Foster The People’s Mark Foster has shared a heartfelt apology to Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds, stating his regret at criticising the band so soundly in 2018.

Over the last few months, it’s almost seemed fashionable to hate on Las Vegas rockers Imagine Dragons. While Slayer’s Gary Holt called them the “shittiest band on earth”Slipknot’s Corey Taylor stated they had replaced Nickelback as the “worst band of all time”.

However, Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds took a stand against this hate, claiming he doesn’t “feel anger towards” the artists that share these comments, rather “more of a sadness that this industry embraces, even celebrates this mentality.”

“I wish it felt like a place where artists stood by each other and supported one another – regardless of our different tastes and voices,” he explained.

Last year though, Mark Foster took part in an interview with US radio station ALT 105.7 where he joked that the material that didn’t make their upcoming record was instead gifted to Imagine Dragons for their latest.

However, with Dan Reynolds’ recent message, it appears that Mark Foster has had something of a change of heart.

Taking to Twitter today to share “an open apology to Dan Reynolds”, Mark Foster noted that fe felt “burdened” by a need to amend for previous comments he made.

“In a passing moment last year I let some words come out of my mouth that don’t reflect who I am, or what I stand for,” he began. “When Dan posted his open letter speaking from the heart about how the negative words from other artists have affected him, it convicted me. He’s right.”

“As people with platforms there comes a responsibility to lead by example. I truly believe that if artists are supportive of each other and stood together, united, that we can be a positive healing force in the world.”

“It takes a lot of courage to stand for something,” he continued. “Building something is infinitely harder than destroying something. Nobody has ever erected a statue of a critic. Anybody who is trying to make the world more beautiful opens themselves up to criticism.”

“I’m not writing this because someone asked me to. I’m not sending to my team or label or anybody for their thoughts to approve. This is just me unfiltered saying I was wrong. and I’m sorry.”

At this stage, Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds hasn’t responded to Mark Foster’s apology, though we can only assume he’ll be quite receptive to the heartfelt message shared in Foster’s note.

Check out Foster The People’s ‘Doing It For The Money’:

YouTube VideoPlay

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine