As the keynote speaker for St. Jude’s Heart of Fashion gala originally scheduled for May 1 (stjude.org), Imagine Dragons lead guitarist Wayne Sermon shares his views on the cause and his personal style.
How does your experience as a parent shape your view on organizations like St. Jude? We have two boys, and we had our daughter a little over a year ago. She was born with a heart defect, and three days after she was born, she had open heart surgery. It was the scariest time in my and my wife’s life. I think all of humanity can agree that it’s not acceptable to see a child suffer, so anytime we can do anything to help fund research, it’s an automatic yes.
What would you like people to know that they might not know already? When we were first told about our daughter’s condition, we were told that kids that go through this kind of stuff end up as such fighters. We thought it was something that they say to make us feel better, but our daughter is such a feisty person! Honestly, we see the same thing with Tyler Robinson Foundation (trf.org) when we work with kids who are diagnosed with cancer. They are so full of life and so full of joy, and they are fighters.
Since the upcoming gala is a fashion event, how would you describe your personal style? Right around the band’s third album, I decided I wanted to dress brightly. I wanted to wear color, I wanted to wear patterns, and I wanted to be interesting and just have fun. The quintessential rock thing is to wear black, and I’m just over it.
What’s your go-to wardrobe staple? I have to do old-school Reeboks. That’s a must.
What would you consider a fashion ‘don’t’? For me personally, corduroy is out and always will be out. Corduroy is finished. Forever.
Photography by: Gary Miller/FilmMagic/Getty Images
