Wayne Sermon is the guitarist of the band “Imagine Dragons,” who will be playing in a benefit concert at the Hard Rock Live with Nate Ruess and Samantha Ronson for the OneOrlando Fund. Watermark editor Billy Manes, along with Joey Fatone (among others), will emcee the event, which starts at 8:30 p.m.
Sermon took a few minutes to answer four questions from Watermark.
What compelled you to put on this concert?
Honestly, as a band, we kind of have the same reaction to this as we had when we were in Europe when the Bataclan was attacked in Paris. When that happened, we were just a hundred miles away. It kind of struck us as the ultimate insult – to attack a place that is supposed to bring people together. It’s something we’ve worked our whole lives to do, to bring people together and to have music. To have someone spew their hate and bigotry like that really upset us. We did some charity work for that, and then this whole thing happened and it felt really similar; everyone was there to have a good time. We wanted to help do something. Tweets go so far and they’re better than nothing but we wanted to take action and to do something. Above all else, these families deserve something for what they’ve had to go through. No family member should have to get that call. That’s why we’re doing it. Every cent goes to those families, it’s what brought us to do it.
How did you all start collaborating with Nate Ruess (of the band “fun.”)?
We’re pretty stoked that he’s performing with us. We’ve kind of followed him for a while and we definitely think he’s one of the most talented dudes we know. Having him involved in this is really important and I think it’s going to be really fun and emotional. It’ll be a special thing and it’s going bring a lot of people together to raise a lot of money. Having him there really adds a lot to the night.
What can we expect to see from “Imagine Dragons” during the show?
That’s a good question! We actually haven’t played together for a while – we’ve done a little acoustic stuff here and there but we’re kind of in our blackout period where we don’t do anything. We haven’t played for months. For the first time in probably about six years we took a break. It’s gonna be great to just get back together and see the guys. To come together for this…I don’t think there’s better cause or better reason to start up again. This break has been really nice for us to kind of step back and learn to love the music again and learn to love playing live again after doing it for so long. It’ll be cathartic for us on a personal level, and on a bigger level it’ll be even more so. It’s gonna be very special; we’re gonna bring a lot of energy and I think it’s gonna be emotional. I think that there’s definitely going to be a feeling of unification. Everyone that goes there, even if they don’t like our band and our music, the fact of the matter is that they’re actually making a difference by buying that ticket. They’re making a real difference in someone’s life rather than just talking about it – they’re directly affecting the problem.
Any other thoughts?
We’re very excited to do the show. More than anything, as a band we believe that everyone should be treated as human beings. We all feel that how someone defines their sexuality is just a part of who someone is, so to have that be a defining characteristic that someone would hate you for so much that they would do something so violent…that’s just sort of hit us in a really raw, wrong way. That for us was the main reason to do this. Thank you to Watermark for getting the word out, because it’s definitely short notice. We usually have months of lead up between advertising for a show and then playing it so we’re just hoping for the best and to get the word out there as much as we can.
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