Ice-T and Body Count Team With David Gilmour For ‘Quite Radical’ Metal-Ized Cover of ‘Comfortably Numb’

How do you take one of classic rock’s most ominous tunes and make it somehow even more foreboding? Just ask Ice-T to give it a spin. The veteran rapper’s hard-rock side project, Body Count, released a radically made-over version of Pink Floyd‘s iconic tale of isolation and medically induced paralysis, “Comfortably Numb,” on Friday (Sept. 20), with new spoken word lyrics from Ice and backing vocals from Floyd singer/guitarist David Gilmour.

“Body Count’s version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ is quite radical, but the words really struck me,” said Gilmour, 78, in a statement of the new take on one of the emotional centerpiece songs from Pink Floyd’s iconic concept album The Wall. “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 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.”

Ice-T makes the song his own with a radical reworking in which the only remaining lyrical bits are the “Hello… is anybody out there?/ Can anybody hear me?” refrain sung by Gilmour. Instead, the MC talk-sings a new narrative about fearing for humanity’s future as well as chronicling the dual ravages of perpetual war and strife and time’s inexorable march toward death.

“We’re in perpetual war, and that’s the only law/ Can I change it? I doubt it/ So I write songs about it/ I was young once but now I’ve grown old/ Right in front of your еyes you’ve seen my life unfold,” Ice-T narrates in an ominous tone over screaming guitars and a funereal beat. “I had no choicе as I became the underdog’s voice/ A young black kid… look what the f–k I did!/ When I’m gone there’ll be someone to carry on/ We can give in, give up, or we can stay strong/ How accepting of the bullshit we’ve all become/ This whole world is… comfortably numb.”

The original song featured music by Gilmour and haunting lyrics by the guitarist’s estranged former bandmate, bassist/singer Roger Waters.

In a statement, Ice-T said, “For me ‘Comfortably Numb’ is an introspective song — it’s me acknowledging that I’m older now. I’m telling the younger generation, you’ve got two choices: you can keep the fire burning or you can give up. 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.”

The song will appear on Body Count’s upcoming studio album, Merciless, due out on Century Media Records on Nov. 22; the collection is the follow-up to the hardcore group’s Grammy-winning 2020 LP Carnivore.

Listen to Body Count and David Gilmour’s “Comfortably Numb” below.