Songfacts®:

• The folk-tinged first single from the Imagine Dragons sophomore album, this finds frontman Dan Reynolds singing:
  
  I know I took the path that you would never want for me
  I gave you hell through all the years
  
  The song is about the relationship Reynolds has had with his parents throughout his life. "At times it's been strained and difficult," he said, "but in the end, 'I Bet My Life' celebrates the bond that we still hold on to."
• This featured as the background track for a Sprite commercial that shows LeBron James' return to his hometown of Akron.
• Dan Reynolds expanded on the song's meaning to Billboard magazine. "Like many teenagers, I really hit heads with my parents at times growing up," he said. "My mom and dad are from a really conservative background, so when I told them I wanted to be a musician, that obviously wasn't a thing that they particularly wanted to hear."
  
  "But my entire life I've been the black sheep in my family and been in and out of trouble," Reynolds continued. "So the song's about my relationship with my parents, but still celebrating through it all everything that we've been through. We try to see past our differences and celebrate the relationship that we have and that we still share today."
• The song's music video stars Dane DeHaan, who is known for playing Jesse on the HBO series In Treatment and Green Goblin in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It was directed by Canadian filmmaker Jodeb, who also shot Zedd's "Clarity."
  
  The clip was filmed at the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona. "As the first video on our new album, it was especially important that we capture the emotion of the song," Dan Reynolds said. "Although it was written about my sometimes strained relationship with my parents, our director Jodeb had a powerful vision for how the feeling of the story could be portrayed. We were also lucky to have such amazing talent to work with in our lead actor Dane DeHaan."