"[4] The song's lyrics pertain to Eminem's life as a celebrity musician interfering with his family.

AllMusic wrote a mixed to positive overview: "There's the closing "When I'm Gone," a sentimental chapter in the Eminem domestic psychodrama that bears the unmistakable suggestion that Em is going away for a while.

While it's not up to the standard of "Mockingbird," it is more fully realized than the two other new cuts here..."[5] Pitchfork considered: "When I'm Gone" is an all desolate placeholder—lesser version of Eminem songs that already piss me off.

"Gone" is the worst offender, yet another love letter from Em to daughter Hailie, it, like Encore's "Mockingbird", is heavy-handed and saccharine.

As he watches her walk away, he raps "Then turn right around in that song and tell her you love her/And put hands on her mother, who's a spitting image of her", feeling remorse for writing songs about being violent towards Kim, who is Hailie's mother, and wonders how he could be a good parent.

The video features actresses playing his daughter Hailie Jade and his ex-wife Kim, from whom Eminem was divorced when the song was released.

[11][12] The scene where he performs onstage is the cover art for the single and Curtain Call album.