"Here Comes Goodbye" is a song written by American Idol season 6 finalist Chris Sligh and Clint Lagerberg and recorded by American country music group Rascal Flatts, who released it in January 2009 as the first single from their album Unstoppable and the twenty-third single of their career. This song debuted at number 29 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts dated for February 7, 2009 and became their 10th number one on the chart dated April 25, 2009. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals" in 2010. History Lagerberg came up with the opening line "I can hear the truck tires coming up the gravel road" after thinking about his childhood home in Maine, which had a long gravel driveway. Sligh then decided to take the line and make it into a song where "something's coming, and it's not good." The opening piano melody came from a melody that Sligh played when Lagerberg was checking on Sligh's daughter, and decided to use it because they thought that it would capture the listener's attention. Content "Here Comes Goodbye" is a power ballad beginning with piano accompaniment. The lyric explains the male narrator's realization that his lover is about to leave him. A string section and electric guitar accompaniment backs the song from the second verse onward, and an electric guitar solo precedes the bridge. Critical reception The song has received mixed reviews from music critics. Jim Malec of The 9513 gave it a "thumbs down" rating. His review criticized it for "having an overly dramatic production in contrast to its underdeveloped lyrics", which he thought "made the song sound awkward". He describing Gary LeVox' vocals as "atypically restrained andricher and considerably less whiney than usual" in the first verse but said that his delivery became "hilarious in its urgency" as the song progressed. Blake Boldt of Country Universe gave it a C rating, also thinking that LeVox "gracefully handle[d]" the first verse but "tumbl[ed] into operatic tendencies toward the end." He also considered it a "copycat" of the band's 2006 single "What Hurts the Most". Matt Bjorke of Roughstock gave a more favorable review. Although he referred to the song's structure as a "well-worn power ballad path", he considered LeVox' performance "nuanced" and overall thought that the song was "better than anything on the trio's previous album Still Feels