Cursed world of Crazy Town as troubled Seth Binzer becomes third member to die after drugs battle that began aged FIVE
CRAZY Town once said that having “been to hell and back” shaped them – and there’s no denying they faced more than their fair share of struggles.
This week, frontman Shifty Shellshock – real name Seth Binzer – passed away at his home at the age of 49 after a lengthy battle with drug and alcohol addiction that spanned four decades.
His cause of death has been ‘deferred’ pending toxicology test results after his body was found beside drug paraphernalia and a lighter, according to TMZ.
Seth’s death is one of many tragedies to strike the band, who rose to fame in 2000 with their single Butterfly and sold 1.5million of their debut album The Gift Of Game.
Crazy Town initially split in 2003 after eight years together amid claims of wild drug-taking and alcohol abuse that led Seth to enter rehab on multiple occasions.
The singer, who died two days ago, had a difficult upbringing. He regularly raided his graphic artist dad’s drug stash during his childhood and learned to roll a joint at the age of five.
He previously told Rolling Stone: “My dad was the artsy-fartsy guy who did lots of cocaine and had weed all over the house.”
In Seth’s teens he sold weed and harder substances and by 18 was jailed for 90 days after robbing another drug dealer at gunpoint.
In the early days of the band, then called the Brimstone Sluggers, he recalled them going on coke and speed-fueled marathons while writing songs before being ordered into rehab in 1997.
A year later, Seth was in Alcoholics Anonymous and ahead of gigs, the band would regularly recite the AA prayer “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can.”
By 2000, he fell off the wagon and was arrested for throwing a chair out of a window while he was drunk – forcing Crazy Town to pull out Ozzfest festival, which was a massive opportunity for the group.
It contributed to what would become a decade of struggles for the star, who went on what he described as a ‘rampage’ and even stole money from the band.
He said: “I was just a big fireball of chaos. I was running from my emotions, just submerging myself in psychoticness. And loving it. I have to scrape my ass along that bottom before I can save myself.”
In a 2001 interview, Seth admitted he had spent three months in prison for attempted burglary and that he was regularly selling and using recreational drugs.
The band took a hiatus in 2003 after their second album Darkhorse and singles Drowning and Hurt You So Bad failed to live up to the success of Butterfly.
Tragic deaths
Just one year after the band broke up in 2003, guitarist Rust Epique – real name Charles Lopez – was found dead in his Las Vegas home after suffering an aortic rupture at the age of 36.
The musician was described as a “notorious and well-loved eccentric in the Hollywood music scene” by Rolling Stone and had been known to have battled addiction for years.
Rust was three years old when he first entered a music studio, due to his dad managing Billy Joel’s career in the Seventies, and recalled seeing mounds of cocaine on drum kits.
“There were a lot of addicts around,” he told Rolling Stone. “There wasn’t nothing mysterious and cool about taking drugs for me.”
He admitted they would use coke and speed while writing songs and then downed Red Bull before going on to party for months at a time.
A similarly tragic fate struck Adam Goldstein, known as DJ AM, who died at the age of 36 in 2009 following a drug overdose.
He left Crazy Town in 2001 after struggling to keep clean in the band, having been addicted to crack cocaine from the age of 20.
At any given moment, I’m five seconds away from walking up to someone, grabbing their drink out of their hand and downing it and if I do that, within a week, tops, I’ll be smoking crack
DJ AM
DJ AM worked on tracks for Will Smith, Papa Roach and Babyface and collaborated with Blink 182 former drummer Travis Barker in 2008.
Travis and DJ AM nearly died that same year after the Learjet 60 they were travelling on crashed, killing six people and leaving the latter with third-degree burns to his head and arms.
It’s believed anti-anxiety medication and painkillers, prescribed after the near-fatal crash, led him to relapse from drugs, with celebrity doctor Drew Pinsky saying it opened the “floodgates”.
In 2009, he was found dead in his New York apartment surrounded by drug paraphernalia including a crack pipe and a bag of crack.
His death was caused by taking large quantities of a mixture of drugs and cocaine.
Previously speaking about his nine-year sobriety, DJ AM said: “At any given moment, I’m five seconds away from walking up to someone, grabbing their drink out of their hand and downing it and if I do that, within a week, tops, I’ll be smoking crack.”
Five rehab stints
Throughout the 2000s, Seth battled addiction and sought help on the reality TV shows Celebrity Rehab 1 and 2 and Sober House 1 and 2.
His battle with drugs contributed to his split from his first wife Melissa Clark, who he tied the knot with in 2002 and divorced nine years later, citing irreconcilable differences.
It’s unclear when Seth and Melissa, who shared son Halo, parted ways but in 2008, he dated Tracy Selor, who he had another boy with named Gage.
In 2010, he started dating British model Jasmine Lennard – who previously had a fling with Simon Cowell – and had a son Phoenix. Within two years they split up.
Seth had been arrested multiple times during their relationship – the first in 2011 following reports of a domestic disturbance and fighting with a security guard outside a nightclub.
The following year, he was arrested for battery after a shop worker called the police after witnessing the singer attacking Jasmine in public.
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While in police custody, Seth was found to be in possession of cocaine. He was sentenced to three years probation for the charges in 2012.
That same year Seth was hospitalised after falling unconscious and slipping into a coma, which sources at the time claimed was “probably drug-related”.
“The possibility of jail time may have sent the Celebrity Rehab participant over the edge,” the insider told Perez Hilton.
Later, Seth’s agent revealed he would be checking into a “highly regarded” rehab centre and had “completely changed his life around” following the incidents.
His relationship with Jasmine ended around that difficult time and the following year, the mum was asked a court for exclusive custody of their son Phoenix.
In court, she claimed Seth had smoked crack in front of his child and also left a crack pipe in his bedroom.
In 2017, Jasmine slammed Seth for being an absent father telling The Sun: “In six years of our son being alive he hasn’t contributed one dollar. It feels like all he cares about in life is trying to get another hit record.
“He was asked to pay £500 a month but he said he was in debt with dental fees because he needed to have a ‘Hollywood smile’ because he was a musician and in the public eye.”
In 2022, Seth’s ex Tracy told a similar story to The Sun, claiming he was a “deadbeat dad” who didn’t see his son and owed him more than $64,000 (£50,500) in back payments for child support.
She fumed over the singer flaunting a luxurious lifestyle on social media – often posting pictures with his partner Soleil Moon Frye, from the show Punky Brewster – on holidays including at a Malibu beachfront pad.
We can’t just sit by while he’s on the road, battling demons to the death. He needs to get off the road and deal with that s**t.
Jared Gomes, of the band Hed P.E.
Tracy spoke out about his “rockstar lifestyle” while they were together, saying he would regularly buy cocaine but also “use pretty much whatever he could get his hands on”.
She added: “He would spend thousands of dollars, drain the bank accounts, steal my possessions and pawn everything we had. It’s literally taken me a decade to rebuild everything.”
Moose crash & vicious brawl
After Crazy Town’s hiatus in 2003, the group reformed multiple times and had various different line-ups.
In 2016, they went on the Make America Rock Again tour alongside other bands who had found success in the Noughties.
A year later, they rebranded themselves Crazy Town X after co-founder Bret ‘Epic’ Mazur took a step back from performing.
On Facebook, the group wrote: “The X is used by gangs to symbolize a territory that has just been won.”
During a 2019 tour, the band dodged death after their tour bus crashed into a moose while driving on Route 17, in Ontario, Canada.
“By the grace of God we are all ok just cuts and bruises,” Seth wrote online, sharing a photo of his and Elias Tannous’s blood-splattered faces.
He would spend thousands of dollars, drain the bank accounts, steal my possessions and pawn everything we had. It’s literally taken me a decade to rebuild everything.
Tracy Selor, Seth's ex
Many said they were lucky to have survived as four people died on that highway the year prior. Just 24 hours later, the band performed a gig in Greater Sudbury.
In 2023, Crazy Town were kicked off a tour with nu-metal band Hed P.E. after a fight broke out between Seth and co-vocalist Bobby Reeves outside a venue in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The clash, which left them both bloodied and bruised, reportedly started because Seth failed to show up to their gig until the end of the set leaving Bobby to perform alone.
“I’m so mad at f***ing Shifty right now,” Bobby was heard saying before Seth accused him of stealing from him and punched him in the face.
Later Bobby showed he had a black eye and several scrapes above his eyes in a video in which he told fans: “Me and Shifty got into a little scuffle, but it’s all good. We’re brothers.”
Despite them burying the hatchet, Hed P.E.’s frontman Jared Gomes kicked them off the tour insisting “Seth needs help”.
He continued: “We can’t just sit by while he’s on the road, battling demons to the death. He needs to get off the road and deal with that s**t.
“You’ve seen the video. If it was just a fistfight between band members, maybe I could be the first one to mediate that s**t. But this is a lot deeper.”
Just a week after the scuffle, Seth was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol after he was spotted wearing in and out of lanes in a black SUV.
In March this year, the group released an EP titled Flirting With Disaster. Bobby had left the band, leaving just Seth, Mark White, Rick Dixon and Sean Heenan.