A beloved chef will bring people together in Fort Worth this week but not for his famous soul food.
They'll come together to help save his life.
"It's serious. It's serious. When you sit back and you look at the stuff you used to do and you're not able to do it, you're just showing up. You're like a shell," Keith "Buttons" Hicks told NBC5 in an exclusive interview.
Hicks was diagnosed with end-stage COPD. He's in palliative care and needs a double lung transplant.
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For more than two decades, he gave North Texas some of the best comfort food around.
The 2008 opening of his own place, Buttons Restaurant Food and Music for the Soul, was a landmark with people driving miles to west Fort Worth for the food, the music and a side of Hicks' infectious personality.
His health problems started in 2018 when pneumonia put him in the hospital for three weeks. He went back to work, too soon, he now says. His health worsened with a bout of COVID.
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"I became more like a long hauler, carrying it with me inside. and it got to a point where I said, 'I have to be on oxygen,'" Hicks said. "So that's where we are now. Probably the next step is the double lung transplant."
His former business partner staff and musicians are now rallying behind their friend and inviting others to join them.
"I am asking for the love to be returned to this man, my brother from another mother. And it breaks my heart to see him like this," said Carolyn Hughes, the investor who with her husband helped Hicks open Buttons. "This is my plea to the community to help us help him have a healthier life."
"I told my wife Heather, I said, 'Babe, they really love us.' And I mentioned it to Carolyn, too. And Carolyn was like, "Why not? How could they not?' It's very beautiful," Hicks said.
The Buttons Family Affair Benefit Concert is from 5 p.m. to midnight on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at the Ridglea Theater in Fort Worth.
Tickets for the event range from $25 for general admission to $400 for VIP tables. Tickets are here. Donations can be made through Hicks' GoFundMe page.
