Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds talks 'harm' of Mormonism, relationship with family

Imagine Dragons rocker Dan Reynolds is still close to family members who practice Mormonism despite no longer being part of the church himself.

Reynolds, 36, opened up about his "complicated" relationship with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his experience growing up in a "really conservative" Mormon family in an interview with People magazine published Sunday.

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

"(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 continued. "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."

Bandmate Wayne Sermon, Imagine Dragons' guitarist, was also raised in the LDS church.

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Dan Reynolds diverged with the Mormon church over LGBTQ+ rights

The Las Vegas-born lead singer of the Grammy-winning band grew up with eight siblings, was sent on a two-year mission in Nebraska at 19 and attended Brigham Young University.

However, Reynolds was kicked out of the school, which is run by the Mormon church, as a freshman after it came out that he'd had sex with his girlfriend in high school. In 2022, Reynolds told the Howard Stern Show that he was re-admitted after going through "the repentance process," which lasted about six months.

"It was a shaming experience that sent me into the first depression I experienced in my life," Reynolds told USA TODAY in 2018 of being expelled from BYU.

"That, on a very small scale, is what our LGBTQ youth feel every single day, which is that within homes of faith, you have to choose between what you believe and who you love. No one should be forced to choose that."  

In his 20s and early 30s, Reynolds told People, he found himself "really angry" at religion, feeling like he'd "been duped."

However, as of 2022, he still considered himself "a non-practicing Mormon."

"I have seven brothers, one sister, tons of cousins. There's 40-plus grandkids. They're all Mormon. Every one of them — practicing Mormons, in fact," he told Yahoo Entertainment. "I'm the only one, who, I would say, is a non-practicing Mormon. I still claim Mormonism because it's my culture, right? It's my people. All my best friends growing up were Mormon (and) are still Mormon.

"But I'm not raising my kids Mormon. I think there's a lot of things that I disagree with, that I think is hurting our kids," he said, referring to attitudes toward LGBTQ+ people.

"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 told People.

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Dan Reynolds' foundation hosts an annual concert for LGBTQ+ charities

In 2017, Reynolds founded the LOVELOUD Foundation, a nonprofit that supports charities dedicated to the well-being of the LGBTQ+ community and produces an annual concert.

He explained his affiliation with the community on the Lex Fridman podcast in 2022 and revealed that starting in middle school, he noticed his LGBTQ+ friends struggling with navigating both their faith and their sexuality.

Reynolds' fight for Mormon acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community is the subject of the 2018 HBO documentary, "Believer." The film follows Reynolds' months-long effort to organize the inaugural Love Loud festival, which raised money for organizations such as The Trevor Project.

The band kicks off the Loom world tour on July 30 in Camden, New Jersey.

Contributing: Patrick Ryan