Originally from Kinsley, Kansas, Johnston's songs are often about troubled loners, and cover topics like heartbreak, alienation, and disappointment.

When he was 16, he bought his first guitar from a mail-order catalog, and at 17 had a friend drive him 35 miles to the nearest record store to buy an Elvis Costello album he had read about.

With the typing skills he had acquired in high school, he supported himself in New York as an office worker at an architecture firm for a number of years as well as in the restaurant industry, prior to pursuing music on a full-time basis.

[4] Johnston followed up with his 1994 major label debut, This Perfect World, released on Elektra Records and produced by Butch Vig of Garbage.

[3] Johnston and fellow musicians Jay Moran, James "Pie" Cowan, Duke Erikson, and Butch Vig perform occasional shows as a covers band called the Know-it-All Boyfriends.