It was probably one of the most unusual crossovers of the year. In September, Ice-T and his group Body Count released a cover version of Pink Floyd’s classic “Comfortably Numb(1979), in which he raps about the depths of humanity. Now the 66-year-old has revealed how it came about that the band’s former heads and notoriously stubborn David Gilmour and Roger Waters made their song available.
Ice-T wanted Roger Waters’ bass line
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday (December 4), Ice-T opened up about how he got permission for his cover from the two men, who he said “haven’t seen eye-to-eye in 20 years.” . Initially, while looking for possible samples, he noticed Waters’ bass on the song from the 1979 album “The Wall” and didn’t think twice about whether he might not be allowed to use it at all.
“We lay it out and then I just don’t think about the politics of it,” the 66-year-old explained, “so they said, ‘Okay, you have to send this to Pink Floyd for them to approve it,’ and everyone said: ‘That won’t happen’.”
Body Counts performance of “Comfortably Numb” on Jimmy Fallon:
Hard-won but honest cover
And at first everything really looked like a rejection. Ice-T would have been willing to abandon the project until his manager contacted David Gilmour directly. He was “blown away” by the dark, bitter text. “He said, ‘I really like this,'” the Los Angeles rapper told Fallon. Convincing Waters wouldn’t have been much of a problem after he found out who was reinterpreting the song.
Receiving the approval of the two quarreling rock veterans was confirmation for Ice-T to release his song. “So now we have two people on opposite sides approving of the song, which makes me feel good because it means the song is honest and real,” he concluded happily.