band came back together for an album called The Brimstone Sluggers in 2015 but Epic left two years later. Shifty then changed the band’s name to Crazy Town X.
Apart from music, Shifty acted in movies like Clifford(1994) and Dead 7(2016). He was also open about his struggles with drugs and appeared on VH1’s reality shows like Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew.
