Benson Boone Spoke About Being Raised Mormon And Where He Stands With The Church Now
“There was a period of time where I really wanted to like coffee.”
You’re likely at least somewhat familiar with Benson Boone at this point, the crotch-grabbing, backflipping, no-shirt-wearing 22-year-old singer-songwriter. Hell, his song “Beautiful Things” was the top-selling single in the world last year.
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What you might be less familiar with is the fact that Benson was raised in rural Monroe, Washington, in a devout Mormon family. He even (briefly) attended Brigham Young University, which you might recognize from the viral TikToks where BYU students are asked about soaking, coffee, and so on.
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In a new profile with Rolling Stone, he said that he no longer identifies as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He explained, “I don’t want to be a part of one religion. I have my own opinions. Some are from this religion, some are from this religion, some are from no religion.”
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“Growing up, a lot of people at church would talk about these experiences that they’ve had and these personal revelations and feelings and voices. I never felt it as physically present as they did, and so I was always confused and frustrated. I was always scared to bring that up to people because I just didn’t want to accept that, like, I wasn’t feeling what everyone else was feeling,” he said, adding that he was eventually able to confide in a friend who felt the same way.
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“ My parents definitely have their own views, but when it comes to religion and God, they want me to figure it out on my own,” he continued. “And whatever I come to, and whatever I feel is right, that’s what they want for me.”
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Regardless of his current status in the Church, he is still teetotal — though has tried coffee. ”There was a period of time where I really wanted to like coffee,” he said, “and [would] go out to this place in L.A. with [girlfriend] Maggie [Thurmon], and I would try sips of her coffee every day and, it literally tastes like burnt wood.”
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He says that his “addictive personality” has led him to stay away from drugs, saying, “I feel like if I started, I would do it so much that my health would just decline and I wouldn’t enjoy touring as much.” As for his one vice? He told the interviewer, “Dude, candy.”
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On the note of politics, he stressed that his upcoming album titled American Heart is “not political at all” and instead refers to himself. “ People think if you have one or two views that are on the left or right side, that you have to be the left or on the right. And I don’t think that’s how it is,” he said of his own beliefs.
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