"The subplots involving the Shelly character were completely fictional and not based on any real people or incidents in Guthrie's life; his character's motorcycle club was loosely based on the Trinity Motorcycle Club (or, by a conflicting account, the Triangle Motorcycle Club), a real-life group of motorcyclists that associated with the Brocks and were alluded to in another Guthrie song, the "Motorcycle Song".The film also has Guthrie being forced to leave a Montana town after "creating a disturbance" – i.e., several town residents object to Guthrie's long hair and gang up to throw him through a plate glass window.