Nick Choate
From left: Phoenix, Michelle, June, Nick, and Manavi — all members of Nick’s family.
On Sunday, August 31, Billy Bob’s Texas will roar — not just with guitars and voices, but with the collective heartbeat of a community rallying for one of its own. Choatefest ’25, a benefit concert for multi-instrumentalist, producer, recording engineer, and studio owner Nick Choate, is more than a concert — it’s a lifeline for a father, husband, and musician battling colon cancer, and a celebration of the family and faith that sustain him.
Doors open at 5 p.m., with live music beginning at 6 p.m. The lineup is a who’s who of country music: Cody Jinks, Ward Davis, Josh Weathers, Joey Green, Adrian Garza, and Michael Lee. Each performer brings a piece of the Texas sound that Nick has loved his entire life — a mix of raw emotion, honed craft, and storytelling that lingers long after the song ends.
For Nick, music has always been more than a hobby; it’s a lifeline. However, it’s been hard for Nick to sustain his musical endeavors given his three-year-long battle with cancer. In fact, his doctors told him he would need chemotherapy for the rest of his life.
“I call myself a bass player, guitar player, but I haven’t played very much at all since I’ve been sick,” he says, describing the nerve pain in his hands from treatment. “I play a little bit now. I play at church, I’ll play guitar, but I’m out of shape. I haven’t played a gig in a year and a half or maybe two years.”
Nick’s journey with music started when he was a boy, armed with toy guitars and an insatiable curiosity for stringed instruments. “Finally, when I was about 11, I convinced my dad to buy me this acoustic guitar from a pawn shop, and it was all over from there,” he recalls. He devoured every song he could, always drawn to the microphones and the PA system. Music became the soundtrack to a life that would soon demand every ounce of resilience and faith he had.
Over the years, Nick has made his mark as a producer, working on projects with Cody Jinks and Josh Weathers. Work that would place Nick in the pantheon of some of the greats. “I had no idea. And now I have gold and platinum records in my office,” he says, disbelief and gratitude mingling in his voice.
But the greatest hits of Nick’s life aren’t on Spotify. They live in his family — in the eyes of his stepson, Phoenix, and his two daughters, June and Manavi, both adopted from India.
“I went on a mission trip with Josh Weathers to India and I saw all this terrible, awful, and I told my wife while I was there, ‘There's no way that I can know what I know about this place and then go home and not do anything.’ And so we started the adoption process for our first daughter, June,” he says.
Within days, he and his wife were navigating the labyrinthine adoption process, fueled by a sense of urgency and purpose.
Two years later, the family returned to India for a second adoption — this time for a girl who had already been overlooked by others, missing her right arm, and facing a future no one seemed willing to fight for. Nick remembers the moment he decided she would come home with them: “If we don’t go get that girl, nobody’s coming for her, and she’s going to age out of that orphanage,” he says. “I can’t abide that.”
The process was far from simple. Nick and his wife, Michelle, started the Noel Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to helping other families through the adoption process, particularly children with physical or developmental challenges. That spirit of giving, of quietly lifting others, is what friends and fellow musicians say defines him.
Adrian Garza
Adrian Garza, a local musician and one of the performers at Choatefest ‘25, explains, “Nick has always been a guy who has done a lot for so many. He’s been a behind-the-scenes guy for so long, for so many different people. That’s the reason all of us are banding together to uplift him. He’s always the guy in the shadows…Nick is humble, but this is our gift to him in many ways.”
Garza emphasizes the stakes for Nick and his family: “If Michelle wasn’t able to work, all of us would come as a music community and a village anyway to benefit her and the kids. So ultimately, this event is meant to provide for Michelle and the girls. It’s a very important event for multiple lives.”
For Garza, performing at Choatefest ‘25 is both an honor and a personal connection. “Nick called me. He knows I’ve got an album coming out and he knows I’ve been pushing really hard, but more than anything, Nick’s my friend. He called me and asked, ‘Do you want to play?’ That was a big deal for me. I’ve never played Billy Bob’s before — it’s a dream venue for all of us. People across the world have dreams to play there.”
Garza will open the night with a full hour set, featuring songs from his upcoming album Texas Son and a few well-known guest appearances. “It’s exciting and scary,” he says. “I’ll be performing some songs with special guests on my acoustic set. Certain people from Fort Worth who are music fans are going to know some of these folks. That’ll be very cool.”
Beyond the music, Choatefest ‘25 is a testament to Nick’s lifelong dedication to others. Robert Gallagher, a longtime Billy Bob’s stage manager, donated all proceeds from his 80th birthday celebration to the Nick Choate Foundation, a non-profit set up to help cover Nick’s medical and personal expenses as he undergoes treatment.
Through the trials of cancer and chemo, Nick’s family has become both his anchor and inspiration, along with his personal faith.
“I may be the only real example of what Jesus can do in a person's life that anybody will ever see,” he says. “Don't be impressed with a man like me. Be impressed with the Jesus inside of a man like me.”
