Eddie Z giving back with Tega Cay music, food bash

Local musician Eddie Zimmerman, also known as Eddie Z, is combining his passions for music and kidney health education at an upcoming concert.

Eddie Z’s Concert for Kidneys will be held at Runde Park in Tega Cay on Oct. 3 and features Charity Case band, of which Eddie Z is the guitarist, and guests 13th Door and The Charles Walker Band. Eddie Z is the owner of The Playroom Academy of Music in Baxter Village and The Playroom recording studio in Charlotte.

In the past 15 years, Charity Case has raised more than $1 million for Ace and TJ’s Grin Kids, an organization dedicated to helping improve the lives of chronically disabled children, Eddie Z said. For the past few years, the band has had another goal as well – to increase awareness of kidney health.

While the concert will benefit Ace and TJ’s Grin Kids, there will also be an opportunity for participants to donate to the National Kidney Foundation and to purchase merchandise that will go toward helping cover Eddie Z’s medical bills, he said. Even more important, he said, is the kidney health education materials that will be available.

“We need to raise awareness about this horrible disease,” Eddie Z said. “There are so many choices people make that they don’t realize are bad choices.”

Eddie Z was diagnosed with renal kidney failure in July 2012 and underwent a kidney transplant in May 2014. He received his kidney from his longtime girlfriend Vicki Shackleford, who was a match.

Eddie Z said Charity Case gives him a platform to share his story and educate others.

“The only reason I am alive today is because I educated myself about kidney disease,” he said.

Eddie Z experienced first-hand the complications that can result from kidney failure. After receiving his transplant, Eddie Z thought he was in the clear, but started having problems and by July of 2014 could no longer walk and was in chronic pain.

“I thought I was going to die,” he said.

After spending more than 10 years in Tega Cay, Eddie Z moved to Charlotte last year to be closer to his doctors.

Last August, Eddie Z was diagnosed with cyclosporine-associated neurotoxicity, a side effect of the drug cyclosporine used to treat transplant patients. He underwent tests for eight days before the doctors discovered the toxicity.

After multiple surgeries, Eddie Z left the hospital on Dec. 28 and his kidney function went back to normal in a few months. Eddie Z has been off the drug since last August and even though he still has some complications, the performer said he is grateful.

“I was alive and now I can walk,” he said.

Eddie Z said he has wanted to do an awareness concert in Tega Cay for two years but couldn’t because of his illness.

“Better late than never,” he said.

The concert will be a family friendly event complete with food trucks coming from all over the Charlotte area, said Joey Blethen, recreation director for Tega Cay.

The city is pushing to include food trucks in more events and vendors at the concert include Cheese to the Mac, Roman’s Icy Treats, Comfort Foods on Wheels and Spoon’s BBQ, Blethen said.

“This is a great first event to try this new endeavor,” he said. “It should be a really good time.”

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Eddie Z giving back with Tega Cay music, food bash."