Ice-T recently stated that Pink Floyd’s publisher didn’t allow him to cover “Comfortably Numb.” However, he recalled how Roger Waters and David Gilmour liked the song, and greenlit the project.
Rap covers of rock songs have been around for a while, but when Body Count and Ice-T—an artist respected in both genres—release a cover of a Pink Floyd classic with David Gilmour on guitar, it certainly grabs attention. Their rendition of “Comfortably Numb” features an entirely new set of lyrics, showcasing Body Count’s ability to give a timeless song a fresh spin. Furthermore, they successfully create a common ground between David Gilmour and Roger Waters in the process.
Ice-T & Co. had to get both Gilmour’s and Waters’ permission to cover the third single from 1979’s “The Wall”, and they eventually did. However, Ice-T told Jimmy Fallon during a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show” that he wasn’t thinking about whether it was possible to do it when he started working on the song (via MusicRadar)
“Rappers are always listening for something to rap over, and I always liked the bassline to ‘Comfortably Numb.’ So I thought, let’s do it with Body Count. I write the lyrics. I lay it out but I didn’t think about the politics. You gotta send this to Pink Floyd to get approved and everyone is like ‘That’s not gonna happen.'”
In other similar cases, Pink Floyd publishers turned down the idea. However, Ice-T’s manager got to Gilmour through Gilmour’s manager, and the British guitar great was “blown away by the lyrics” and gave the project his blessing, as the rapper recalled. He added:
“So we played it to Roger Waters… And he approved it… So now you got two people on opposite sides who approved the song – which made me feel really good… Then Gilmour says ‘I wanna play on it.'”
