Donnie Pickles was born in Hill Valley, California. He and his family are of Irish descent. Little is known about Donnie's life prior to 1985, except for the fact that he accidentally set his parents' living room rug on fire when he was 8.
In 1985, Donnie plays lead guitar with his group The Pinheads and likes listening to Huey Lewis and the News, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Eddie Van Halen. He is also a talented skateboarder and proven to be quite the shot with a gun, honed by endlessly playing shooting games at his local 7-Eleven.

Although Donnie is often accident prone and sometimes thought to lack critical thinking skills, he is nevertheless brave in the face of danger and can be very resourceful and clever. His major character flaw is his pride, which causes him to take unnecessary risks to show others that he is not a coward. He loses all sense of control when someone refers to him as a chicken.

Oh... and he likes to play all of the best from the 80's and 90's