Holliday is written chapter by chapter to individual songs, Holliday follows the infamous 1880s gambler, dentist, and gunslinger, Doc Holliday. From the outset, Doc has been diagnosed with Tuberculosis and is told to head to dryer climates and imbibe to prolong his life. He has also heard of a spring located somewhere along the frontier that could cure him—what he believes to be the mythical Fountain of Youth. The novel portrays Holliday as a rock star, a living legend, increasingly hounded by paparazzi, enamored by death, cards, booze, and women. Doc is a mixture of Clint Eastwood and Jim Morrison, and though he is able to help his friend, Wyatt Earp, exact revenge, his condition worsens, traveling from Arizona to Denver, and finally dying in a sanatorium in Colorado with his boots off. A slow and unfitting end for such a bombastic outlaw. 

Doc Holliday – embodies the rockstar attitude in a gun wielding outlaw. He is dying of tuberculosis and searching for the fountain of youth. He is our star.

Wyatt Earp – Famed lawman, befriends Doc Holliday. He is stolid and serious, the yin to Holliday’s yang. 

Big Nose Kate – Doc’s on again off again girlfriend. She is a prostitute but only has love for Doc. It’s never clear if she’s good or bad for Doc, probably both.

Johnny Ringo – The only man who could possibly challenge Doc to a gunfight. He’s a Cow-boy (the bad guys).

Curly Bill – Leader of the cow-boys and all around bad hombre.