David Gilmour teamed up with Ice-T for Body Count’s cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb.’
“For me, ‘Comfortably Numb’ is an introspective song — it’s me acknowledging that I’m older now,” Ice-T said of the song. “I’m telling the younger generation, you’ve got two choices: you can keep the fire burning or you can give up.”
The singer continued, “It’s me trying to make sense of what’s happening, but also pointing out that we’re all in a place where we don’t have to face reality. We’ve got flat-screen TVs and popcorn, and we can just sit back and watch the chaos of the world like it’s a TV show. It doesn’t feel real until it shows up at your door. I’m a little numb, too — we all are.”
“Body Count’s version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ is quite radical, but the words really struck me,” Gilmour also commented. “It astonishes me that a tune I wrote almost 50 years ago is back with this great new approach. They’ve made it relevant again.”
The guitarist added, “The initial contact from Ice-T was for permission to use the song, but I thought I might offer to play on it as well. I like the new lyrics. They’re talking about the world we’re living in now, which is quite scary. Ice-T and Body Count played in London recently. Sadly, I couldn’t make it, but if another opportunity came up to play with them, I’d jump at it.”
“We just dropped our new version of Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’ featuring David Gilmour,” Body Count announced the cover on their Instagram post.
Ice-T changed the song with a new version, only keeping the lines ‘Hello… is anybody out there?/ Can anybody hear me?’ sung by Gilmour. Instead, Ice-T talked about his fear for the future, the pain of constant war, and how time always leads to death.
The song will be on Body Count’s new album, ‘Merciless,’ coming out on Century Media Records on November 22. It’s the follow-up to their Grammy-winning 2020 album ‘Carnivore.’