Johnny Cain

Johnny grew up with five younger siblings, all sisters, and his dad left pretty early on in his childhood so he ended up having to be something of a dad to them, being the only "man" in the house and often being left home alone with them as their mom was gone at work for long periods of time. between acting as a parent and having to get a job as soon as he was old enough to be able to help provide for his large family, he essentially had to give up his own childhood for them, which as much as he loves his sisters, will always be bitter about never being able to enjoy that youth the same as his friends did. at the same time, this also caused him to feel even more estranged from the few friends he had during that time, as he had to almost "grow up" faster than the rest of them and as a result had wildly different experiences that his friends just couldn't relate to, and couldn't relate to him. he ended up becoming somewhat friends with the adult men he worked with, who quickly (inadvertently) introduced him to many things he was much too young to be getting into, like drugs. with no true support under him throughout his childhood and teenage years, all these traumas and bad choices continued to fester inside and follow him through his adulthood too.

before the Powder Puppies, Johnny had a group called Hey Pluto, consisting of him and three others, Chase, Blue, and Barb(ara). Johnny knew Chase and Barb from school and thats when they started playing together, and they brought Blue on a little later when looking for a real guitarist (Johnny didnt cut it well enough on his own and obviously Chase couldnt play both guitar and bass at the same time). they were actually pretty successful as far as small bands go and after a while Johnny was feeling really optimistic about going real places with his friends until Blue's death, which sent Johnny into an awful spiral that went so sour he ended up uprooting a lot of his life and disappearing on the other two for a while. after getting back he intended on making amends and starting Hey Pluto back up again despite the pain the memories caused him, hoping it would bring him closer to Chase and Barb again like they had been before, but the damage was done and they had already fallen apart irreparably. during the time shortly before Blue died Johnny had crossed paths with Van again miraculously, and so after the collapse of Hey Pluto was when Johnny finally turned to him to start a new band, desperate to get back on his feet again and hopefully just leave the past untouched.