The scene floating beneath Collin Leonard as he flew above Las Vegas with superstar DJ Ryan Raddon, better known by his stage name, Kaskade, can only be described as otherworldly.
Looking down from Raddon's helicopter, Leonard saw a maze of neon casinos, fountains and stadiums — and the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the location of the largest electronic dance music festival in North America where the Latter-day Saint electronic-music veteran was scheduled to be one of the main acts.
For this profile, Leonard tracks Raddon's journey from Chicago-music-scene kid, to BYU student and missionary in Tokyo, to arena-filling stardom.
And by literally getting a backstage pass to the musician's life, Leonard reveals how the man partially responsible for making Las Vegas the electronic music capital of the West has also had a positive influence on the "rave culture" known for drug use and licentious behavior.