Imagine Dragons Hilariously Poke Fun Of Themselves In 'Follow You' Video

By Katrina Nattress

March 17, 2021

Last week, Imagine Dragons shared their first new music since 2018's Origins, and this week they unveiled a hilarious video for "Follow You."

The clip stars Always Sunny In Philadelphia's Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olson, along with the band. Though their characters despise each other in the show, the actors are actually married in real life. In the video, Olson surprises her husband with a private set from his favorite band. Only it's not his favorite band (The Killers), it's hers (Imagine Dragons). When the band gets onstage and starts playing "Follow You," Olson fantasizes that they're all lusting after her, while McElhenney pretends that he's every member of the group. Eventually, their fantasies intertwine and they decide to leave even though the band still has 10 more songs to play.

"Let's get out of here before they play 'Radioactive,'" Olson says as they run out of the theater without paying.

Watch the video above.

During a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Dan Reynolds explained the deeply personal origins of "Follow You" and its counterpart, "Cutthroat."

Starting with "Cutthroat," the vocalist revealed "that song is really an exorcism of self-loathing. I feel like I’ve spent a lot of years of my life kind of [feeling] 'woe is me.' I don’t know if depression is a genetic thing for me or whether it came from religious crisis. I was raised in Mormonism, and it wasn’t really for me. That was hard for me to come to terms with in my brain. But for whatever reason, around my teenage years, I really started to deal with mental illness, seeing a therapist and trying different medications."

"That was the focus of all my music, and [there was] a great amount of focus on self," he continued. "And that song is about kind of exorcising, trying to cut out, that self-pity, and embracing life and all that I’ve been given. A big theme of 'Cutthroat' and a lot of the songs on the record is the finality of life. I lost my sister-in-law to cancer last year. I was actually in the room with my brother when she passed. They have seven kids. It was the first time I’d ever actually been in the room with someone who passed away, and that really hit me in in a different way, making me think about every day differently, and how am I spending my time. The year before that, one of my best friends took his life. It just makes you grateful for your health, grateful for each day. People will hear it and think the song is angry at someone else. But it’s really angry at itself."

“'Follow You' is the opposing sonic side of the record," Reynolds explained. "The record, at least in my head, is kind of split into two sides. Part of it is looking outward, part of it’s looking inward, a little more organic, sometimes more aggressive, chaotic. And the part of the record that’s that’s looking inward is 'Cutthroat.'”

Photo: Getty Images

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