Inside Crazy Town singer Shifty Shellshock's dark final days as chilling new audio reveals his last promise before drug overdose death

Crazy Town frontman Shifty Shellshock made up his mind to get sober again in July 2023 despite being in and out of rehab more than a dozen times in the last two decades.

Shellshock - whose real name was Seth Binzer - was excited to get back on the road with his bandmates in a new group called DeadXHeadz, but he knew he had to 'get clean' first. 

But this time, Binzer fell into deeper trouble.

Binzer told his longtime friend and bandmate, Mike 'Rebel' Raymo, he was not only using but also started dealing drugs in the Downtown Los Angeles area and running with dangerous street gangs.

The frontman said he had connections to a 'big time' dealer, who gave him a taste of the drugs for free. 

Binzer told Raymo he knew he needed detox before they could continue working on their new music.

'I will do a three to five day chemical detox and then I will go to meetings and get outpatient and I will walk the walk, do the do and make you proud,' the rocker desperately told his friend in a voice recording obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com. 

'But I need one night of fun, one night to clean up and one night to tell my girl I love her.'

Binzer never kept his promise to remain sober and was instead found dead in a flophouse in a gang and drug-infested part of Koreatown almost a year later on June 24.

Among his belongings in the tiny 60-square foot room that he rented, DailyMail.com found injectable medications and a Narcan nasal spray that's used to reverse opioid overdoses. 

'I know he did not want to die,' Melissa Binzer, the rocker's former wife, told DailyMail.com. 'I'm sure he had that [Narcan] just in case, and we still don't know if he was alone, or if someone was with him and ran when they realized he had overdosed. 

'But I know he never wanted to die. It's a very f-ed up situation when you start on street drugs, which he never told me he was doing. When he was in that dark place, it was hard to know what he would do.'

The LA County Medical Examiner's Office has yet to release Binzer's manner and cause of death, but Binzer's manager, Howie Hubberman, told DailyMail.com the rapper died of an accidental overdose.

Friends also have said the 49-year old had been homeless and had desperately turned to street drugs.

At one point, Binzer was living in a tent in Downtown LA's crime-riddled McArthur Park. He had only stayed at the Koreatown flophouse for less than two weeks before he was found dead on the floor.

Binzer was always open about his struggles with sobriety and even appeared on the reality TV show Celebrity Rehab for the show's first two seasons in 2008.

About a year and a half ago, Binzer seemed energized when he was in the studio working on new songs with his DeadXHeadz bandmates. 

Raymo, one of the rappers and producers in the group, said Binzer was grateful but was also often tortured by the limelight that came after Crazy Town's 1999 hit 'Butterfly' gained global success. 

'The only thing I can liken it to is Frankie Lymon and his one-hit song, "Why Do Fools Fall In Love",' said Raymo. 'Like Frankie, Seth was a talented and happy-go-lucky guy but he had so many demons that he was battling. And then all the success and attention came with that one song. It's like a gift and a curse when that one song becomes bigger than you.'

Raymo added: 'He would always say stuff like, "When I die, I will die young like a rock star". And now in hindsight, there must've been a part of him that knew this was going to happen. It was as if he knew he was on borrowed time. It's like a movie, devastating and scary at the same time.' 

Binzer's manager, Howie Hubberman, told DailyMail.com Binzer was slowly building his career back when he got into a car accident in February 2023 while in LA. 

In an exclusive footage obtained by DailyMail.com, a stunned Binzer can be heard surveying the aftermath of the car wreck he caused.   

'One day, I'm going to show this at an AA meeting,' Binzer said.

The rapper flipped the white SUV several times and was ejected from the vehicle, but Binzer was somehow able to walk away, said Raymo, who picked him up shortly after the accident.

'So crazy, man. Can we write just write this off like I was a crash test dummy for research,' the frontman said jokingly.  

Hubberman said Binzer's April 2023 DUI in South Carolina was one of the turning points that stalled his sobriety. 

It was also during that trip when Binzer came to blows with Crazy Town member Bobby Reeves on April 23, 2023 after the band performed in Myrtle Beach. 

In shocking video obtained by DailyMail.com, lead singer Binzer was seen punching co-vocalist Reeves on the ground as Binzer accused his bandmate for robbing him of his 'guarantee'. 

In the video, Reeves is also seen hitting Binzer, who then yelled, 'Stop sucker punching me! I want my money. I love you!' 

Fighting with his former bandmate took a toll on Binzer, his friends said.

In July 2023, a strung-out Binzer called Raymo and negotiated a 'one-day' bender before checking himself into a detox facility in LA. 

After negotiating his three-day 'farewell' to drugs, Binzer checked into a detox facility.  

He completed a week and then went to a sober living home near Venice Beach instead of a rehab facility. 

'They would make exceptions in this program for some of these celebrities because he was there less than a month,' Raymo said. 'He was a pro and knew how to negotiate his stipulations in order to get back out.'

Meanwhile, the band kept working on new music with Binzer, which was where he was able to express his struggles with staying sober. 

In one of their unreleased songs 'High Sober', Binzer raps, 'First I got high, I got sober, I got high again' and 'waking up in county jail' because he 'couldn't make bail'.

In another song called 'Dance on Hollywood', he raps about his funeral and his 'lifetime' of ups and down with drug addiction: 

'I took the devil's shoes and I danced on Hollywood. If you see my dealer at my funeral, then ask him. I didn't go to heaven but we danced on Hollywood'. 

In one of Binzer's last text mesages to Raymo, the hopeful rapper eerily wrote: 'When we drop this when we are dead, it will blow [up].'

The rocker stayed less than 30 days in that sober living home before he was back out on the street and using again, his friends said. 

Raymo started receiving text messages from his friend at all hours, sometimes from downtrodden areas in the notorious Skid Row area of Downtown LA where Binzer was squatting. 

He sent random pictures of himself sitting on train tracks and boasted about dealing drugs on corners.

Binzer cleaned himself enough and attended the 'Rock to Recovery' benefit fundraiser with Raymo in Hollywood on Aug. 26, 2023.

The frontman fielded questions on the red carpet about his sobriety, but Raymo told DailyMail.com his friend had already fallen off the wagon multiple times and was 'not clean' at that event. 

'He was giving interviews and you can see me fidgeting next to him because I knew what was really going on,' Raymo said with a sigh. 

Hubberman said he often would have heart-to-heart conversations with the Binzer about his fears of disappointing his family and close friends. 

'He wanted to get sober, but he really struggled with liking himself,' Hubberman said. 'He would always come over to me and go, "You know what? If I could do one thing in my life, I'd like to get clean and sober and at least do something for my kids." He was so worried about that. He had so many demons he faced daily.'

Binzer is survived by three sons from three relationships.

He shared his eldest son, Halo, with ex-wife Melissa Binzer. The pair married in 2002, but Melissa filed for divorce in 2011 after the couple had been separated for six years. 

He later dated Tracy Shelor, whom he welcomed son Gage, who is now 15.

Binzer began a relationship with model Jasmine Lennard in 2010 and the pair share son Phoenix, 14. Their relationship ended after his arrest in 2012.

Melissa recalled the painful night when she found out her former husband had overdosed.

Melissa told DailyMail.com she was with her boyfriend when one of Binzer's sisters called her.

'She said, "Hey, can you talk?" in a serious voice and I just knew,' she said in tears. 'I just said, "Is this what I think it is?" And his sister said. "Yeah". I got off the phone and got in my car because I had to get to Halo before he saw it anywhere else. I had to be the one to tell him.'

'When I got home and frantically walked in the door, it was like Halo knew. He said, "Is this what I think it is?" He knew right away. We just cried together.'

Friends and family gathered a few weeks after Binzer's death for a memorial. His two sons, Halo and Gage, released white doves in memory of their father. 

Actress Solie Moon Frye, who knew Binzer since they were children and had a two-year romance with the rapper, also attended the memorial.  

'He dealt with a lot and was never properly diagnosed, but he struggled so much,' Melissa said. 'We constantly tried to get him the help he needed, but in the end he could never get it fixed.'

She said her ex-husband was not a violent man as some would believe, and that he was oftentimes a grown-up 'little child' who desperately wanted to be loved, understood and cared for. 

'I really know he was not ready to go, but I guess you have to look it that at least he no longer had to live like that anymore and suffer,' Melissa said in tears. 'He had so much love and support from his friends and family, who always told him, "We will always take care of you." But that just wasn't enough.'

In one of his last conversations with Binzer, Raymo said his bandmate was excited to perform again like his once did at the height of his Crazy Town days. But this time, it would be a fresh start with new music.

The DeadXHeadz - which also includes members Tommy Roulette, Madison Lavezoli, and Slipknot's Sid Wilson - still hope to release their music and tour in memory of Binzer.

Raymo, who had been friends with Binzer for over 20 years, said he plans to provide Binzer's oldest son, Halo, with a percentage of whatever money their music makes in the future. 

'I just want people to know that my brother was not just a "one-hit wonder",' Raymo said. 'He was the dopest, most talented and was a beast. He really lived that life he talked about and sadly, it was that life that took him in the end.'