Man of Steel: How Hans Zimmer helped create one of Imagine Dragons’ heaviest songs

While they’ve certainly racked up a bunch of big pop hits, Imagine Dragons can also deliver a heavy riff. Take the track “I’m So Sorry,” which appears on the band’s 2015 sophomore album, Smoke + Mirrors.

As guitarist Wayne Sermon tells ABC Audio, “I’m So Sorry” was partly inspired by famed film composer Hans Zimmer. While working together on a project, Sermon noticed and commented on a unique guitar that Zimmer was playing.

“The entire guitar was made of steel,” Sermon remembers. “And I commented on the steel, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s really cool!’ He’s like, ‘Oh, here, have it!'”

Sermon then took his new Zimmer-gifted guitar back home and wrote what became “I’m So Sorry.”

“[I] basically wrote all of those riffs that night,” he says. “[I] sent it to [frontman] Dan [Reynolds] and he finished the song based on that.”

Imagine Dragons has continued to experiment with different genres and expand their sound over the last decade. Case in point, they just recently dropped a collaboration with rapper NLE Choppa.

“We’re very fortunate with our fanbase being so open to basically any hairbrained thing we wanna do as a band,” Sermon says. “We’ve been able to occupy a lotta spaces sonically that I think a lotta bands haven’t had that opportunity to do.” 

Imagine Dragons’ most recent album is 2024’s Loom.

While they’ve certainly racked up a bunch of big pop hits, Imagine Dragons can also deliver a heavy riff. Take the track “I’m So Sorry,” which appears on the band’s 2015 sophomore album, Smoke + Mirrors.

As guitarist Wayne Sermon tells ABC Audio, “I’m So Sorry” was partly inspired by famed film composer Hans Zimmer. While working together on a project, Sermon noticed and commented on a unique guitar that Zimmer was playing.

“The entire guitar was made of steel,” Sermon remembers. “And I commented on the steel, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s really cool!’ He’s like, ‘Oh, here, have it!'”

Sermon then took his new Zimmer-gifted guitar back home and wrote what became “I’m So Sorry.”

“[I] basically wrote all of those riffs that night,” he says. “[I] sent it to [frontman] Dan [Reynolds] and he finished the song based on that.”

Imagine Dragons has continued to experiment with different genres and expand their sound over the last decade. Case in point, they just recently dropped a collaboration with rapper NLE Choppa.

“We’re very fortunate with our fanbase being so open to basically any hairbrained thing we wanna do as a band,” Sermon says. “We’ve been able to occupy a lotta spaces sonically that I think a lotta bands haven’t had that opportunity to do.” 

Imagine Dragons’ most recent album is 2024’s Loom.