Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds Says He Felt ‘Duped’ By Mormonism

Dan Reynolds, lead singer of Imagine Dragons, opened up about his years practicing Mormonism as he declared that he’s on a “different path” than loved ones since stepping away from the church.

In a recent interview with People magazine, the singer said he grew up in a “really conservative” home before attending Brigham Young University and serving as a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionary for two years in Nebraska.

Reynolds, who said he once felt “really angry” toward Mormonism and described feeling as if he’d “been duped,” said he’s had a complicated relationship with religion and struggled with it.

“There’s obviously parts of the Mormon religion that I feel pretty strongly are harmful, especially to our gay youth,” said Reynolds, an ally to the LGBTQ+ community.

“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.”

The singer has previously taken on the church’s treatment of the LGBTQ+ community including in the 2018 documentary “Believer.”

In the ’00s, the church backed Proposition 8 in California, which barred same-sex marriage in the state. Researchers have also tied the church’s rhetoric toward the LGBTQ+ community to rises in youth suicide rates in Utah.

In 2017, Reynolds co-founded the LOVELOUD Festival, an event that has annually raised money for charities benefiting the LGBTQ+ community.

“[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.”

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Reynolds, who shares four children with his former wife Aja Volkman, told the magazine that he isn’t raising his kids Mormon and his “greatest goal every day” is to not “manipulate” them.

“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.”