Dan Reynolds (singer) and then transferred to BYU after serving an LDS mission, where he studied communications, marketing, and music and excelled academically. While at BYU, he formed Imagine Dragons and won the school's battle of the bands competition before leaving to pursue music full-time. Reynolds was initially reluctant to become a professional musician, partially because future bandmate Wayne Sermon had once told him: "Don't do music because you want to do music - do music if you have to do music". After he began attending Brigham Young University, Reynolds found that he could not "do anything else" and committed fully to a
Dan Reynolds (singer) age of 21. During the same year, Reynolds revealed in an interview that he had been heavily depressed for the past two years and often sees a therapist. He aims to destigmatize and change how society sees depression and the act of seeking professional help. In April 2018, he began to talk about his physical and mental health struggles on his social media accounts and continues to offer encouraging messages of support to his fans and others struggling as well. Reynolds is also an LGBT activist, who hopes to bring about a positive dialogue with religious leaders of The Church