Daniel Colter “Dan” Reynolds is an American musician, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and music producer, frontman and founder of the rock band “Imagine Dragons”.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on July 14, 1987 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America (USA).
In 2005, he received the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America.
Career
When Reynolds was 19 years old, he began volunteering full-time in Nebraska. Over the next two years, he continued to do this on a voluntary basis.
Imagine Dragons
In his youth, Reynolds did not plan to become a musician. This was partly influenced by Wayne Sermon, who later became his bandmate and told him that it is worth making music only when it is a vital necessity, and not just a desire.
Already while studying at Brigham Young University, the future singer realized that he did not see himself in any other business, and decided to devote himself entirely to music. It was there that he met drummer Andrew Tolman, with whom he founded the band Imagine Dragons.
With Reynolds as vocalist, the band won several local music competitions.
After drummer Andrew Tolman left the band in 2011, bassist Ben McKee joined the lineup. It was he who proposed to invite Dan Platzman to the position of drummer, which formed the permanent composition of Imagine Dragons.
The first serious success came to the band in 2010, when they performed instead of the Train group, whose frontman fell ill, at the Bite of Las Vegas festival in front of more than 26 thousand listeners.
In November 2011, the band signed a contract with Interscope Records and began working with producer Alex da Kid.
“Night Visions”
Imagine Dragons presented their debut studio album “Night Visions” on September 4, 2012. Even before its release, on August 18, the first single from the disc called It’s Time was released. Throughout 2012, 2013 and 2014, the album steadily remained in the top ten of the American chart. For this work, the band received a Billboard Music Award in the category “Best Rock Album”, and also got into the Juno Award nomination as “Album of the Year”.
The second single, “Radioactive”, peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, staying at the top of the Billboard Rock Songs chart for 23 consecutive weeks. Rolling Stone magazine recognized the song as “rock hit of the year”. Commercially, the song became the most successful digital release, garnering over 7.5 million sales in the U.S. and receiving diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The third single from the album, Demons, peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and ranks at number 8 among the most successful rock songs in the US, with over 5 million copies sold.
The band was also honored with two American Music Awards as “Favorite Alternative Artist”, won the Teen Choice Awards for “Best Rock Band”, received the World Music Awards for “Best Rock Performance” and became the winner of the Billboard Music Award in the category “Best Rock Artist”.
“Smoke + Mirrors”
In February 2015, Imagine Dragons released their second studio album “Smoke + Mirrors“, which immediately topped the charts in the US, UK and Canada. The album included the singles “I Bet My Life and Shots”, which hit the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The band presented their third studio album – “Evolve” – on June 23, 2017.
The album started at number 2 on the Billboard 200 chart and peaked at number one on the Canadian chart.
In 2018, Imagine Dragons was again included in the list of Grammy Award nominees – this time in two categories at once. In addition, the band received the iHeartRadio Music Award as “Alternative Rock Artist of the Year”.
Next albums
Over the following years, the band released three more albums:
- Evolve (2017)
- Origins (2018)
- Mercury — Act 1 & 2 (2021 – 2022)
Depression and illness
In 2015, during a speech in Leeds, Reynolds said that he suffered from ankylosing spondylitis. In 2016, he joined the ThisASLife initiative, which aims to raise awareness about this disease.
That same year, in an interview, he said that he had been experiencing severe depression in recent years and had regularly sought help from a psychotherapist.
In addition, ulcerative colitis is diagnosed. It was depressive experiences that became the inspiration for many compositions from the album Night Visions.
In April 2018, Reynolds publicly shared her experience of dealing with physical and mental difficulties on social networks. She also regularly posts messages reaching out to fans and anyone who is also facing similar problems.
Marital Status
On March 5, 2011, Reynolds married musician Aja Volkman. The couple had four children:
- daughter Arrow Eve on August 8, 2012;
- twins Gia James and Coco Re on March 28, 2017;
- Valentine – October 1, 2019.
On April 26, 2018, the singer announced that their marriage to Eja was falling apart after seven years together. However, on November 6, 2018, on the day of the release of the track “Bad Liar”, it became known that the couple was back together.
Reynolds noted that he and Eja did not draw up any legal documents about the divorce, so they officially remained spouses. He also said that they wrote the song “Bad Liar” together.
In September 2022, the couple ended their relationship again.
On April 18, 2023, Volkman filed for divorce, which was finalized on March 26, 2024.
Since 2022, Dan has been in a relationship with American actress Minka Kelly.
