Billy Dunne’s character develops a complex early on in his life when his father leaves the family, leaving a young Billy responsible for his mother and his brother, Graham. A decade after his father leaves, Billy and Graham see him at a wedding, but he doesn’t seem to recognize them. This experience opens Billy’s scar, and his resentment and hurt over his father is left to simmer in his psyche. The issue of fatherhood becomes important when Billy himself becomes a father, and without any role models he feels unequipped to deal with the responsibility.

Billy’s sober lifestyle is intimately tied to his identity as a father. The safety and happiness of his daughters is the light that leads him through some of the darkest temptations. Billy’s fixation on fatherhood affects everyone in the novel, as the music he writes and decisions he makes for the band are often undergirded by his family. Billy works hard to be a father figure, but he never loses the desire for a father. When Teddy Price nurtures his music and helps him to get sober, Billy finds a father figure. When Teddy dies, Billy is unmoored yet again.