John Troast grew up in Lake Geneva, WI. The area attracts many tourists mostly from the Chicagoland area. Many people have secondary residences there and as a result the population nearly doubles in the summer time. Some of his songs reflect this concept. Jon grew up in a family of nine with four adopted siblings and as he says in one of his songs he wouldn't have wanted it any other way. On his website he says coming from such a big and diverse family has definitely helped him see things from a lot of different perspectives.