Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds explains why he left the Mormon church

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Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds has opened up about his ‘complicated’ relationship with religion. 

The hitmaker, 36, who said he has a ‘happy, healthy’ relationship with girlfriend Minka Kelly, was brought up in Las Vegas, NV, as the seventh of nine children in a ‘really conservative’ family that belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon church.

‘There’s obviously parts of the Mormon religion that I feel pretty strongly are harmful, especially to our gay youth,’ the frontman told People.

The church website states that ‘same-sex attraction is a complex reality for many people. The attraction itself is not a sin, but acting on it is.’ 

The Believer singer formed the LoveLoud Foundation in 2017, to support the LBGTQ community. 

During the interview, he admitted that, at times, since his departure from the church he feels ‘pretty isolated from’ his family.’

‘But I also love them and am close to them and see them, and there’s no animosity there,’ he explained. ‘I’m on a different path. I have to love myself enough to follow my truth.’

Before leaving the church, Reynolds served a two year mission in Omaha, NE, and attended Brigham Young University in Provo, UT.

It was at BYU that he formed Imagine Dragons, winning the school’s Battle of the Bands contest and other competitions. 

The Eyes Closed singer said in his 20s and early 30s he was ‘really angry’ at religion because he felt he’d ‘been duped.’

‘[I] saw a lot of the harm that came from it for me personally,’ he said.

‘But it also seemed to work incredibly well for my family, and they’re all healthy, happy individuals.’

‘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.’

Reynolds’ ex-wife, Aja Volkman, 44, converted to Mormonism so the two could be married within the faith.

However, the couple, who separated in September 2022 and finalized their divorce earlier this year, have chosen not to bring up their children, Arrow, 11, Gia and Coco, seven, and Valentine, four, in the LDS religion. 

‘My greatest goal every day is to not manipulate my kids. I really don’t want to try to tell them what their spiritual path should be,’ he said.

‘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.’

Reynolds and his bandmates will be hitting the road soon, with the Imagine Dragons’ Loom World Tour, kicking off July 30 in Camden, NJ. 

It is their biggest North American tour to date.

‘I think this will be our best record to play live,’ Reynolds asserted. ‘It has a lot of tempo, a lot of different emotions.’

‘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.’