Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds Reveals 'Really Strange' Way He First Bonded with Girlfriend Minka Kelly (Exclusive)

The musician opens up to PEOPLE in this week's issue about his relationship with Kelly, whom he's been dating since 2022

Imagine Dragons rocker Dan Reynolds and actress Minka Kelly’s relationship has a unique origin story.

Reynolds, 36, opens up to PEOPLE in this week’s issue about his special bond with the actress, and reveals the unconventional way they first got to know each other.

The “Nice to Meet You” singer was newly divorced from singer Aja Volkman in 2022 when he and Kelly, 44, were introduced by a mutual friend. Because the Euphoria actress was working in the UK, they talked over the phone for a month before they ever met in person.

At the time, Kelly was hard at work on her deeply personal 2023 memoir Tell Me Everything, which covers her traumatic childhood and toxic relationships. As she wrote, Reynolds — whose band’s new album Loom is out now — sent her music he was working on — and she eventually decided to return the favor.

“She’s like, ‘Well, if you’re going to share your art, I can share something with you, but it’s very vulnerable for me. Do you want to do this or not?’” Reynolds recalls. “She was very scared for me to read the book because we hadn’t met, just as much as I was scared for her to hear a song that I’d written. But we shared it and then it ended up being a really beautiful thing and brought us a lot closer. I think it helped us both kind of understand each other on a deeper level quite quickly.”

Related: Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds Wrote New Album After His World Was 'Turned Upside Down': 'I Was Refinding Myself' (Exclusive)

Before long, Kelly was sending Reynolds rough drafts of Tell Me Everything, giving him space to offer his thoughts.

“It was a really strange and awesome way to meet someone because I was hearing all her life stories from youth to now, and she had a really hard, colorful, beautiful life,” he says. “Getting to read it all before you even meet somebody… I’ve never had that kind of introduction to someone.”

The couple were first photographed together in November 2022, several months after Reynolds and Volkman — whom he calls an "incredible co-parent" — announced their split after 11 years of marriage. The two are parents to daughters Arrow, 11, twin girls Gia and Coco, 7, and son Valentine, 4.

Related: Dan Reynolds Wants to 'Celebrate Love' Through LOVELOUD — and He's Teaching His Kids to Do the Same (Exclusive)

“[Fatherhood] is my favorite part of life. It brings me immense joy,” says Reynolds. “I love my four kids so much. I feel like I have the luckiest career in the world, [but] that’s always been my first priority, is making sure that I’m showing up in the ways that I need to to love on these kids.”

Reynolds is currently gearing up for the Tuesday, July 30 kickoff of Imagine Dragons’ Loom World Tour, which marks the band’s largest North American headlining tour to date since their 2008 inception.

“I take this job really seriously. I know there’s a million people gunning and wanting to do exactly what I’m doing, so I feel very fortunate, and I try to do it to the best of my ability,” he says. “The album is really [about the] present, but it’s also looking into the past and the future, being a little fearful of what’s to come but excited — [it’s about] new beginnings.”

For more on Dan Reynolds, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.

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