Dan Reynolds, frontman for Imagine Dragons, revealed the reason he doesn’t think the group would be performing at the Super Bowl halftime show during a new episode of SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Show” with Julia Cunningham.
Reynolds admitted that there was initial mutual interest, and discussions transpired between Super Bowl representatives and Imagine Dragons. However, he admitted that this was not really an ideal pairing for the band, and said they’d only be able and willing to perform at the sporting event under some very specific conditions.
“We did have talks about Super Bowl stuff with Super Bowl people,” the famous musician said on the podcast.
He noted that the rules of the engagement for the halftime show weren’t a match for the band.
“Until I know that we can perform in the way that we want and our instruments can be playing live, we’re never gonna play the Super Bowl,” Reynolds said.
“And that’s my honest answer to you,” he reaffirmed on the podcast.
He went on to explain that the band is all about authentically playing live, and the focus of the Super Bowl is more on the theatrics of the performance. Reynolds expressed that the rockers would only flirt with a Super Bowl performance in the future if the focus was put on their live show.
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“We have a very specific way that we perform and we’ve been really lucky to stick to our guns for this many years and perform in that way,” he said.
The famous musician clarified that he has “no hate on the Super Bowl” but reiterated that he represented a live band, and that without the “live” aspect, Imagine Dragon’s performance would feel disingenuous. (RELATED: Reviewing Rihanna: The Super Bowl Halftime Show Hits And Misses)
“If you’re a band, it’s just a different thing,” he said.
“You gotta have live drums, you gotta have, you know, live guitar. And that’s a non-starter for us,” he said.
The next halftime show will be headlined by Usher in February 2024, and will be presented by Apple Music.