Disturbed has been getting a lot of acclaim for their cover of “The Sound Of Silence”. They even performed their rendition of the Simon & Garfunkel classic last week on Conan. But now Disturbed they’ve got the respect of one of the song’s famed co-writers.

Frontman David Draiman shared an email message he received from none other than Paul Simon. In the email, Simon complemented the band’s performance on Conan and called it “really powerful.” In case you don’t believe the email is legit though, Simon himself shared a link to Disturbed’s TV performance via Facebook along with the comment “In case you missed it, Disturbed did a wonderful rendition of ‘The Sound of Silence’ on Conan this week. The S&G cover also appears on Disturbed’s latest album, Immortalized.”

It’s pretty crazy that someone like Paul Simon would take the time to even watch a band like Disturbed cover his songs, let alone comment on it. However, turns out that the most random social media shout out in support of the cover would come from… Russell Crowe. That’s right, the Oscar winning actor actually tweeted a rather glowing endorsement of Disturbed’s cover, saying “every now and then someone comes along and redefines genius…”

Granted, Crowe has recorded a fair amount of music in his day, but we never pegged him as a Disturbed fan. Then again, part of the power of covering songs is the chance reach a larger audience, including famed songwriters and actors.