Velour Live Music Gallery is owned by Corey Fox. The community is combining efforts to help him with his kidney transplant. (Universe Photo)
Velour Live Music Gallery in Provo is known for helping bands like Imagine Dragons and Neon Trees get their start. Now the community is rallying to help owner Corey Fox in his search for a kidney transplant.
Velour is hosting a benefit concert at 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 7 with advance sale tickets costing $10 and $12 the night of the show. The concert is an All-Star Madison Arm Mixtape, which features local artists like Paul Jacobsen, Ryan Innes and Neon Trees bassist, Branden Campbell.
This is not the first benefit to help Fox. Two concerts were held the last weekend of April to help Fox. Friday night's featured acoustic sets from Imagine Dragons and Neon Trees and Saturday's included The Moth & the Flame and Fictionist, all bands who got their start at Velour.
Friday's $300 tickets and Saturday's $20 tickets sold out days after the events were announced. On April 26, Vivint Smart Home joined the cause and announced a $20,000 donation for the benefit concerts.
CEO of Vivint Smart Home, Todd Peterson said in a press release that Fox is a “staple” of the community.
“Through Velour, he has been bringing people together for more than a decade, so it is inspiring to see the community rally around him at this difficult time. We are moved by the outpouring of support and are honored to be involved,” Peterson said in the press release.
Friends and family started the “#FixtheFox” fund quickly after he announced on Facebook that he is in need of a transplant after battling Chronic Kidney Disease since he was 16. They set up a website where people can donate money to help keep Velour and Fox alive and apply for a living donor screening. The outpouring of support has been so overwhelming that the Intermountain Transplant Clinic has asked that no one else apply for screenings until they see a need again. They hope to find a match in this batch of applicants.
The Kidney for Corey Fox website says Fox needs a transplant in the next few months and once the transplant is complete, he will need to stay away from big groups to prevent infections. With this, Velour will close, only opening for private and small events that the current staff can handle. Fox's friends and family said they want to keep him comfortable during his recovery time, but also want to keep the music gallery in business, so they said any kind of support will help.