Crazy Town frontman Shifty Shellshock was high and partying with women at a Los Angeles flophouse just days before he was found dead of a possible drug overdose, the singer’s roommate said.
The musician, whose real name was Seth Binzer, rented a small room of less than 60 square feet on the top floor of a run-down two-story Edwardian house in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles.
Jason Roberts, 50, rented the room next to Binzer, but didn’t know he was once a famous singer.
He said he saw Binzer moving around with his things about a week ago, including several bags and other personal items.
DailyMail.com spotted a lighter, injectable medications and a Narcan nasal spray among Binzer’s belongings.
Narcan, a brand of the drug Naloxone, is used to reverse opioid overdoses.
Crazy Town leader Seth Binzer, who called himself Shifty Shellshock, was found unconscious on June 24 in a small room he rented inside a flophouse in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles.
Artist Jason Roberts, 50, rented the room next to Seth Binzer. Roberts told DailyMail.com that Binzer was “already gone” when emergency crews showed up at the house.
Roberts said he had “burned” some cigarettes on Binzer, who told him he had to rent the small room to get away from his girlfriend.
“He said he was having problems with his girlfriend or whatever and that’s why he was here,” Roberts exclusively told DailyMail.com.
‘He said he had been fighting with her and that the police were going to that house. He had to escape.
The Crazy Town lead singer, however, was visited by a group of pretty girls during his five days in the rental.
“I definitely had some girls there,” Roberts said. ‘One looked like a German (woman) with glitter all over her face, so at least she had a good time. But it seemed like she hadn’t slept in days.
Binzer’s belongings were left inside his rented room inside the dilapidated 1913 Edwardian house.
Roberts, who is an artist, said she could hear continuous movement from Binzer’s room at all hours. He said the singer was always “shaking” and seemed to be taking some drugs that “kept him going.”
The roommate said he didn’t realize anything was wrong until police showed up at his front door on Monday, June 24.
DailyMail.com confirmed that a 911 call was made at 12:04 pm on Monday regarding a possible cardiac arrest and overdose at the home.
Roberts said it was the property manager who found the singer unconscious on the mattress, which was lying on the floor.
The 911 dispatcher ordered the caller to perform CPR on Binzer until emergency personnel arrived on the scene in less than four minutes, Los Angeles Fire Department officials told DailyMail.com.
Binzer’s room had a small window, but the heavy curtains blocked the sunlight.
Binzer told his roommate that he rented the room to get away from a ‘girlfriend’
No details were available on whether Los Angeles Firefighters performed CPR on Binzer, but he was not transported to a hospital, authorities said.
“He was already dead when (police) got here,” Roberts said. ‘I don’t know how long he was there like that, but I didn’t hear anything coming from that room for a while because the other days I heard him making a fuss over there.
“I had no idea what was going on until I came out of my room and there were three police officers there.”
An autopsy was performed on the 49-year-old man, but the cause and manner of death were “deferred” pending further testing, officials with the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner told DailyMail.com.
The death is now being considered a possible overdose after drug paraphernalia and a lighter were found near Binzer’s body, according to TMZ.
Seth Binzer rented one of the rooms in the two-story Los Angeles house located in a sketchy part of the Koreatown area.
DailyMail.com also saw the items, including a Narcan spray and other injectable medications, left on top of a plastic container used by Binzer.
LAPD officials told DailyMail.com that their investigators are also awaiting autopsy and toxicology results to determine whether the case warrants a possible criminal investigation.
The small back room inside the four-bedroom apartment where Binzer spent his final days was stuffy and dirty, with scratch marks all over the dirty off-white walls.
The house, built in 1913, had no ventilation or air conditioning. Temperatures reached between 80 and 90 degrees in the Los Angeles area the afternoon Binzer was found dead.
On Wednesday, there was still a small fan above his bed. A nail clipper, rubber shoes, a lighter, and a hat were still neatly stacked on a shelf in a poorly lit area of the room.
A cigarette butt was also left on the shelf next to a Narcan nasal spray.
Roberts said he pays about $700 to rent his corner room, but his living room is much larger compared to the one Binzer had briefly occupied.
The Crazy Town singer told Roberts that he had only paid rent for the room for a few days, but planned to stay there for at least another week.
Seth ‘Shifty’ Binzer seen in a May 2010 image at the launch of the Prince of Persia video game in West Hollywood, California. During his short stay at the Los Angeles house, the rocker had a group of beautiful young women visiting, according to one of his roommates.
Binzer’s cause of death is currently listed as “deferred” as no official confirmation can be made until the results of the toxicology report are in.
“Everyone here is cool, but every once in a while there are some party people here. But here people don’t waste time. He (Binzer) always seemed ‘up,’ if you know what I’m saying,” Roberts told DailyMail.com .
‘I had no idea he was famous until this morning when I found out. ‘I didn’t believe it until I found the videos of him and said, ‘Damn! That’s him!’
Crazy Town is best known for the 2000 hit song ‘Butterfly’, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks. It was also number one in several other countries, including Austria, Denmark and Norway.
The group’s debut album, The Gift of Game, sold more than 1.5 million copies.
‘Butterfly’ was even recently sampled by singer GAYLE, who appeared in the globally successful Barbie movie.
When he found out his former roommate was once in a famous rap-rock band, Roberts said he wasn’t surprised.
“Things happen all the time in Hollywood,” the painter said. “If you dance in the sun, you’ll get sunburned.”
Binzer spoke openly about his struggle with drug addiction. She appeared on the reality show ‘Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew’ in hopes of getting help for her cocaine addiction.
He had admitted to using both the powder form of the drug and crack cocaine.
Just below the small window of Binzer’s rented room was a bleeding red heart painted on the wall.
“He must have done that because he wasn’t there before,” Roberts said. ‘If you play with fire, what do you expect? I feel sorry for the boy. Addiction sucks.’
His roommate Jason Roberts said Seth Binzer probably painted this bleeding heart on his bedroom wall before he died.
