Good Goodbye

"Good Goodbye"
Single by Linkin Park
from the album One More Light
Working title:	Good Goodbye
Recorded:	2016
Released:	April 13, 2017
Length:	3:31
Stems:	Leaked Multitracks
Time signature:	4/4
Tempo:	128
Key:	A Minor
Live debut:	May 6, 2017
Last performed:	July 6, 2017
Writer:	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Jesse Shatkin, Pusha T, Stormzy
Producer:	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Jesse Shatkin
Label:	Warner Bros. Records
Linkin Park singles chronology Heavy (2017) Good Goodbye (2017) Talking To Myself (2017)
One More Light tracklist
Nobody Can Save Me Good Goodbye Talking To Myself Battle Symphony Invisible Heavy Sorry For Now Halfway Right One More Light Sharp Edges

"Good Goodbye" is the second track on One More Light. The song had its lyrics premiered through Genius on April 10, three days before the song was released for fans who pre-ordered the album. Although it wasn't released as a single in the US, "Good Goodbye" received radio airplay in Europe and a music video was created for the song.

Mike Shinoda raps heavily on the track, making it one of the few songs with rap on the album. It features guest vocals by Pusha T and Stormzy and additional production by Jesse Shatkin. The track has been described as a hip hop track with a sarcastic tone to it that doesn't fit in with any other song on One More Light.

Background

The title "Good Goodbye" was first seen in a picture posted on Joe Hahn's Instagram story on September 6, 2016 of Brad playing acoustic guitar with the band's song board behind him. According to Mike Shinoda, the song was created very early in the album process. He came up with the hook and the track in a day while working alone with Jesse Shatkin. Mike originally had two verses on the song and wanted to add an electronic drop to the bridge but it didn't sound good and he thought a third rap verse by him would be too much, so they started thinking about who they could bring in on the track for rap verses. That ended up being Pusha T (who was previously featured on DJ Vice's remix of "I'll Be Gone") and Stormzy.

During the One More Light Global Album Listening Party on May 19, 2017, Mike talked about the band not putting transitions between the songs. He said it was a conscious decision not to do it but there was a point where he threw some weird things between the songs. Brad said that the band had a lot of albums with transitions and thought that this was an album full of songs that were their own statement. Mike said about Chester, "I feel like these are some of Chester's best performances on this album. We wanted to set him up for that, we wanted to make sure that he had a longer period of time with the songs." Brad said, "He actually knew the songs before we recorded them. A lot of times we just record as we go. And because we wrote the basic versions early, he could actually live with them and he showed up and did a performance instead of thinking through the mechanics of the vocal. His vocals are the strongest I've heard. Because these songs are vocally driven, it would have never worked without those vocals." When asked why he didn't do all the rapping on the song, Mike said, "I did two verses, but I didn't want to do a bridge so I thought three verses by me would be too much. So when that happened, it was like, "Why don't we have a guest do the bridge?" And when we did that, it was like, "Well why don't we have two guests? We've never done that." And that's when we decided to reach out to Pusha T. And the second verse, I try to rap at the live show."

Explaining how the collaboration with Stormzy came together, Mike Shinoda said, "Our manager ran into Stormzy’s manager, and mentioned we had a couple of songs that Stormzy would sound great on. He came through right at the last moment, understandably, since he’s [busy] dropping the biggest record you’ve ever heard. We didn’t know how crazy it was [for Stormzy] over here, by the way, we just liked him from afar." According to Chester, Stormzy had been on the band's radar for quite a while.

About the inspiration for the song, Mike said, "I wanted this song to be about one of my favourite moments in a basketball game. This is when, at a Lakers game, the rival team fouls out and the whole place erupts into this moment where they sing Hit the Road, Jack and they kick them out of the building. The cheerleaders are swishing their pompoms around and literally sending them out of the door, and the crowd do it too. There’s a couple of songs they use there, but I wanted to write one which they would also make use of in that kind of situation. A song which you can use to kick people out of the door."

Before One More Light was released, Mike Shinoda gave Waves a song-by-song glimpse into the album's production and mixing. About the bass in "Good Goodbye", he said, "That was a sub tone, kinda like an 808 sound. I basically over-drove the internal compressor on my sampler software, which gave it a smooth distortion and brought out some higher frequencies in the sound. It’s a useful technique to make a sub sound audible when someone hears it on a laptop or phone speaker. You just have to be careful not to drive it too hard, or you lose the body of the actual sub frequencies."

Mike annotated the song on Genius He said about the inspiration behind the song, he said, "I'm a basketball fan. When I was writing this song, I wanted to capture that moment at the game when someone fouls out, and the cheerleaders sing and kick out the ejected player."

About the music coming together, ""Good Goodbye" was a funny one because it was the only track on the record where a lot of the music came really early. It was more like a hip-hop session. My most basic setup is machine, a Nord, some other Native Instruments stuff. Maybe there’s a couple keyboards in the room. I was banging on the machine, and the verse beat is what was up."

About the lines "enemies trying to read me / you're all looking highly illiterate", he said, "It's obviously a play on words. Like, when you're reading somebody's body. That's one line where I was specifically thinking about a basketball thing. As you read your opponent, you see where they’re trying to go, but at the same time, for me, especially as being an outsider to a lot of things that rappers do. I'm completely in a different language than them a lot of times and they’re trying to figure out what’s going on and they don’t have any idea what it is."

Chester added, "I have no idea who the enemy is. But when I heard this line, I was like, "That was a direct fucking fuck you to every critic that has fucking talked shit about this band." Because, you know, they’ve all been fucking wrong, one, in some way or another. Whether it was 'This fucking band will never amount to shit' or whatever. Or "These guys are fucking manufactured" or whatever. I can go all the way back to when I was actually called the Anti-Christ and was the cause of everything bad in the world."

About the lines "I've been here killing it / longer than you've been alive, you idiot", Mike said, "You ever write a line where you're just like, "That's funny." I wrote it and I was like, "Should I actually say that?" It’s funny!"

About the lines "you've got a lot to discuss on the bus / headed back where you're from", he said, "One thing about ending a verse for me is, I love last lines. First lines and last lines a lot. And the whole idea about having "a lot to discuss on the bus headed back where you're from," to me that was a way to tie together the basketball thing with the relationship thing. The bus could be your tour bus with the team. Your bus could be the Greyhound bus going back to your parents house or wherever you came from. Fuck out of here, right? It's a more universal kind of line. So that was very intentional."

Chester said about the song, "The last thing I was thinking about was basketball. Although, I love basketball and I can't wait to get home tonight and watch some playoff basketball. I appreciate that aspect of where Mike is coming from. Like, "Dude this would be dope to do this thing," because when Mike puts his mind to it — with Collision Course, for example — it's like, "I want to make this thing, the best version of this thing that could be done and if anybody does it again it'll be compared to this." And it's like, "Okay, that’s a pretty tall order!" That's how we think. We don't think like, "Yeah, let’s make it dope." No, it has to be the best thing, like how you were saying. He's very particular about what he does and that's what makes him so special. It would be dope to see this song at a Lakers game. You know, I'd be like, "You did it dude.""

Mike said about Pusha T and Stormzy collaborating on the song, "Our attitude for any time we approach somebody about a collabo has always been, "Let the music speak for itself." Like, we'll tell you what the vision for the thing is, but at a certain point, you have to like the song, and you have to understand what it's about without me telling you, right? What we did for both Stormzy and Pusha was we sent the track out and just, the track was the track. That's why Pusha's verse, thematically, starts out like you're getting released from prison. Stormzy's track is more about his experience coming in on the scene in such a big way that he's experiencing right now the thing that we experienced off our first record. And when we met him, he was like, "Oh! How do you do this?" And, "What do you do.." He wanted advice from us because we've been there, you know? So, we're all coming at that theme of "Good Goodbye," we're all coming from different directions."

Mike said about Stormzy's line "like goodbye to my old hoe's", "I told Ryan from our manager's office, "You know, I saw that and I wanted to correct the grammar and didn't, right?" And he’s like, 'What do you mean?' He had this whole reasoning why the apostrophe was there. I was like, "Nah." If he wants to put it that way, that's fine. It's colloquial. It's however you want to write it. But technically, don’t we think that the apostrophe should have been removed? Because we’re talking about hoes. And then, we were like, what is the proper way to write hoes? If it’s "hoe," then it's singular. If it’s "H-O-E-S" it’s singular possessive. If it's "H-O-E apostrophe S" it's singular possessive and we got into this whole thing! And he was like, he was just looking at me like, "You know, man. Fuck you. You should have emailed me and corrected it. Now I have to live with this conversation about looking at that word every time it's printed on Genius and our lyric books and whatever. I'm gonna see that every single time and know that I should have changed it — removed that apostrophe." We go way too deep!"

Demo Version

A demo version of "Good Goodbye" surfaced online in early March 2018. It was first made publicly available to Linkin Park fans on LP_Community's VK page. This version features a second verse from Mike Shinoda (the same verse from the live version) in place of Stormzy's verse. Multitracks for this version were also leaked online via Reddit.

Music Video

Lyric Video

A lyric video for "Good Goodbye" was directed by Rafatoon (who also directed "Battle Symphony") and released on April 13, 2017 on Linkin Park's official YouTube channel.

Video Credits

Director: Rafael Perez
3D Director: Andres Garcia
Cinematography: Luis Rojas
Camera Assistant: Arturo Roa
Production Company: Dreambear

Music Video

The official music video for "Good Goodbye" was directed by Isaac Rentz and features Pusha T and Stormzy, who are featured on the track, and NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Mike later said that he is a big Lakers fan, but sadly did not get to meet Kareem since he wasn't there the day Kareem filmed his parts for the video. Mike added that Kareem is a very big role model to people in Los Angeles and he has a lot of respect for him.

During a Facebook chat on April 02, 2017, Mike Shinoda announced Linkin Park were working on a new video for a new song that is "not super silly, but it's still not very serious," commenting it was a change of pace for the band. It was later revealed that the music video was for the song "Good Goodbye". It was been filmed in Los Angeles over a day on March 14th and Stormzy flew out to be a part of it. Just like on the "Heavy" music video, Linkin Park partnered with Mercedes-Benz for "Good Goodbye", having 3 cars featured on the video.

The video was released on May 5, 2017 without any previous announcement.

Video Credits

Artist Name: Linkin Park
Song Name: Good Goodbye
Featured Artists: Pusha T, STORMZY
Director: Isaac Rentz
Director of Photography: Jon Chema
Executive Producers: Isaac Rice, Missy Galanida
Producer: Michelle Larkin
Video Commissioner: Devin Sarno
Record Label: Warner Bros. Records
Cast: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as Emperor
Production Manager: Austin Barbera
Production Coordinator: Brandon Robinson
1st Assistant Director: Kenneth Taylor
Production Design: John Richoux
Hair and Make Up Artist: MAXI
Stylist: Bryn Carter
Stunt Coordinator: TJ White, Rene Paul Mousseux, Terry James
Gaffer: Corrin Hodgson
Key Grip: Marlow Nunez

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Studio

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Good Goodbye (feat. Pusha T & Stormzy)	One More Light	3:31	2016	April 13, 2017	Features vocals by Pusha T and Stormzy.
Good Goodbye (Official Video)		3:54	2016	May 5, 2017	Extended synth intro.
Good Goodbye (Demo)		3:32	2016		Features vocals by Pusha T. Mike's demo verse replacing Stormzy's verse. Released on Linkin Park Community for free download on March 3, 2018.
Good Goodbye	Good Goodbye (Radio Promo) One More Light Instrumentals	3:31	2016	April 2017	Official instrumental version. Contains pitch-shifted vocals.

Live

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Good Goodbye (feat. Stormzy)	One More Light Live	4:08	July 4, 2017	December 15, 2017	Features vocals by Stormzy.
Good Goodbye (feat. Stormzy)	One More Light Live (Clean)	4:08	July 4, 2017	December 15, 2017	Censored. Features vocals by Stormzy.

Live

Linkin Park

Shortly after the release of "Good Goodbye", Mike Shinoda announced he would rap his original verse in the place of Stormzy's/Pusha T's verse (if they're not with Linkin Park) when performing live. Linkin Park went live on Facebook to promote the announcement of the North American Tour on May 2nd and performed "Good Goodbye" from the rehearsals. The song featured a brand new extended intro as well as Mike rapping a second verse over the instrumental of Stormzy's verse. The second chorus and Pusha T's verse were skipped.

"Good Goodbye" got its live debut on May 6th at Linkin Park's performance in Buenos Aires, Argentina with Mike slightly changing the seventh and eighth lines from the second verse performed in the rehearsal and with an extended, sing-a-long intro. The full song was debuted at the band's show in London, when Stormzy came out to play the song with the band. Mike rapped his original verse in place of Pusha T's instead of Stormzy's.

During the One More Light Global Album Listening Party on May 19, 2017, Brad said that Mike rapped his second verse of the song live. Mike commented about the Jimmy Kimmel Live performance the day before where he messed up the verses of the song, "Usually with a lot of these, I know everything in the song backwards and forwards. The thing about "Good Goodbye" verses is that they're written really similarly so my brain keeps wanting to interchange them, like flip-flop them so that's been a challenge for me."

Variations

Last Updated: October 30, 2017

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Intro	Synth Intro w/ Light Guitar	May 2, 2017	May 2, 2017
Intro	Synth Intro w/ Sing-a-Long	May 6, 2017	July 6, 2017
Alternative	Shortened (No Second Chorus or Second Verse) w/ Live Verse	May 2, 2017	July 6, 2017
Alternative	w/ Live Verse	July 3, 2017	July 4, 2017

Mike Shinoda

Mike incorporated "Good Goodbye" into his solo show beginning with his KROQ Weenie Roast performance as a mashup with "Bleed It Out". He would perform the first verse of "Good Goodbye" before doing the chorus and first verse of "Bleed It Out" over the "Good Goodbye" instrumental. The mashup was frequently used to close the main set when the full setlist is played. At the Amoeba Records show, the crowd started the "Good Goodbye" chorus before Mike got the chance to do the "Bleed It Out" chorus, and he went along with it, making it the first time the chorus of "Good Goodbye" was performed in the mashup. Once Matt and Dan joined Mike on tour, Matt would play the main riff of "Bleed It Out" transposed up starting in the first chorus.

Variations

Last Updated: April 28, 2020

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Mashup	"Good Goodbye" / "Bleed It Out"	May 12, 2018	September 8, 2019
Mashup	"Good Goodbye" / "Bleed It Out" (w/ Good Goodbye chorus)	June 20, 2018	August 31, 2019

Live Guests

• Stormzy

Personnel

Linkin Park

• Chester Bennington - Vocals
• Rob Bourdon - Drums, Background Vocals
• Brad Delson - Guitar, Background Vocals
• Joseph Hahn - Programming, Background Vocals
• Phoenix - Bass, Background Vocals
• Mike Shinoda - Keyboards, Programming, Vocals

Additional Musicians

• Pusha T's vocals recorded at No Name Studios, North Hollywood, CA by Tom Kahre
• Stormzy's vocals recorded at Matrix Studios, London, UK by Fraser T. Smith

Production

• Written by Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Jesse Shatkin, Terrance Thornton and Michael Omari
• Produced by Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson
• Additional production by Jesse Shatkin
• Vocal production by Jesse Shatkin
• Pusha T appears courtesy of Def Jam Recordings. A division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
• Stormzy appears courtesy of #Merky Records
• Music performed by Linkin Park
• Vocals by Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda
• Chester's vocals recorded at The Pool Recording Studio, London, UK
• Mike's vocals recorded at The Warehouse Studio, Vancouver, CA
• Music recorded at Larrabee Studios, North Hollywood, CA and Sphere Studios, North Hollywood, CA
• Engineered by Ethan Mates, Mike Shinoda and Josh Newell
• Assistant engineer: Alejandro Baima
• Studio B assistant engineer: Warren Willis
• Studio drum tech: Jerry Johnson
• Mixed by Manny Marooquin at Larrabee Studios, North Hollywood, CA
• Mix engineer: Chris Galland assisted by Jeff Jackson and Robin Florent

Lyrics

Album Version

So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)
 
Live from the rhythm, it's
Something wild, venomous
Enemies trying to read me
You're all looking highly illiterate
Blindly forgetting if I'm in the mix
You won't find an equivalent
I've been here killing it
Longer than you've been alive, you idiot
And it makes you so mad
Somebody else could be stepping in front of you
And it makes you so mad that you're not the only one
There's more than one of you
And you can't understand the fact
That it's over and done, hope you had fun
You've got a lot to discuss on the bus
Headed back where you're from
 
So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)
 
Goodbye, good riddance
A period is after every sentence
Did my time with my cellmate
Maxed out so now we finished
Every day was like a hail date
Every night was like a hailstorm
Took her back to my tinted windows
Showin' out, she in rare form
Wings up, now I'm airborne
King Push, they got a chair for him
Make way for the new queen
The old lineup, where they cheer for 'em
Consequence when you ain't there for him
Were you there for him?
Did you care for him?
You were dead wrong
 
So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)
 
Let me say goodbye to my demons
Let me say goodbye to my past life
Let me say goodbye to the darkness
Tell 'em that I'd rather be here in the starlight
Tell 'em that I'd rather be here where they love me
Tell 'em that I'm yours this is our life
And I still keep raising the bar like
Never seen a young black brother in the chart twice
Goodbye to the stereotypes
You can't tell my kings we can't
Mandem we're linking tings in parks
Now I gotta tune with Linkin Park
Like goodbye to my old hoe’s
Goodbye to the cold roads
I can't die for my postcode
Young little Mike from the Gold Coast
And now I'm inside with my bro bro's
Gang
 
So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)

Demo Version

So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)
 
Live from the rhythm, it's
Something wild, venomous
Enemies trying to read me
You're all looking highly illiterate
Blindly forgetting if I'm in the mix
You won't find an equivalent
I've been here killing it
Longer than you've been alive, you idiot
And it makes you so mad
Somebody else could be stepping in front of you
And it makes you so mad that you're not the only one
There's more than one of you
And you can't understand the fact
That it's over and done, hope you had fun
You've got a lot to discuss on the bus
Headed back where you're from
 
So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)
 
Goodbye, good riddance
A period is after every sentence
Did my time with my cellmate
Maxed out so now we finished
Every day was like a hail date
Every night was like a hailstorm
Took her back to my tinted windows
Showin' out, she in rare form
Wings up, now I'm airborne
King Push, they got a chair for him
Make way for the new queen
The old lineup, where they cheer for 'em
Consequence when you ain't there for him
Were you there for him?
Did you care for him?
You were dead wrong
 
So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)
 
Live from the genesis
Underlining for emphasis
There is no way to pretend
That we don't really know what the ending is
Part of me thinkin' that
Even addressing is being too generous
Do you really think that they'll
Notice when you get removed from the premises
And it makes you so mad
That somebody else could be stepping in front of you
And it makes you so mad
That I won't give you the respect that the others do
And you can't understand
It was over before it's begun, hope you had fun
You've got a lot to discuss on the bus
Headed back where you're from
 
So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)

Live Version

So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)
 
Live from the rhythm, it's
Something wild, venomous
Enemies trying to read me
You're all looking highly illiterate
Blindly forgetting if I'm in the mix
You won't find an equivalent
I've been here killing it
Longer than you've been alive, you idiot
And it makes you so mad
Somebody else could be stepping in front of you
And it makes you so mad that you're not the only one
There's more than one of you
And you can't understand the fact
That it's over and done, hope you had fun
You've got a lot to discuss on the bus
Headed back where you're from
 
So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)

Live from the genesis
Underlining for emphasis
There is no way to pretend
That we don't really know what the ending is
Part of me thinkin' that
Even addressing it's being too generous
Do you really think that they'll
Notice when you get removed from the premises
And it makes you so mad
Somebody else could be stepping in front of you
And it makes you so mad
That I won't give you the respect that the others do
And you can't understand the fact
That it's over and done, hope you had fun
You've got a lot to discuss on the bus
Headed back where you're from

So say goodbye and hit the road
Pack it up and disappear
You better have some place to go
'Cause you can't come back around here
Good goodbye
(Don't you come back no more)

Gallery

• 

  Swedish promo CD

• 

  Lyric sheet

• 

  Chester Bennington, Pusha T, Stormzy and Mike Shinoda

• 

  Picture posted on Linkin Park's snapchat on March 14th announcing they were working on a music video

External Links

Music Videos

• Good Goodbye (Official Lyric Video): LPTV
• Good Goodbye (Official Video): LPTV | Isaac Rentz Vimeo

Live Videos

• Good Goodbye (Rehearsal Video): LP FB

LPTV

• Good Goodbye - Behind The Scenes: LPTV | LP FB

Facebook

• Mic Tests - The Making of Good Goodbye (feat. Pusha T & Stormzy)
• Chester's Vocals - Good Goodbye (feat. Pusha T & Stormzy)
• Gang Vocals - Good Goodbye (feat. Pusha T & Stormzy)

Other

• Making Of Good Goodbye (Official Lyric Video): Rafatoon IG