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Crazy Town’s Shifty Shellshock’s cause of death related to fentanyl

Wed 25 September 2024 11:03, UK

The death of Shifty Shellshock, the frontman of rap-rock outfit Crazy Town, was related to fentanyl, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner have revealed.

Shellshock, real name Seth Binzer, passed away aged 49 in his hometown of Los Angeles, California, on June 24th, 2024. Binzer had struggled with addiction problems throughout his adult life and openly spoke about his issues, including in his music. The late vocalist was also known for his appearances on the reality television series Celebrity Rehab and Sober House in his efforts to battle his issues.

After Binzer’s death, his representative Howie Hubberman confirmed his cause of death as an accidental overdose and detailed the state of his well-being prior to it, revealing, “Seth has been struggling with substance abuse problems for quite sometime.”

Hubberman continued: “Seth was not happy with the daily struggle that’s called life. Some people cope in many different ways. It’s unfortunate we lose so many people to addiction and accessibility to harmful drugs. Shifty was a real-life tragedy. Too fast, too hard, too soon.”

On September 24th, it was confirmed in a statement released by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, that the cause of Binzer’s accidental overdose was the combined effects of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine. The department described his manner of death as an “accident”.

County officials also said the late Crazy Town frontman’s full autopsy report, containing more details of his death, is expected to be released by October 11th.

Tragically, on April 28th, in one of his late Instagram posts, Binzer wrote that he was more of “a lover than a fighter …but the one I need to love more Instead of fight with is myself.” He concluded the post with “# Sober alive and grateful.”

Last year, Crazy Town were removed from a tour with Hed PE following an on-stage altercation between Binzer and his bandmate Bobby Reeves. At a show in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Binzer arrived at the concert towards the end and had a fight with Reeves. He was later arrested for DUI following the incident.

Regarding the decision to remove the ‘Butterfly’ band from the tour, Hed PE frontman, Jared Gomes, said: “Seth needs help … we can’t just sit by while he’s on the road battling demons to the death.”

Binzer is survived by his three children.

What is fentanyl and how is it damaging America?

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin. In its legal state, it’s a pharmaceutical drug that can be prescribed by a doctor to treat severe pain, but over recent times, the United States has been locked in a crisis where more citizens than ever are dying from overdoses due to illegal copies of the drug.

This is mainly due to fentanyl being illegally manufactured and sold by criminal gangs, with most of the fentanyl found in the US trafficked from Mexico, using chemicals sourced from China, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In this illegal form, it is often mixed with other narcotics such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

Drug overdoses declined by 3 per cent in the US in 2023, marking the first annual decrease since 2018, but an estimated 107,543 still sadly died. The National Centre for Health Statistics (NCHS), which tracks deaths by overdose, attributed more than 74,000 of last year’s deaths to fentanyl.

Binzer is one of several notable musicians to lose their lives to fentanyl overdose over the past decade, including Prince, Tom Petty, Lil Peep and Mac Miller.

If you or anyone you know is affected by alcohol or drug use, changegrowlive.org offers support.