He started writing music criticism while still an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto's Varsity newspaper.
Goddard played piano in a succession of Toronto rock groups, then began his career as a journalist in 1966 concurrently with studying music.
[4] Goddard also has written for many magazines (Maclean's, Saturday Night, RPM, Canadian Composer, etc) and is the author of the biography Frank Sinatra (Don Mills, Ont, 1973) and the novel The Sounding (Toronto 1988), and co-author with Ronnie Hawkins of Ronnie Hawkins: Last of the Good Old Boys (Toronto 1989).
With the Toronto photographer Philip Kamin, Goddard collaborated on 10 books, published 1982-6 in Toronto, documenting concert tours during the early and mid-1980s by the Rolling Stones, the Who, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Genesis, Michael Jackson, the Police, Van Halen, the Cars, and Cyndi Lauper.
Goddard died after a battle with glioblastoma at Toronto Grace Health Centre on Wednesday night, March 23, 2022.