Dan Reynolds, lead singer of the rock band Imagine Dragons, opened up about why he chose to leave Mormonism.
Speaking with People in an interview published on Sunday, July 7, Reynolds, 36, was candid about growing up in a “really conservative” Mormon family and discussed his “complicated” relationship with religion.
“There’s obviously parts of the Mormon religion that I feel pretty strongly are harmful, especially to our gay youth,” Reynolds, who founded LGBTQ+ focused non-profit LOVELOUD Foundation in 2017, told People. “At times I feel pretty isolated from my family, but I also love them and am close to them and see them, and there’s no animosity there. I’m on a different path. I have to love myself enough to follow my truth.”
While the “Radioactive” singer shared that he “always struggled” with religion, it wasn’t until his 20s that Reynolds chose to leave the church. Up until that point, Reynolds had attended Brigham Young University and even served on a two-year mission in Nebraska.
“[I] saw a lot of the harm that came from it for me personally, but it also seemed to work incredibly well for my family, and they’re all healthy, happy individuals,” he told People. “As I’ve gotten older, I’m not angry about it anymore. If something works for someone, that’s really wonderful and rare, and I don’t want to mess with it.”
While Reynolds’ family remains active in the church, he has chosen not to raise his children — daughters Arrow, 11, Gia and Coco, 7, and son Valentine, 4 — as Mormons. (Reynolds shares his four children with ex-wife Aja Volkman.)
“My greatest goal every day is to not manipulate my kids,” he explained. “I really don’t want to try to tell them what their spiritual path should be. I give them my thoughts and obviously try to protect them and take care of them, while also making sure they have freedom and agency to choose whatever they want.”
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Reynolds and Volkman announced their split in April 2018 after 7 years of marriage. Two months later, he exclusively told Us Weekly that the pair were “doing good” after going their separate ways. “I think life moves forward and we’re doing good,” he told Us at the time.
Imagine Dragons will kick off the Loom World Tour, their largest headlining North American tour ever, at the end of this month.
“I think this will be our best record to play live. It has a lot of tempo, a lot of different emotions,” Reynolds told People. “We’re already in rehearsals for this tour, and I just know — we’ve done this long enough that I’m like, ‘Oh, this is going to be a party, but it’s also going to be cathartic.’ It’s going to be sad in the right ways, heavy in the right ways, happy in the right ways. It’s going to be a really fun record to tour.”
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