01x01 - Dan and Christene Reynolds

[bunniefuu]

- ♪ MTV

[tranquil music]

♪

- All these are from
an assortment of years.

The first one

was my Christmas present...

in...
- 1991.

- '91.

As soon as I tell people
I'm Dave Grohl's mother,

they immediately
have questions.

What was he like
when he was young?

Did you see his talent
early on?

Were you afraid of how
he'd react to fame?

I understand their curiosity.

Honestly, I'm still wondering
how it all happened myself.

So I wrote a book
based on interviews

with dozens of mothers
of musicians.

After the book came out,

I wanted to explore
their stories even further.

So I went on the road again,

but this time
with my son, David,

and a few cameras.

We set out to meet
Geddy Lee of Rush,

Miranda Lambert, Tom Morello,

Brandi Carlile, Dan Reynolds
of Imagine Dragons,

and Pharrell Williams,
and, of course, their mothers.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

[cheers and applause]

[warm music]

- There's a magic age

when it happens,

and almost everyone
I talked to agreed that

it's between 12 and 13.

That's when it hit Geddy Lee,

Dr. Dre.

That's when it hit David.

♪

At that age,
there's no reversing it.

Once they know,

the mothers had to make
a choice at that point.

Support it, you try to reason,

you get out of the way,
what do you do?

You know, it doesn't matter.

That's when it happens.

[children's laughter
and chatter]

- Okay, the hall that
I actually think we should film

is pretty rad.

This is the wall
of Eagle Scouts.

So you have Coulter,

you have Sarah's
Girl Scout picture.

This was me as a junior
in high school.

This is Harry.

Mac.
Manager.

- I mean, look at him.
You could tell.

I can tell just in the face.
- Yep.

It's like,
"I know what's right."

- "I'm going to change
the music industry

with this patch."
- Yes.

This was my room.
This was--

- You might break the record
for family pictures by the way.

Jeez Louise.
- Amount of them

or amount of people in them?

- Both actually.
[laughs]

- So this used to have
three beds in it.

- Yeah, I was gonna say,
it must've been like a dorm.

- Nobody had
their own room ever.

So this had one,
two, three beds,

and I was in
this one over here,

'cause I was the youngest of
the boys, so it was, like,

and then you move your way up.

So when this one, like,

would move up, and go
to an older brother's room,

then you would move
to this bed.

And then as you,
like, graduate boyhood,

you move rooms closer
down the hallway.

And my mom's room
is all the way at the end.

So it's kinda, like--

- When you move rooms,
is it like, "Yes!"?

- "Yes!"
But you're also like,

"I don't wanna be
in the room with Mac.

He snores."
- [laughs]

- This used to be
a big poster of Bob Marley.

Actually, I had a poster
of Bob Marley and Kurt Cobain,

and those were
the two people...

- Wow!
- In my room, yeah.

There was no Dave Grohl.

- We didn't make those posters.
- [laughs]

- Yeah, I don't think you--

- If there was, maybe there
would've been a big--

- You know what?
I'll send you one.

You can put it
in your new house.

- Yeah, okay.
All right.

- Jenny, I'm really
glad to meet you.

- Nice to meet you too.

- And I'm really nervous
about this,

so yeah, we'll have a big hug
so I don't feel so nervous.

- Ooh, I hope you won't be.

- I met your son last night.
- I know.

Sit down.

[rock music]

♪ ♪

- We can never get enough
of Imagine Dragons,

and their electrifying
lead singer, Dan Reynolds.

- They are a Grammy
Award-winning band...

- From fabulous Las Vegas,
Nevada,

Imagine Dragons!

[Imagine Dragons' "Thunder"]

- ♪ Just a young g*n,
with a quick fuse ♪

♪ I was uptight,
wanna let loose ♪

- Our next guests are having
the best year of their career.

I love them so much.
Please welcome Imagine Dragons.

- ♪ Thunder, thunder ♪

[Imagine Dragons' "Believer"]

♪ Pain, you made me a ♪

♪ You made me a believer,
believer ♪

♪

[Imagine Dragons'
"Bet My Life"]

♪ I bet my life

- This is a really
insightful story

that you've chosen to tell.

- As a Mormon, he is fighting
for LGBTQ rights

in a restrictive
religious community

that raised him.

♪ ♪

- I think from a young age
my mom taught me

you stand up for those
who are underprivileged

and stigmatized,
and at-risk.

[cheers and applause]

Uh, this is my mom's side.

The family tree.

So when my dad married my mom,

he originally wanted
to be a teacher,

and my mom said, "I wanna have
a lot of kids,"

and you're not going to make
enough money as a teacher

for me to have nine kids.

So she basically said, "Either
I am going to be a doctor,

"and we're not gonna have kids,

or you are going to make more
money so I can have more kids."

- [laughs]

- That's exactly
the conversation,

at least as I've been told.

- Wow, that's so cool
you have this.

- Yeah.

- Well, first of all,

the first thing I saw

when I saw your name come up,

was that you had nine children,

and I just thought,

"I don't know anyone else--
[laughs]

"I've never known anyone
with nine children,

and almost all boys."
- Mm-hmm.

And you look so young,
and you look so--

- You're sweet.
- Like you've survived it all.

- Barely.
[both laughing]

[warm music]

- Yeah, so I have a pretty
typical Mormon family.

Mormons have tons of kids.

[upbeat percussive music]

- You know,
Mormons marry as virgins,

and so I think we got pregnant
really fast on our honeymoon

before we
quite figured out how to do it,

With the birth control part.

♪

And then after that,

we thought,
"Well, we'll just wait

until we feel like
we want another one."

So we did.

We just kept feeling like
we wanted another one.

- My mom was just like, doop,
doop, doop, doop, doop, like--

[laughs]

- If you ask Dave why did he
do more than one album?

He'd probably say,
"The first album was great,

let's do another one."

You do another one, and say,
"Hey, this album was great.

We're having a lot of fun,
Let's do another one."

- And we just
kept having boys.

Just one boy and another boy,
another boy, another boy,

and finally
my doctor told me,

"Christine,
if you want a daughter,

you're going to have to get to
know your mailman better."

- [laughs]

- But magic.

We got her anyway.

- One day we woke up
and said, "We have nine."

- I wasn't really ready
to quit even after--

Kids were really fun.

A bunny rabbit.

And right from the beginning,
if I wanted to.

- This is a woman who really
could've done anything

with her life.

Very driven,
presidential scholar,

top of her class,
pre-med in college.

And I think it was a very
conscious decision for her

that the way that she wanted

to make her best impact
on the world

was to focus
on raising children.

[chatter]

- Clap your hands, Dan.

- To give up the idea
of a medical profession

to have nine children
instead...

it was like her calling.

- Eight boys, one girl.
I'm the seventh son.

We're all two years apart,

and we're all super close.

- What's it like growing up
in a house

with that many f*cking kids,
man?

- All right, I already do it.

- It was amazing.

It was so fun.

There was always noise
in the house

or always people awake.

[both grunting]

I loved the feeling
of going to bed at night

and hearing people downstairs,

like, eating cereal
and talking.

- Another blessing for us

was they all liked each other.

- I always had somebody to,
if not play with,

at least watch, and like,
learn from them.

[warm music]

- Mom!
[chatter]

- How's growing up in Vegas?

- I think it's different
than most people think.

[Elvis Presley's
"Viva Las Vegas"]

- ♪ Bright light city
going to set my soul ♪

♪ Going to set my soul
on fire ♪

- Did you realize
what was going on in the city

when you were kid?
- I think, growing up,

it was my mom,
as much as she could,

making it very Mormon,

and then moments of, like,

driving past the Strip

being, like, "Whoa, there's a
bunch of beautiful naked women

on that billboard."

And being like,
"The world!"

- ♪ Viva Las Vegas ♪

- My mom would be like,
"Shield your eyes, children."

[laughs]
You know?

- ♪ Las Vegas ♪

♪ ♪

- I thought
it was totally normal

like I every other place

until I started moving
outside of Vegas.

And when I thought about it,
it's not quite that true.

Right up the street
was the Flying Cavarettas

that had the full-sized
circus trapeze

in their backyard.

A couple blocks down
in the other direction,

we had Melinda,
"The First Lady of Magic,"

who would walk
her white tigers,

like, out in the neighborhood.

[quiet music]

- I think Vegas is a good city
to raise kids

because everything
is very black and white.

And you have really wild,

and you have really
churchgoing people,

and when you're in a place
where being good

is a choice, you have
to really make that choice.

- I don't know if it's a
typical Las Vegas upbringing,

but seeing
both of those things,

I'm so grateful
for that exposure.

It made me who I am.

♪

- Honey,
David's gonna come over

and see the videotape here.

[warm rock music]

- [inaudible]

- I'm getting him dear, and
he's a little bit of a ham.

♪ ♪

- It hasn't changed too much

on this cul-de-sac.

I used to mow that lawn,
I used to mow that lawn.

I used to mow that lawn.

I love coming back.

I just feel like I belong here

more than anywhere else.

And then I hate leaving.

- Suburbia U.S.A.
is Springfield, Virginia.

We're ten miles
from the Pentagon,

which you wouldn't know
when you're here.

- We probably moved into here

when I was six, five?

Yeah, at the time,

this neighborhood
was just kind of ideal.

[laughs]

That was the first punk rock
band I ever saw, Naked Raygun.

It was the first band
I ever saw.

When we weren't listening
to noisy punk rock,

we were listening
to the Manhattan Transfer.

[The Manhattan Transfer's
"Tuxedo Junction"]

- My favorite.
- Growing up, we didn't

have a record player,
so my mom would bring home

those public school
record players

where you, like,
take the top off

and the speakers in the front,

and they'd smell like
burnt dust or whatever.

And so--
- From the AV room.

- That's when we got
one of our first records,

'cause we went
to the drug store,

and you were like,
"Pick a record,"

and I got
this K-tel compilation

with Edgar Winter's
"Frankenstein" on it.

Do you know which one that is?

That's a...
[imitates guitar]

- Oh, yeah.
Okay.

- It was a huge hit,
but it was an instrumental,

and that had a huge,
lasting impression on me too.

[The Edgar Winter's Group's
"Frankenstein"]

♪ ♪

- [laughs]

[warm music]

- There was always music on
in the house,

whether it was in the morning

as we were getting ready
to go to school,

or in the car
on the way to school,

as she was cooking.

I mean, there was always
just music around.

We would sing together,

and it was something that kind
of bonded the two of us

outside of everything else.

- I saw that he loved music,

but David wasn't much
for taking lessons,

guitar or drum.

♪ ♪

- I learned
to play an instrument

because there was one
in the house.

It's almost like
I didn't pick that instrument,

it kinda picked me.

It was a nylon string guitar

that my mother bought
for my father as a present.

He never learned to play it,

so it sort of sat in the corner
like a piece of furniture.

So I took guitar lessons
for a few months.

Single note, "Mary Had a
Little Lamb" kind of things.

But I wanted to learn
how to play rock and roll.

Like, I loved the Beatles,
I loved AC/DC,

I loved the Rolling Stones.

I just needed, like,
show me how to make a chord,

and then I'll learn
all the Ramones' songs.

Just give me one chord,
and I'll figure out the rest.

And so I somehow convinced

my mother to get me
an electric guitar.

- It was some kind
of a vintage guitar,

and I bought it
from another teacher.

- I think it was 60 bucks,

which was a lot for us
by the way.

So now I have
an electric guitar.

Her dream was that I would sit
on this stool

and play classical guitar while
she made dinner in the kitchen.

So I buy
this distortion pedal,

which just make
it sound like

[imitates distorted guitar]

Which was exactly
what I wanted.

I thought it was so cool.

I think she was
a little bummed out.

- He wasn't Segovia right away,

but he was playing music

really quickly.

- We all took piano lessons.

♪

- And I started when I was
4 and went till I was 17.

- I started at age 5,
and I played till age 15 or 16.

- Oh, I had, I think,
nine years of piano lessons.

- You had to play piano

until you were a junior
in high school.

- It was, "Piano is
the one thing that's been shown

to be able to increase
your IQ."

So we all played piano.

[applause]

- When I was young, my father,
he was a musician too,

but he was
a classically trained musician.

He would sit in his Eames chair

with, like,
a conductor's baton,

and he would, like,
sit and listen

to Nirvana's records
or Foo Fighters' records,

and he would call me
and sort of critique them.

And he would really critique
Kurt's lyrics

and get really into them,
and he would, he would say,

"Well, you know what
this means? [grumbles]"

And I'd say, "Dad, please,
I'm just a drummer."

[laughter]

I'm just here
to play the drums.

- Actually, Ron is pretty good,
and we go to concerts,

and he can--
- He'll critique.

Like, he'll say something,
I'll be like, "Yeah."

He'll be like, "This one's
so much up my alley,"

or "This one's too dark."
I don't know, he...

He says it straight.
- Wow.

- He always lets me get
my two cents in, you know?

I put my two cents in

about everything
that he said, probably,

and he's fine with that.

- Music was...
that was like life.

[rock music]

- For me, it was the culture
of the family.

- Whoo!
[laughter]

- We're almost all musical,
so when we were young,

in the basement,
we've got a whole setup.

- I'm setting amps
and guitars and a PA,

so we'd just jam down there
together for fun.

- I usually was lead singer
and played guitar,

and Dan was on drums.
He did saxophone for a while.

Just messing around.

Like, we'd play basketball,
we'd play soccer,

and we'd make songs together.

- Bob had a band, Paul had
a band, Mac had a band,

Harry had a band,

so it was only natural
that Dan would have a band.

[upbeat music]

- This was my favorite place

and also maybe my least
favorite place in the house,

'cause I never felt cool enough
to be in my brothers' bands,

so I would always come down
these stairs like this

and kinda peak
around the corner.

- What was
the noise level like?

- Oh, high.
Always.

- [laughs]
Must've been.

- I know, and you know, I
taught my kids not to swear,

and I never swore
until I had children.

- I know.
[both laughing]

- Every day from the kitchen,

you can feel the amps
of the basement

just rattling because
one of my brothers' bands

is down there.

[cheering]

- When I was little, my older
brothers were all cool,

and I was never cool enough
to be in a family band.

So I think really
what got me into music

more even than maybe just being
naturally passionate about it

was wanting to fit in
with my brothers.

Like, wanting to have a place,
like, "Hey, Dan is useful."

'Cause otherwise you're
an annoying younger brother,

which I still kinda feel
like I am,

but now I'm like,
"Well, I'm a rock star, guys.

So what do I have to be okay?"

[both laughing]

Like, "I'll make platinum
records!"

I feel like that still,
like, exists,

'cause now
my brother's my manager,

and my other brother's
my lawyer,

so it's always like, "Well,
you haven't done Wimble yet.

So yeah."

- They keep pushing you.
- "I don't know, man."

[The Three Belles
"A Bushel and a Peck"]

- Ladies and gentlemen,
the Three Belles.

- Oh, hello.
There we are.

- You guys were cute.

- ♪ Doodle-oodle-oodle ♪

♪ I love you
a bushel and a peck ♪

- In high school,
my two best friends and I

were in the trio
called the Three Belles.

We had a really great blend.

I was the middle,

and so I would decide

who would have a solo where,

what the harmonies would be.

Singing in the trio,
doing music,

that was what I really loved.

♪ ♪

I thought for years

harmonizing was a natural thing

that everybody can do.

I found out much, much later,
it's sort of special.

[Carly Simon's
"You're So Vain"]

It seems to me that David,

he was a natural.

- I think I was six.

It was a sunny afternoon,

we were in our Ford Maverick,

we had our radio on
an AM station,

and Carly Simon's
"You're So Vain" came on.

- ♪ You're so vain

- I knew the words to the song,
and so I was singing along,

and you started singing too,

but you were singing a harmony
to what I was singing.

- ♪ You're so vain

- And it was in that moment
that I thought, "Wow,

"they do that in the song,

and we're doing that
right now together."

- ♪ Don't you? ♪

♪ You're so vain

- From that moment on,

I listened to everything
as arrangements

or compositions
built on harmony.

♪

both: ♪ You're so vain

♪ You probably think
this song is about you ♪

♪ You're so vain
- ♪ You're so vain ♪

both: ♪ Bet you think
this song is about you ♪

[off-key]
♪ Don't you, don't you?

- I don't know
if I did that right.

- That was awful.
[both laughing]

- It just really blew my--
still to this day.

I mean, when I listen
to music...

- So I can't understand then

why you never got as excited as
I did about Manhattan Transfer.

Because that's where
their genius is,

that they get--

that they do four-
or five-part harmony

in ways that
it's really hard to duplicate.

- I don't know,

but I used to get high
under that bridge over there.

[both laughing]

- Every conversation
is a confession.

[warm music]

[Newel Kay Brown's "I Hope
They Call Me on a Mission"]

- ♪ I want to be a missionary ♪

Every single person in
my family except for my sister

served a Mormon mission

where, at the age of 19,

boys go on a two-year mission.

All of my friends were going
off to college to party,

and I was, like,
going to read the scriptures

and talk to people about it
every day.

- It was hard.
It was a hard thing.

- Yeah.

- But I had him
for the first 19 years,

and then the Lord took him
for two.

- So you save up $10,000

to live off for two years.

You live in really
horrible apartments,

you live off
like ramen and beans.

You don't get to pick
where you go.

The prophet and apostles
pray about it,

and then you get
this divine place.

[ethereal music]

- At a certain age, your kid
is like a Don Quixote.

He needs to do something
wild and wonderful.

And so you give him
something hard and wonderful.

♪ ♪

- My brothers all went to,
like, the Philippines,

Japan, England,

like all these
amazing missions,

and then they'd come back
and speak Japanese fluently

and Tagalog fluently
and a little hardened,

but, like, in a way
that I was like,

"Cool, I wanna be like that."

So you open the letter,

and it's like a Mormon thing

to, like, cover the words
and read it line by line,

and you're, like, you get
your family and friends around,

and you're like,
"Daniel Reynolds,

"you've been called
to serve in...

Nebraska."
[laughs]

And everybody was like, "Ooh."

I was so bummed.

To go stateside,
as they call it,

to go stateside as a Mormon
is already, like, "Aw."

Like, God doesn't think
you're up to par

to be cool enough
to go serve in Africa.

Like, he needs
to keep you close.

So two years in Nebraska,

I was like so depressed,
so lonely,

no girlfriend,
nothing like that.

No calling home except for
Christmas and Mother's Day.

Otherwise, 9:00 a.m.
to 9:00 p.m.,

you knock doors.

You say, "Can I teach you
a message about Jesus Christ?"

Most people say, "No."

So then you have to
follow that up always with,

"Well, can I be of service
to you?"

So people would be like,
"Yeah, you can roof my house,"

and you're like, "Okay, we'll
learn how to roof a house."

And you can't say no.

And then you spend the next,
like, three days straight

roofing a house.

And so I knocked thousands
and thousands of doors

all across Nebraska.

I mowed so many lawns.

I think, looking back,

it did test my faith,
it tested me as a human.

At night, you'd pray,
and I'd be like,

"Today was the worst day.

"Like, this old woman
spit in my face.

A dumbass rich kid threw
a f*cking Slurpee at me."

Sorry for swearing, Mom.

"Please, when I get home,

let me be in a band
that's successful."

It was like something
to put my mind on

that was happy in a very dark
period of time.

- At what point in your life

did you break it
to your parents?

- I started to bring it up
to my mom pretty seriously

actually when I was on
my Mormon mission.

- He was really
getting into his music,

and he was serious about it.

He came to my parents
and said, "Hey,

"I think I want to defer school
for a semester

and try this fulltime."

[Imagine Dragons'
"The Pit"]

- ♪ I would rather stay here ♪

♪ Where the flowers bloom
and the sun, it shines ♪

♪ It shines on you ♪

♪ It lights up your eyes ♪

My mom was never like,
"You can't do music,"

but it was always like,
"It's a great hobby."

♪ ♪

[applause]

- Did he have quick success
in the beginning?

- No.
- No?

- And actually,
he was in Battle of the Bands

in high school
and didn't make it.

- David didn't either.
- Okay, there you go.

- And the guys that won
will never let him forget it.

- [laughs]
Yeah, I'm sure that's true.

[warm music]

- You know what?
No, forget this.

Forget this show.
Forget everything.

I'm tired of life.
I'm tired of high school.

I'm ready for college.
- How were you as a student?

♪ ♪

- I was probably
the worst student in my family.

- Shocker.
- Yeah, yeah, shocker.

Almost every one of my
brothers was a valedictorian

and my sister.

I did not care to learn
about geometry.

I don't care which kind
of triangle that is.

And I was just following

all these brilliant
academic students.

The most terrifying thing

was bringing home
my report card to my parents.

My mom didn't ground me,
but she would like,

"You know, Danny," like,

you're smarter than this."

This disappointment,

it was, like, ugh!

Like, it just--
that really hurt, you know?

It was genuine for her.

She was like,
"You could get an A in math,

so why don't you?"

She just saw the potential
in her kids

and wanted them to achieve it.

[applause]

- Probably 2008, I was at BYU,

in biology class,

and just hating it,
writing down band names.

I knew two people
who played music,

and in Provo,

there was actually
a really rad music scene.

There was a lot
of cool venues,

and nobody drinks.

I mean, people drink,
but you have to hide it,

so it's, like, everybody's
looking for something to do.

It's like, "Monopoly night!"

Everybody's like,
"Yes, Monopoly night!"

Like, you know what I mean?

So even if you're in
a pretty horrible band,

like, hey,
this is going on,

and at this venue people
are like, "Okay, cool!"

[warm music]

We were pretty shitty,

and so people coming out was--
we were lucky to have people.

♪ ♪

Then we played our first show

at this place called
the Velour in Provo.

Thank you, guys, very much.
[cheers and applause]

When you start a band,

unless you have, like,
popular kids in your band,

you're kinda screwed,

and nobody in our band
was, like, super popular

and a bunch of cool friends
or anything like that.

And I'd like to get a little
more mike volume on this one.

So in order to get people out,
it's, like,

add a couple cousins,

'cause BYU and Mormons have,
like, cousins everywhere,

so I'm like, "Hey, guys,
please come to my show."

[rock music]

- ♪ I'll be fine,
I'll be fine ♪

♪ Oh, the silence ♪

♪ Of my heartbeat ♪

I think we had, like, I don't
know, like, 15, 20 people.

[cheers and applause]

And then BYU had
a Battle of the Bands,

and we won it.

From that, we really got
a pretty big following in Provo

because there was like
hundreds of peoples at that.

- Imagine Dragons
is an indie rock band

hailing from Las Vegas.

In the few short months
since they formed,

they've already won
both the BYU

and Club Velour
Battle of the Bands.

Soon they'll be recording
their debut EP.

Imagine Dragons.
[cheers and applause]

- ♪ Ooh ♪

Then we started to play shows,

and there was like
Utah's Got Talent thing.

We entered that,
and then we won that,

and we got to open for Kelly
Clarkson in Salt Lake City

in like an amphitheater
which was, like, you know,

the Holy Grail of, like,

a young band that's looking to
just play in front of people.

So we just took everything.

[rock music]

Come on!

Every opportunity we got,

any battle of the bands,
we were in it.

- He wouldn't stop.

Their band,
especially at the beginning,

worked harder
than other bands.

But Dan does push,

and he will keep going.

- On the weekends
after college,

we'd drive to Vegas or L.A.

and start to play,
like, those places.

Then we were like,
"We don't want to be from Utah,

and we don't want, like,
this to be home base."

That's when I told my mom,
like,

"Hey, can I defer
a semester

to take this band thing
more serious?"

[cheers and applause]

- So when Dan came to you
and said, "Okay, Mom,

here's the situation:
I'm going to be a rock star."

I'm not going to be a doctor,
I'm not going to be a lawyer,

how did that go?

[warm music]

- All my other brothers
had gone to BYU,

graduated from BYU, you know?
Even my parents.

- You know,
we've got lawyer, dentist,

plastic surgeon,
anesthesiologist,

lawyer, and then Dan, he says,

"I wanna drop out of college
and be in a rock band."

- He was going to be
the first one to break that.

- They're kinda like,
"Okay, you're very talented,

"we love and support you,

but maybe you should
have a plan B."

- I remember we had
a family meeting.

My mom literally sat me down

and said, "Okay,
we need to know.

You know, just tell me, what
are his chances of success?"

I said, "Statistical chances
of success?"

I'm like, "There's zero."

You know,
I knew Dan was talented,

but odds of success in
the business are really small.

- So we kinda made a,
you know, a deal.

Let's try it for a semester.
Drop out and see.

- Okay.

- And he was very,
very sweet about it.

He sold his car
to support himself.

- That was a really tough
decision for my mom.

My parents were like,
"If you wanna do that, cool,

"but you have to treat this
like a fulltime job

"if you're gonna do it.

And like, if you're gonna
do it, do it seriously."

And Dan did.

Every day, like, 9:00 to 5:00,
he was just writing music

and recording music.

- I think Dan came to a point
in his life

when he realized,
"This is what I'm best at,

and this is what I love most."

And so like other musicians,

he came to that point
when he said,

"This is what I'm gonna do
for life,"

and whatever level of success
he was gonna reach,

that was his route.

- She had normal mother fears.

"Is my son gonna finish school
and be able to support a family

and all these other things?"

But she would've told him no
if she wasn't gonna support it.

- I mean, they were having
hour-long band practices

in her living room.

- His brothers,
I think gave him a hard time.

- Did they?
- Because they all said,

"Come on, Dan, what are you
doing dropping out?"

- Uh-huh.
- "You know, stick around."

- You see him perform
and you listen to his music,

and you go,
"Well, he believes in it."

[Imagine Dragons' "America"]

- I see that he has it,

and I believe in him.

- ♪ Believe in you, ooh ♪

♪ Rise to the top
of the world ♪

- And I think he deferred
another semester,

and then he just kinda
doubled down on it.

- I don't think
it was stressful for him

to go this route.

He was driven, and he loved it.

And he just eats, sleeps,
breathes it.

- ♪ Give me strength
to press on ♪

- He's not on a stage, you
know, he's in your family room

while everybody's trying to
do something else,

playing a song.
[cheers and applause]

- Dan was my first
best friend.

Uh, I'm the girl in the family,
so I can cry.

[soft music]

We're the closest in age.
- Two.

- Dan and I are just under
two years apart.

I was really awkward and quiet

for a large period of my life,
and Dan was never.

He was always the life
of the party.

He was super fun.

He was so compassionate,

so concerned with
everyone else being happy.

He was like a light
for everyone else.

So I didn't truly see
his depression stage

until the end of high school.

♪

It was a deep hole.

- Growing up,
Dan was just, you know,

a good Mormon boy who, like,

he did well in school
like everybody else did.

- He was always a happy kid.

He was always laughing.

- Whenever Dan walks
in the room,

he's got a smile on his face.

He doesn't seem to have
this dark cloud

that hangs over him.

I know he
does battle depression,

he did battle depression,

but he was really good
at hiding it.

- When I was in middle school,

I started to notice

that my balance was different

from other kids.

I was very this.

Then it turned to kind of
just low-level existence.

The friends and the people

I gravitated towards
were artists,

were people who felt
a little bit outcast.

Because that's
how I felt growing up.

- Okay, all I know

is phone call from college
board yesterday afternoon.

- No.
- Okay?

- I went through this thing
in high school where I hid

a relationship for
all four years of high school

from all my friends
and my parents.

I had a girlfriend
that was Catholic,

and as a Mormon, I wasn't
allowed to date her.

As I got older,

I just started to think

"Well, I'm depressed
because I'm not living clean."

So in college,

I ended up confessing
to my bishop,

which was the equivalent
of, like,

sitting down with
like a priest.

I told him I had sex
five times,

but I think it might've
been six times,

and I think because
I might've undercut that,

God was like, "I'm not gonna
forgive you completely."

And thus, I'm depressed.

I think one of the reasons
I was so obsessive

about confessing to things
is I so depressed,

and I just wanted release.
I wanted relief.

So did I turn to Mormonism?
Yes.

Did it give me
the relief I wanted?

No.
It only made it worse.

I was like, "Why is this
not fixing what's broken?"

[Imagine Dragons' "All Eyes"]

- Earlier on, I think that Dan

had an unrealistic expectation
of success in the business.

Maybe because
when he was a young kid

trying to write songs,

he saw Brandon Flowers
and the K*llers

working with me become huge,

and he was watching them
very intently.

[tranquil music]

I think that maybe
gave him confidence

that he could do this too,

but the fact that I wouldn't
just get a record deal

for Imagine Dragons prematurely
made them all angry.

♪

Dan's like, "You have
these relationships

with major labels,
you're managing the K*llers,

surely you can get us
a record deal."

He would bug me
all the time about it,

and I could've shopped it
and done something.

I knew Dan was talented,
I knew they had some songs,

but I didn't think
they were ready.

And I would always say,

"You don't wanna sign a bad,
premature deal.

You don't want a deal until
you're ready for a deal."

- We came out with new songs
on our Myspace.

- I knew that
for long-term success,

he had to just keep working.

He had to keep grinding
it out, playing the clubs,

playing covers in casinos.

I really believed it was
the right thing for them.

So if anything,
my help was not helping.

- My favorite part
of him onstage

is when he get a little...

I don't want to say cheesy.
It's not cheesy.

- Thank you
for taking part in this.

Thank you
for you bringing your heart.

Thank you for bringing
your energy.

- Dan says exactly what
he feels and what he thinks.

- May we spread peace, 'cause
damn, this world needs it.

- In the beginning, when Dan
would go to concerts,

he would start spewing words.
It was like word vomit.

- This is my passion.

I will fight for this
with my heart.

Not with anger.
I don't have anger.

There's no anger,
I promise.

It's just love.

- I can't think of any show
that he's played

that he doesn't talk about

destigmatizing depression,

destigmatizing
having a therapist.

Those are real things to him.

- It's not a weakness
to be depressed.

There's millions of us
around the world.

- I think some people
make fun of him for that,

but it's really him.
He really means it.

- Dan's always had
a strong conscience,

a strong drive
to be really honest.

- Where are we going?

- Every Easter,

my family does Easter egg
decorating contests.

[chatter]

Dan decorated an egg,
and he didn't like it.

- Yours is right here, darling.

You won an honorable mention.

- Mine should've won
this prize.

- And somebody put Dan's egg
that he didn't like

in the contest to win.

Turns out, that that egg
was one of the winners,

and he won $5.

- There are terrific prizes
this year.

- Later on, my grandpa
found a $5 bill

torn up in a garbage can,

Having lived through
the Depression,

came out, and he was furious
of who threw this money away.

You don't throw money away.

And Dan says, "It was me."

And he said,
"Why would you do this?

You know, this is terrible."

And Dan just said,
"I don't think I deserved it

because I didn't think the egg
was good enough to submit."

- Are we ready?
All right, let's go.

- And that's something
that my mom certainly taught.

Like, there's no free lunches
and be honest,

and those kind of things,
so Dan has had that.

Somebody else might be like,

"You know,
I don't think I deserved it,

but who cares?"

Dan is the kind of person
that would care.

- Who did that?

[chatter]

- I thought I had recognized,
like, his fame

when I went to
the gym one time,

and I saw his music video,

and I could, like,
feel my heart speed up.

But it wasn't until

he played at Life is Beautiful,

and he let me come back
on the stage.

He was playing out into
the crowd, and I looked out,

and it was night at that time.

And there were thousands
and thousands

and thousands of people.

- How we are, Vegas?

[cheers and applause]

- Everyone in the crowd
was singing it with him,

and I thought I was going to
just bawl right there and then,

because that was the moment

I realized he did it.

He finally did it.

[Imagine Dragons' "It's Time"]

- ♪ I'm never changing
who I am ♪

- You can imagine that when
your kid becomes successful,

there'd be some weight lifted,
and you'd be happy.

My mother
was less concerned about me

hitchhiking around Europe
for $7 a day playing music

than when I started
actually becoming successful.

[somber music]

- Growing up,
my mom worried a lot

but was infinitely
more worried about me

when the band took off.

She knew I had dealt
with depression,

and you put on top of that

tons of people screaming
at you

good things, bad things,
whatever.

It was much heavier
and more gray and numbing

when everything blew up.

For her, it just equated to

the stories that she saw
in the news.

This actor
is now in and out of rehab,

and like this person
just committed suicide.

She didn't know anybody
who had experienced fame

or lots of money
or anything like that,

and so my mom
was very concerned about me.

- I worried about
his physical ability,

because you have to work
so hard.

I worried
about him being lonely,

because I knew that
he was performing for masses

then would go home
and be alone at night.

I worried of course
about his happiness,

about his ability
to have a happy marriage.

- I think he was fine
for quite a while,

but when he went on tour,

that was hard on him.

Too much away from family.

- I remember we were on a jet
flying somewhere,

and I should've been like
the happiest dude ever.

It was, like,
the band was successful,

everything was amazing,
and the power went out,

a red light started flashing,

and it was just "bew."

And everybody, like,
all my band members

were like, [gasps],

and I was just, like,
totally at peace,

and was like, "Man, this
actually might feel pretty cool

right now to,
like, be done with this."

When the plane landed
I was like,

"Well, I think
that's really dangerous."

Like, I was married
at that point,

I had a child,

and I didn't have
a normal reaction to, like,

what everybody thought was,
like,

this near death experience.

- Would you talk to your
mother about that stuff,

or we would she talk to you
about it?

- To be honest, it was
difficult for many years

when the band blew up

to talk with my mom
about how I felt

because, you know,
her core foundation

is Mormonism.

Everything for her is faith.

When I would say,
"I'm feeling depressed,

I'm feeling really numb,"

her answer was always,
"Are you saying your prayers?"

- He said, "I don't know what
I believe in anymore, Mom.

I really don't have any idea."

That was so hard and so sad.

- I think that because
of his connection with my mom,

they're so close.

They fight hard,
and they love hard.

Anything Dan chose to do,

and if it was against
what my mom

would think was good for him,
they would talk about it.

And it would usually start out
kind of loud,

but by the end,

there would be
some sort of love.

[cheers and applause]

- Please welcome Dan Reynolds.

- But in the middle
of Dan's fame...

- Hello, my friend.
- Well, hello.

- All these interviews
were tumbling out at once...

- And so I was sitting down
with my mom,

we were arguing about things.

Not arguing, but--yeah, we were
arguing a little bit.

- I think a lot of things
that he said got skewed,

and she was hurt.

It was the first time
that she thought,

"Man, maybe I was
a really bad mom.

"Maybe I made feel him guilty
about all these things,

or I was really strict,"

and so she started to question
everything she had done.

And Dan wasn't here
to kind of,

you know, hug my mom and say,

"Oh, that I wasn't how
it was meant or said."

And her Dan still talked
during this time,

but they weren't together,
and during that time,

I think Dan was kind
of in his own spiral,

and so they were
both spiraling.

And for the first time, they
could couldn't help each other.

And so it took a while before

I would say that bond was
totally brought back again.

- Growing up,
I had a lot of friends

who were conflicted
about religion.

'Cause I could identify
with that.

[somber music]

I had friends who were g*y

and felt conflicted
about that.

Because when you're g*y
and conservative Mormon,

you're basically being told
every single day

that you're broken.

It was really a damaging,

horrible thing for my friends.

♪ ♪

As I got older,

it started to just play into
my life more and more.

- Crowds continue to target
the Mormon church

which poured millions
into promoting

the same sex marriage ban.

- Finally got to the point
where I was like,

it was affecting a lot
of people's lives around me,

and I knew that
if I were to speak up,

then I could help.

[upbeat music]

- In the music industry,
it's like,

you know, you're all together,
you know?

And Danny always disliked

judgmental people.

- I knew there
were a lot of people

who were conservative Mormons

that were actually
more religious than me

and really believed
in Mormonism

but also were like,
"Why would God create someone

and then tell them
they can't love?"

- He wants to be an ally
of this community,

and he considers himself part
of the Mormon community.

And so I think he just
wants them to get along.

- My mom is a very fervent,

serious believing
Mormon woman,

so anything that seemed
critical of the church

that Dan did, worried her.

- It was the first time
that I really felt

like what I was being
taught at church

didn't sit right in my heart.

- I think more of the concern
that my mom might ever have

is how can you do it
in a way that's effective,

and not just be like, you know,

"I'm rock star,
and this is an easy target."

- Religious guilt
is so prevalent

in their lives.
You look at Utah right now,

it has one of the highest
suicide rates in the nation.

Very Mormon,

and LGBTQ youth are eight times
more likely to take their life

when not accepted
in their home or community.

So it kinda, I don't know,

I just feel like
enough is enough.

How it happened, me and Aja,

and we were talking and we were
like, "How can we help?"

- The Love Loud Festival
is coming up in Orem, Utah.

It is right in the very heart

of the biggest
Mormon population

per capita
anywhere in the world.

What are you hoping
to accomplish

with the Love Loud Festival?

- My first and foremost goal
was to create

a safe environment

that was all-inclusive for
everyone of all walks of lives,

religion, politics aside,

everyone coming together
to show support

and love for our LGBTQ youth.

Nobody changes
if someone's yelling at them.

But if you have conversation,

or they feel like
they get there on their own,

I feel like
that's how change happens.

♪ ♪

Now it's our third year,
this upcoming month,

and it's just incredible.

We've gotten a lot of people

in an area that people
thought would never come out

to support g*y rights.

- What's it like to go
to Love Loud?

- It's really exciting.

You know, there's a lot
of energy there.

- She jumped right in.

She went to his first Love Loud

even before the church
had endorsed it, you know?

- The founder of Love Loud,

everyone, welcome to the stage

Dan Reynolds!

[cheers and applause]

- We need you to understand

that this is something
I care very deeply about

for so many reasons.

This affects
every single one of us.

- I think it's helped her,

probably our family,

gain a larger perspective
of other people.

- There are people who have
been hurt beyond measure.

I do not pretend to know

as a white, heterosexual,
privileged man

what that hurt
has felt like for you.

But damn it,
I will stand by you.

I will stand with you.
I will fight for you.

- She wasn't aware
of these things,

and so when Dan made her aware,

I mean,
she felt the same need

for compassion and acceptance
among that community.

[Imagine Dragons'
"Believer"]

- ♪ You break me down
and build me up ♪

♪ Believer, believer ♪

♪ Pain ♪

♪ Oh, let the b*ll*ts fly ♪

♪ Oh, let them rain ♪

♪ 'Cause my life, my love,
my drive ♪

♪ It came from ♪

♪ Pain

I've gotten tons of letters
saying like, you know,

"You're gonna pay in heaven
for making more kids g*y,"

or "You lost your way
and become liberal crazy,

"you know, person and you know,

you're gonna go to hell"

and like just stuff like that.
Ha.

- I get those all the time.
- Yeah, okay, cool.

[both laughing]
Cool.

Love Live, we'll see you
again in a year.

[cheers and applause]

Be safe.

Being on stage, and then you
have to wind down

and wind up and wind down,
and I get home,

and you--I'm like,

"Oh, so tired from tours.
I just wanna be really mellow."

But then I'm, like,
I don't know.

I haven't figured it out.

I don't know
if you have advice,

but it takes me a couple months

till I feel like I understand

how to exist as a human
in this world again.

- Same.
Yeah.

I mean, the kids keep us busy.
- They become your manager.

- Yeah, my itinerary
is basically

just based on the kids.
- Yeah.

- Let's go!
both: Whoa!

[laughter]

- Do the kids call for advice?

- Oh, no, I don't think so.
- Really?

- No, they all do.
100%.

Yeah.
- What do they have?

- Dan and my mom have always

loved each other very much,

and shown that love
to each other very much.

- They do have
an amazing bond.

I think they're and close
as mother and son can be

and always have been.

[warm synth music]

- I think there has been
times, you know,

in all of our relationships
with my mom, ups and downs,

where we might do something
that disappoints her.

But she does not stop
loving her kids.

- As you get older,

you more turn to your mom when
you're really in a tough spot.

When you're young it's like,

this, this, this, this,
everything's bad, you know?

Little things you talk
to your mom about,

but now it's like
I come home from tour,

and, you know,
or read some article

that really hurts my feelings,

and the person that's gonna
make me feel better is my mom.

I wanna go to my mom.

♪

- A lot of rock and roll
is rooted

in some sort of
emotional conflict or turmoil,

but watching Dan
and Christine,

any difficulty or all that
adversity, whatever it was,

I realize faith is the thing
that carried them through.

Faith in God

and their faith in each other.

- My favorite part of Danny

is when he gets down,
kind of squints his eyes,

like when he was a little boy

and looks at all the people,
and he's so happy to see them.

You know?

That's my favorite part, is I
see that he's still himself.

- It's still eight little boys
and a girl,

it's just everybody's grown up
a little bit

and is trying to tough face,

but everybody's still,
you know,

you wanna turn
to your mom for...

- I miss my mom, you know?

You know, I think everybody,

you know, that parental thing
is pretty strong.

[Imagine Dragon's
"I Bet My Life"]

♪ ♪

♪ Mmm,
I know I took the path ♪

♪ That you would never
want for me ♪

♪ I know I let you down,
didn't I? ♪

♪ So many sleepless nights

♪ Where you were
waiting up on me ♪

♪ Well, I'm just a sl*ve
unto the night ♪

♪ Now remember
when I told you ♪

♪ That's the last
you'll see of me? ♪

♪ Remember when I broke
you down to tears? ♪

♪ I know I took the path

♪ That you would
never want for me ♪

♪ I gave you hell through
all these years ♪

both: ♪ So I, I bet my life

♪ I bet my life

♪ I bet my life on you ♪

♪ Oh, I bet my life ♪

♪ I bet my life ♪

♪ I bet my life on you

♪ Da, da, da, da, da, da, da

♪ Da ♪

- [laughs]
Thank you.

Thank you.

- There it is.
- I love it.

[upbeat music]

♪ ♪