Q and A: Imagine Dragons' lead singer Dan Reynolds talks music, Mormons and more

Deseret News reporter Morgan Jones spoke at length with Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds about the upcoming LoveLoud concert in support of LGBTQ youth. This interview has been edited for content and clarity as he goes indepth on his views on life, his faith, the concert, and his desire to make a difference in people's lives.

Deseret News: First of all, with this LoveLoud concert, what was the genesis of the project? Whose idea was it and how did it come to be?

Dan Reynolds: It was my idea. It’s really been something that’s been on my mind for probably the last couple years. Whenever I do interviews with press about the band, when people would bring up whether or not I was Mormon, it often made me uncomfortable. It was just an uncomfortable question for me because though I am Mormon and I identify as Mormon, just like every Mormon, I’m a unique Mormon. I have my own personal views on things and my own faith struggles and things like that so I typically would shy away from it.

But one of the reasons that I had a hard time talking about it was I knew where my heart stood as far as, you know, what I thought about God and God’s relationship with the LGBTQ community. I know that that’s a divided issue within orthodox faith and I never want to point a finger at anybody and say, ‘I’m right and you’re wrong’ or anything like that because a lot of things are so subjective and I respect people and their own personal views and their own personal spirituality.

But with that being said, I’ve lost a few friends to suicide throughout the years and on top of that, some of my friends are LGBTQ and the suicide rate for the LGBTQ community is higher and so, because of that I’ve wanted to do something and I just have been trying to find the right way to do it and it’s a difficult thing. It’s a line, it’s a hard tightrope to walk to not make anybody feel attacked, to make everyone feel like they have a voice but to also, the goal is to just create a safer community, not just for our youth but also for our LGBTQ youth.

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