Award-winning chef Keith “Buttons” Hicks is seriously ill and needs a double lung transplant. To help him get it, friends and colleagues are hosting a benefit concert featuring well-known bands that performed in Hicks’ restaurants in Fort Worth, Addison and DeSoto.
The concert will be held from 5 p.m. to midnight today (Jan. 31) at Fort Worth’s Ridglea Theater, 6025 Camp Bowie Blvd. Doors will open at 5 p.m. and performances will begin at 6 p.m. Tickets ranging from $25 for general admission to $400 for VIP tables can be purchased online at Eventbrite.
Well known for his cooking at a number of prominent area restaurants and especially for the food and musical offerings at his own Buttons Food and Music for the Soul, Hicks is in palliative care, suffering from end-stage Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Donations to assist his care can be made at GoFundMe.
“We hosted countless benefit events and celebrations at Buttons Restaurant … due to our pure love and compassion for the community,” said Carolyn Hughes, former co-owner of Buttons Restaurant. “I am asking the community to support Chef Keith by attending this benefit concert in his honor.”
Among those performing will be the Rob Holbert Band, Natural Change, Melanie Dutton, Paul Cannon, Kenya Crawford, Bergette Rideau, Lori Dawn, Tone Sommers, Monty McKlinton, Quinton Moore, Killa Bug, Linny Nance, Taylor Pace, Stephanie Sallie, Kurt and Ceici Jones, Bobby Counts, Honorary Howard Scott, Fredrick Nicholson Band, Jackie Don Loe, Second Nature, Sam Jones, Roxie and Ashleigh Smith, Lewis Stephens, Velvet and Jerry Clark, Ahmad Johnson, and John Adams.
Calling the benefit a “true Buttons family reunion,” organizers said many of the Buttons restaurant’s former owners, managers, chefs, bartenders, servers and hostesses will attend and contribute to the evening. Former Buttons chefs Billy Kidd and Ty Frazier will treat attendees to popular southern appetizers from the original Buttons menu. Food trucks will be on hand with additional menu items.
Organizers said the concert is made possible through gracious sponsors including the Ridglea Room Theater, Chef Billy Kidd of Taco Casa, Chef Ty Frazier of Our Door to Yours, Fat Face Full, Angie’s Louisiana Kitchen and Catering,The Rim Waterside and MJ’s Apparel.