Songfacts®:

• In 2010 Slipknot's founding bassist Paul Gray died of an accidental overdose of morphine and the painkiller fentanyl. This hard rock ballad is about the band's first meeting after the loss of their longtime friend. "It's about the day we lost Paul," vocalist Corey Taylor told Rolling Stone. "It's specifically about sitting in my house two hours after we found out, just shell-shocked, completely numb and then completely overwhelmed with what we were dealing with. It's a heavy tune, and it's on a whole other level for this band."
• Speaking to Mistress Carrie of the Worcester/Boston, Massachusetts radio station WAAF, Taylor said that the band wanted to pay tribute to Paul Gray with the name of the group's fifth studio album, but struggled to get the right wording for the actual title. "We had a handful of [ideas] that we were kind of bandying about," he said. "And me and Clown [percussionist Shawn Crahan] were talking about… We just kind of got on the phone together, and it was, like, 'Look, what do you think?' And we went back and forth a handful of times until we both kind of hit on the title."
  
  "And we both sat back and we were, like, 'That's it. That feels really, really good.' 'Cause we knew there was gonna be a dedication to Paul there," Taylor continued. "We didn't know how to do it, we didn't have the exact wording until we both kind of sat down and shot it back and forth and really got to the point where we knew we had the title."
• Slipknot guitarist Jim Root told MusicRadar.com that he played bass on "six, maybe seven tracks" on .5: The Gray Chapter, following the passing of Paul Gray. "I can't even remember which [songs I played bass on]; I'd have to sit down with the guy who played bass on the other tracks to find out."
  
  He continued: "Some of the lines were taken from the demo versions that I recorded in my garage, because they were moody, and had a unique vibe that was too hard to recreate. 'Goodbye' uses the full bassline that Corey recorded for his demo."
• When Shawn "Clown" Crahan first heard the words for this sentimental hard-rock ballad, he interpreted it to mean that Corey Taylor was quitting the band. "That's how emotional we all were," the percussionist told Rolling Stone. "You never know when someone's just gonna throw their arms up and go, 'I'm done.'"
• Jim Root told Australia's The Music.com why he enjoys playing this song. "I love the ambience of 'Goodbye'. I get to get really Radiohead with my guitar playing and pretend that I'm [Radiohead guitarist] Johnny Greenwood or something," he said. You know what I mean? It makes you think outside of the box from a quote-unquote standard metal guitar player and you get to search for more ambient sounds."