Early 2000s rap-rock sensation Shifty Shellshock has tragically died after decades of battling crippling drug addictions, fighting for child custody and spending time in celebrity rehab.
The Butterfly hitmaker – born Seth Binzer – died at home on June 24 at the age of 49 due to unknown causes.
Binzer began his long and arduous road to fame in 1992 when he met his Crazy Town co-founder Bret Mazur. He struggled to make music for the better part of a decade and only found mainstream success with the release of Butterfly in 2000.
Success didn’t bring happiness to Binzer, and the singer spent decades in and out of rehab with a crippling drug and alcohol addiction, appearing on reality TV shows in an attempt to get better.
He was arrested several times, leading to angry arguments and rifts with his then-partners and leading to custody battles over his youngest child.
Early 2000s rap-rock sensation Shifty Shellshock has tragically passed away after decades of battling crippling drug addictions, fighting for child custody and serving time in celebrity rehab
Binzer was a Rock & Roll love child: his father, Rollin, was a graphic artist, while his mother Leslie was a former model.
Growing up in Boston, Binzer picked up his father’s drug stash and learned to roll joints when he was just five years old. He told Rolling stone: ‘My father was an artsy guy who did a lot of cocaine and had weed all over the house.’
He started riding dirt bikes, growing a mohawk and skateboarding, and hanging out with girls two grades above.
In 2022, Binzer was arrested again for drunken driving in Los Angeles
When he was 11, his family moved to LA and a few years later his parents split, causing him to party even harder and sell weed and later harder drugs.
He had his first run-in with the police at age 18, when he and a friend robbed another drug dealer at gunpoint, landing him in jail for 90 days.
He continued his party lifestyle until entering rehab in 1997, cleaning up his act for 1998 to attend AA meetings and work on founding Crazy Town.
Throughout the summer of 1999, Binzer and Mazur recorded non-stop. He told Rolling stone at the time: ‘We were crazy’.
The rest of the band formed and toured the US, reciting an AA prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” The courage to change the things I can.’ – before going on stage.
When they got away, they drove a Red Bull and made out with local groupies.
In 2000, Binzer came out of the closet, months before they were scheduled to perform at Ozzfest, which would have been their big break.
After months of partying, Binzer slept through the entire show.
The band left him behind and he moved back to LA, broke up with his then-girlfriend, stole money from the band and went on a rampage.
He told Rolling stone: ‘I was just a big fireball of chaos. I ran from my emotions and immersed myself in psychoticity. And love it. I have to scrape that bottom with my ass before I can save myself.”
It was the start of a darker decade in which Binzer repeatedly struggled with addiction.
He married Melissa Clark (pictured) in 2002 and had his first son, Halo. They divorced in 2011 and Binzer had another son, Gage, with a woman named Tracy and a third son, Phoenix, with Jasmine Lennard.
Throughout the 2000s, Binzer appeared on four celebrity reality TV rehab shows: Celebrity Rehab 1 and 2 and Sober House 1 and 2.
He repeatedly ran away, breaking his sobriety and being pulled back in, before eventually being told he could no longer participate in the show.
He married Melissa Clark in 2002 and had his first son, Halo. They divorced in 2011 and Binzer had another son, Gage, with a woman named Tracy and a third son, Phoenix, with Jasmine Lennard. Lennard is also known for his affair with Simon Cowell.
Benzer’s relationship with Lennard ended in 2012 when he was arrested after a Los Angeles store employee saw him fighting with his girlfriend and called the police.
When they arrived, he was searched and found to have cocaine on him.
He apologized to his friends and family for the embarrassment he caused them at the time and was sentenced to three years’ probation after entering no contest pleas in court on both counts.
In 2013, Lennard went to court to seek full custody of their son, claiming Binzer smoked crack in his presence and once left a crack pipe in the child’s room.
Lennard later called him an absent father The sun: ‘In the six years our son was alive, he didn’t contribute a single dollar. It feels like all he cares about in life is trying to get another hit.
‘He was asked to pay £500 a month but he said he was in debt to dental bills because he needed a ‘Hollywood smile’ because he was a musician and in the public eye.’
In 2022, he was arrested again for drunk driving in Los Angeles.
The former band members were plagued by issues with substance abuse, addiction and domestic violence over the years after the band split in 2003.
Binzer had many friends in the music world and revealed in 2001 that Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis had been a huge support when he relapsed after a bad breakup.
He told Rolling stone at the time: ‘Anthony found me and took me out to dinner – where I tried to borrow money from him so I could get high.
“I didn’t complete my rampage for a few days, but he showed me that I had people who cared and cared about me. Anthony is this angel who showed up in my life.”
Binzer is the third member of Crazy Town to die young.
The former band members were plagued by issues with substance abuse, addiction and domestic violence over the years following the band’s breakup in 2003.
In March 2004, guitarist Rust Epique was found dead in his home of an apparent heart attack at the age of just 36, after reportedly leaving Crazy Town because he was too crazy for his bandmates.
After his death, Rolling Stone characterized him as a “notorious and beloved eccentric on the Hollywood music scene.”
Five years later, another bandmate, DJ AM, also died of an overdose at the age of 36.