Imagine Dragons vocalist Dan Reynolds was raised in a very conservative Mormon family, attended Brigham Young University, and served a two-year Mormon mission in Omaha, Nebraska.
But in his early 20s, he began questioning his faith. Now 36, it has been several years since Reynolds stopped being a practicing Mormon.
In an interview with People, the musician explained his “complicated” relationship with religion and how he learned to navigate his decision to leave the faith while his family remained active in the church.
“There are parts of the Mormon religion that I think are really detrimental, especially to our gay youth,” said Reynolds, who in 2017 founded the LOVELOUD Foundation to support the LGBTQ+ youth community.
“Sometimes I feel very isolated from my family, but I also love them and am close to them and see them, and there’s no resentment there. I’m on a different path. I have to love myself enough to follow my truth.”
The “Eyes Closed” singer said she “always struggled” with religion, even while growing up as the seventh of nine children of parents Ronald and Christene.
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Reynolds said she spent her 20s and early 30s “really angry” at religion, because she felt she had been “lied to.”
“I see a lot of harm that religion has done to me personally, but it also seems to have worked very well for my family, and they are all healthy, happy individuals,” he said.
“As I get older, I don’t get mad regarding it anymore. If something works for someone, it’s beautiful and rare, and I don’t want to disturb that.”
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However, he chose not to raise his four children with ex-wife Aja Volkman (daughters Arrow, 11, Gia and Coco, 7, and son Valentine, 4) in the church.
“My biggest goal every day is to not manipulate my kids. I really don’t want to try to tell them what their spiritual path is,” she explains.
“I give them my thoughts and of course try to protect them and take care of them, while making sure they have the freedom and right to choose whatever they want.”
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Reynolds is currently gearing up to kick off his Loom world tour on July 30, which marks Imagine Dragons’ biggest headline tour of North America since their formation in 2008.
“I think this is going to be our best record to play live. It has a lot of tempos, a lot of different emotions,” he said.
“We’re already in the rehearsal phase for this tour, and I know — we’ve been doing 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.” (People/Z-3)
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