Don Huonot was formed by two school buddies in late 80s. They were originally considering the name "Nirvana", but soon deemed it too corny. The name "Don Huonot" is a wordplay on the pronunciation of "Don Juan" and the similarity of the words "Juan" and "huono", the latter meaning "bad" or "lousy" in Finnish. ("Huonot" is the plural basic form.) For further wordplay, the name can also be broken down to "D on huono T", which translates to "D is/makes a lousy T". A song by that name appears on their first album.

They released their first album, "Silmänkääntötemppu" in 1991. It took however five released albums for them to become a household name, which happened when the album "Hyvää yötä ja huomenta" was released in 1997. During their career they collaborated with several other Finnish artists, like Apulanta.

They did their farewell tour in 2003 after which their lead singer, Kalle Ahola, went on for a solo career. Guitarist Kie von Hertzen went on to join his two brothers in Von Hertzen Brothers and drummer(until 2001) Jussi Chydenius is part of the choral ensemble Rajaton.