Written by Crazy Town‘s frontmen Seth ‘Shifty Shellshock’ Binzer and Bret ‘Epic’ Mazur joined forces in the mid-1990s but it would be five long years until their efforts would bear any fruit.
After meeting each other through Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am in Los Angeles, the pair – who were then known as The Brimstone Sluggers – had a work ethic that could be best described as laid back, if anything. But in amongst the partying and stomach crunches, the band eventually scored a record deal with Columbia and began work on their 1999 debut, The Gift of Game.
“We were writing songs like Lollipop Porn when there was no girlfriend, and all of a sudden I was in this relationship,” remembers Shellshock. “I was in love, and she was asking, ‘What’s up with all these lyrics? Is this what you’re like?’ So that made me come up with the concept of writing a song to her. Instead of writing a male chauvinistic song, I was going to write something sweet and nice to a girl I cared about.”
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To soundtrack this sensitive side, they needed a a suitable song to sample. They reappropriated a delicate instrumental from Red Hot Chili Peppers‘ 1989 album Mother’s Milk, titled Pretty Little Ditty, a piece based on the first song guitarist John Frusciante and Flea wrote together. Interestingly, frontman Anthony Kiedis is given a co-writing credit despite not contributing anything to the 96-second recording.
In a 2003 interview, Shellshock revealed they’d toyed with using a different Chili Peppers song for Butterfly bed.
“At the time, I was on some earthy, stoner vibe, and I thought, ‘It needs to sound like Under the Bridge,” he told Black Oxygen. “And that’s the thing – people say, “Oh, they had a hit because they sampled the Red Hot Chili Peppers.’ But it’s really just a few seconds, you know?
“We took something obscure and turned it into something new and special. That’s what sampling is supposed to be. For me, that’s what it was: I found this dope, obscure Chili Peppers piece, flipped it, and not only did they clear it – they even took us on tour.”
Although the single was released in October 2000, the song was given a physical release in February the following year. With a little push from MTV as part of their Cancun Spring Break coverage, the song reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 a few weeks later.
“We did a good two years of touring before Butterfly took off,” Mazur told Soundsphere. “We would get calls from people, saying the song is just everywhere. Then we’re looking at the charts and it’s just going up and up, all of a sudden iit’s number one around the world. And if we could change anything going back it would probably be the record label we worked with. Columbia Records is more of a pop label and when they got their hands on what they thought was a pop hit; they put all their weight behind that. It took that weight from us and there was a massive amount of people who looked at us as the ‘Butterfly’ boys. It was a little difficult, and by the time we were able to deal with it the industry just started disintegrating. But at the same time, it was a blessing and it made our path unique.”
Looking back, it seems his bandmates also realised that this hit single would become something of an albatross around their neck.
“We have a lot to prove because of Butterfly. We have to prove we’re aggressive punk kids – a real band and not a pop act,” Shellshock told Rolling Stone in 2001.
“We knew all along we didn’t want to release Butterfly first, because we didn’t want to be known as the band that does Butterfly,” guitarist Kraig ‘Squirrel’ Tyler told HipOnline. “We are looking at this like we want to have a career. That isn’t who we are.”
Thanks to the success of the single, the band found themselves invited back to perform at Ozzfest 2001, this time on the main stage. Their previous year’s involvement with the touring festival was curtailed after Shellshock’s relationship with his Butterfly muse came to an end and his behaviour was deemed to be out of control.
“We were together three years, and the breakup almost killed me,” Shellshock told Rolling Stone. “I was doing cocaine; I was relapsing, and we were driving each other mad. I’ve been clean for six months now, but breaking up was the hardest thing. I’m terrified of falling in love again.
“I was drunk, going through my breakup, and I threw a chair out a window,” he adds. “They arrested me, and my management said, ‘You need to come home and chill out.’ So we lasted only two weeks.”
“I ended up sitting home all summer. I felt like my dreams were being thrown away,” Mazur would later tell the Los Angeles Times.
Shellshock’s self-destructive behaviour led to an intervention of sorts from his own mother, Leslie, who called Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ vocalist Anthony Kiedis who’d faced and overcame his own addiction to drugs.
“My mom called Anthony and said, ‘Seth’s fucking up’,” he explained. “He’s a buddy; the Peppers are a huge inspiration to us. Anthony found me and took me to lunch – where I tried to borrow money from him so I could get high. I didn’t finish my rampage for a couple of days, but he showed me that I had people who were worried and cared about me. Anthony’s this angel who appeared in my life.”
We knew all along we didn’t want to release Butterfly first, because we didn’t want to be known as the band that does Butterfly.
Kraig ‘Squirrel’ Tyler
The follow-up single Revolving Door and their second album Darkhorse failed to replicate previous successes, so they cut their losses and parted ways. Shellshock and Mazur would briefly reunite several years later for the album The Brimstone Sluggers. Shellshock continued the band with a new line-up in 2018, to limited success.
In 2024, Shellshock – who appeared on reality television programmes Celebrity Rehab 1 and 2 and Sober House 1 and 2 – was found dead at his home in Los Angeles. Officials ruled that he died of an accidental overdose, due to the effects of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.
Despite Mazur and Squirrel’s fears, Butterfly came to define the band. But thanks to John Frusicante, Flea and Shellshock’s priapic lyrics, the Los Angeles seven-piece soared above the nu metal scene for the briefest of moments and showed how a well-chosen sample could transform the lives of a bunch of aggressive punk kids.
