DAVID DRAIMAN’s Performance On ‘The Sound Of Silence’ Is ‘Perhaps The Greatest Rock Vocal Ever,’ Says Actor RUSSELL CROWE

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Russell Crowe has praised David Draiman's performance on DISTURBED's cover of SIMON & GARFUNKEL's "The Sound Of Silence" as "perhaps the greatest rock vocal ever." The Oscar-winning actor, best known for playing Gen. Maximus Decimus Meridius in "Gladiator" and Sgt. Wendell "Bud" White in "LA Confidential", made the comment on Twitter while sharing a new fan-created music video for the DISTURBED's version for the song, featuring imagery shot during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. "Perhaps the greatest rock vocal ever. New video." Russell wrote. DISTURBED caught wind of the tweet, responding "Thank you" and including a "folded hands" emoji. This isn't the first time Crowe has given his stamp of approval to the DISTURBED cover. Back in 2016, he stated about the track: "every now and then someone comes along and redefines genius." "The Sound Of Silence" originally appeared on DISTURBED's sixth studio album, "Immortalized", which was released in August 2015. Last November, video of DISTURBED's performance of "The Sound Of Silence" on the March 28, 2016 episode of Conan O'Brien's nighttime talk show, "Conan", surpassed 100 million views on YouTube, becoming the first "Conan" clip to reach the milestone. DISTURBED's studio version of "The Sound Of Silence" went to No. 1 on the Billboard magazine Hard Rock and Mainstream Rock charts and became the band's highest-charting single ever on the Top 100. The accompanying music video has had over 599 million views. It's also been used in the soundtrack for "The Blacklist" and the video game "Rock Band 4". Draiman told the Colorado Springs Independent that he and his bandmates didn't have a clue that any of that would happen when they recorded the song and decided to issue it as a single and music video. "How could we?" he asked. "It really, within the genre, was unprecedented. Never in a thousand years would I have dreamed it would be that massive and be used in all the places I've heard it used, figure skating, 'Dancing With the Stars', with the 9-11 Memorial and getting the blessing from Paul Simon, when we met him last year on Maui. The thing, surreal doesn't cover it."