According to Mike Shinoda, the song was thought of very early in the process of creating the album. 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 inon the track for rap verses. That ended up being Pusha T and Stormzy. Explaining how the collaboration with Stormzy came together, Shinoda said: According to Chester Bennington, Stormzy had been on the band's radar for quite a while. The studio version with Shinoda's additional verse was leaked on March 3, 2018, although the band had already performed it live on the One More Light World Tour in 2017. This track does not include Stormzy's nor Pusha T's verses.
Music video
A lyric video for "Good Goodbye" was directed by Rafatoon and released on April 13, 2017, on Linkin Park's official YouTube channel. During a Facebook chat on April 2, 2017, Mike Shinoda announced Linkin Park was working on a new video for a new song that is "not super silly, but it's still not very serious," commenting that it was a change of pace for the band. It was later revealed that the music video was for the song "Good Goodbye". It has been filmed in Los Angeles over a day, and Stormzy, who is featured on the track, flew out to be a part of it. The official music video was later released by the band on YouTube on May 5, 2017. Featuring NBA legend and former basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the videogame-inspired visual features Chester, who has to score points in a basketball dunk contest to save his life, while having Abdul-Jabbar play as the judge keeping score. The video is intercut with shots of Bennington, Shinoda, Pusha T and Stormzy performing their verses. Commenting on the video to Billboard for an episode of the Ballin' Out podcast, Bennington later said, "In keeping with the theme of basketball, the video we shot features, in my opinion, the greatest player of all time is the emperor of a dunk contest to the deaths in which I have to go up against round after round of dunking on dudes to save my life. I think we're kind of known for our more serious stuff but this is a fun distraction from being so serious all the time." As of 15 April 2020, the music video has 52 million views.
