William “Billy” James, who ran the public relations firm Glass Onyon and created music as Ant-Bee, died earlier this year from pancreatic cancer. He was in a hospice center local to his home in North Carolina when he passed. He is survived by his brother Scott, his wife Charlotte and his son Keith.
Billy had a large roster of clients, and to be totally transparent I was fortunate to be among them. His son Keith James provided details and links for this memorial, revealing much about his dad’s journey that might surprise many, from Billy’s own efforts to create the type of ’60s-’70s rock music that greatly influenced him to becoming a publicist for musical artists both burgeoning and famous.
In an interview with Blues GR in July 2023, Billy revealed his desire to become a musician, mirroring countless others in the mid-1960s: “For me it all comes down to the Beatles. If it were not for them, I would not be in the music business. … The moment I saw them I wanted to be a Beatle.”
Billy grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the young age of 10, he first became interested in the music of Frank Zappa. When he was in his teens he chose to master the drums and developed his chops playing with local cover bands. At 18, he attended the Berklee School of Music where he spent “an intense three years of learning music inside and out.” It was there that he met Steve Vai and bonded over their devotion to Zappa’s music.
Vai moved to Los Angeles after accepting a job offer as a copyist from Zappa himself. Billy and his wife Charlotte followed suit after Vai offered Billy an opportunity to work for him. Billy spent the following year working nonstop, providing charts and playing drums along with whatever tasks Vai assigned to him to do.
Despite their eventual parting of the ways, Billy acknowledged that he “did learn quite a bit from [Vai].” Billy would also do substantial chart work for Zappa, which was impactful but more positive: “He’s always been very nice to me, very considerate and friendly. The learning experience I had with him was as much as [he learned] at Berklee.”
Starting in 1987, Billy would record a series of albums under the project name Ant-Bee. It might seem like an obvious reference to the character Aunt Bee from The Andy Griffith Show, set in the fictional North Carolina town of Mayberry. But the moniker’s origin actually stemmed from the Captain Beefheart tune “Ant Man Bee” from his iconic album Trout Mask Replica. Being a major Beefheart fan, Billy removed “man” and chose to use Ant-Bee for his fanciful musical flights throughout the latter portion of his life.
Many of Billy’s musical heroes would contribute their talents to his recordings, including Peter Banks and Jan Akkerman, and would interact with many more: Billy was instrumental in reuniting the original Mothers of Invention (sans Zappa); enjoyed a fruitful association with Michael Bruce, Alice Cooper’s rhythm guitarist and co-writer of many of their hits; and jammed with many including Steve Vai and 12-year-old Dweezil at Zappa’s residence. The Zappa connection was so strong that Billy would appear in documentaries about the late iconoclastic artist.
Eventually, Billy found it “hell” to live in L.A. He and Charlotte relocated to North Carolina in 1996 where he would continue to record and release his Ant-Bee albums, collaborate with other artists on his own musical projects while assisting them in theirs, and celebrate the birth of his only child Keith. In the early 2000s, Billy conceived Glass Onyon to mail product directly to consumers, but the advent of e-commerce forced Billy to pivot. “He was doing mail-order music distribution, but the rise of online shopping completely killed that industry,” Keith said. “Learning the PR business from a friend of his, he turned Glass Onyon Distribution into Glass Onyon PR.”
Public relations would be a natural progression for Billy James. With the experience he gained working in the music business, his enthusiasm for rock — particularly for prog, a genre that has traditionally been marginalized by the rock press — would provide the excitement needed for telling the world about music that he wholeheartedly embraced. As Keith explained, “… My dad was a musician as well. He saw all sides of recording and promoting music. He knew what PR was like from the artist’s perspective, and he knew what artists wanted and needed. My dad was also a very generous and very driven man. He wanted to help anyone who needed his help, and he almost never turned down a client.”
These traits were not lost on those who became his clients. Those ranged from new artists to those who are big stars, all of whom would happily sing Billy’s praises to their friends and colleagues. “The Glass Onyon PR business basically grew through word of mouth,” Keith said. “Artists would recommend our business to other artists, and everyone would see what he could do for them. One of our first clients that was willing to take a chance on him was the band Wishbone Ash, and they really got the ball rolling.”
From that small acorn, Billy’s PR business grew into an enormous multi-branched tree, as evidenced on the Glass Onyon home page. The list of clients is staggering, and each listing is a link to a compilation of press releases that has been issued for that artist. Billy would append the business name with the tag “publicity for the rest of us,” indicating that he wasn’t so precious as to coddle big name clients at the expense of an up-and-coming, yet talented performer. That home page is also specific about not focusing solely on what appeases the masses, explicitly including “alternate genres of music” like hard rock, progressive rock, heavy metal, alternative and avant-garde.
Billy was fortunate that the music he loved was shared by his son Keith. When children become old enough to assist self-employed parents, they usually are either begrudgingly coerced into helping out or enthusiastically participate as they’ve come to share the same passions. Keith was firmly one of the latter: “I’d say I was pretty eager to help my dad with the business. I started helping him with Glass Onyon in high school, so I was his assistant for around 14 years. I was mostly working behind the scenes, [including] managing the website. … At first, I was just doing it as a favor for him because I knew computers better than he did, but I like all the same music, so it was really exciting to have a chance to work with all these different bands I loved.”
In 2024, Billy discovered that he was terminally ill with pancreatic cancer, which Keith indicates appeared without warning. “The initial diagnosis absolutely came out of nowhere. He didn’t have any of the risk factors for it. He didn’t smoke or drink, we have no history of cancer in our family.” Eventually, Billy was moved to a hospice, where he would soon pass. “He was only there for a few days,” Keith recalled. “With pancreatic cancer, there is no cure. Treatment is only about trying to extend the patient’s life as long as possible. Some people with pancreatic cancer have lived for 10 years. For most sufferers, they don’t get more than a year – and that’s what we got. So I wouldn’t exactly call it unexpected when he passed, but it was certainly a lot sooner than we had hoped.”
Keith indicated that after folks learned about Billy’s fate, Glass Onyon PR received numerous communications conveying deep sympathy. “Since my father passed, I’ve received multiple kind messages from clients of ours saying that he was key to their success. He always wanted to get our clients as much press as he could, no matter who.”
According to Keith, rest assured that Glass Onyon will endure under his leadership. “I am continuing Glass Onyon PR’s operations. I am taking on new clients, and I will be continuing my father’s legacy. Operations will have to slow a bit, but I hope to help artists as much as he did.”
Beyond Billy James’ success with Glass Onyon, his love for rock music included authoring many books with and about some of his musical heroes and friends. These included No More Mr. Nice Guy with Michael Bruce about the backstory of Alice Cooper, the band (as opposed to just Vince Grenier, who adopted the name as the band’s singer and as a solo artist); Lunar Notes: Zoot Horn Rollo’s Captain Beefheart Experience with Bill Harkleford; and the solely penned A Dream Goes on Forever: The Continuing Story of Todd Rundgren.
Aside from every word he has posted online and has published in print, Billy’s own music speaks volumes for the man who was greatly influenced by a vast array of rock genres which he relentlessly championed. His music can be found on various streaming platforms, and physical media can be purchased on Amazon. Keith said he hopes to expand visibility of Billy’s musical footprint in the future (possibly through BandCamp), and that might include unreleased recordings.
In closing, I was grappling with a title for this piece that would appropriately honor Billy, beyond stating “In memorium.” I considered “An Extraordinary Life,” using a song title from John Wetton, who was another one of his clients.
Then I remembered music writer and editor Nick DeRiso’s reply when I mentioned writing this piece: “He was one of the good ones.” I believe the last comment succinctly summed it up.
Fare thee well, Billy James. You will be fondly remembered and will not be forgotten.
You were one of the good ones.
This memorial only scratched the surface of Billy James’ very eventful and colorful life. Beyond the links and YouTube videos embedded above, the reader is encouraged to explore Billy’s world through reference materials, various interviews and, of course, his music.
The Official Ant-Bee web site, which contains lots of archival news and data
Ant-Bee media page at United Mutations
Billy James on Outsight Radio Hours (Audio interviews on the Internet Archive)
GlassOnyon channel on YouTube
Gonzo Multimedia Ant-Bee interview Part 1 and Part 2
Billy James: The King Ant-Bee Musik
NEM#68: Billy James (Ant-Bee): Experimenting with Idols
Interview with Billy James of Ant-Bee from 2011
Billy’s Private Parts: A Few Words From Billy James
Special thanks to Keith James.
© 2025 Mike Tiano. All Rights Reserved
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