{"id":241583,"date":"2026-01-19T23:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/241583\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T23:42:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T23:42:09","slug":"phantom-billstickers-creator-jim-wilson-terminally-ill-and-seeking-assisted-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/241583\/","title":{"rendered":"Phantom Billstickers creator Jim Wilson terminally ill and seeking assisted death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now in his mid-70s, Wilson has a long and influential history with local music. <\/p>\n

He was The Exponents\u2019 first manager, back when they started out as Dance Exponents. On his recommendation, they were signed to Mushroom Records by Mike Chunn.<\/p>\n

\"JimJim Wilson (right) with Jordan Luck of The Exponents. Photo \/ Jim Wilson Collection<\/p>\n

Flying Nun Records founder \u00adRoger Shepherd has previously credited Wilson with creating the Christchurch live music scene that fostered the first wave of groups on the label. <\/p>\n

Phantom later ventured into Auckland and Wellington and has become a multimillion-dollar business, revolutionising the way poster advertising is operated. <\/p>\n

\"PhantomPhantom Billstickers poster hangers at work on a Saturday morning in central Auckland.
\nPhoto \/ Greg Bowker <\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s post did not disclose his illness, but previous blog posts suggest it is respiratory. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can scarcely breathe to walk across the room and it seems like every day I have a brand new symptom. I\u2019ve had lots of tests and nothing uncovers the problem. I\u2019ve been hauled off to hospital in an ambulance countless times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson says he is not afraid of dying but is fearful of \u201cliving this way for much longer\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have found that the best thing to do with an impending death is to dream a lot. This helps press the bad thoughts out. Poetry also helps; it is a beautiful thing. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe only regrets I have about an impending death are that I can\u2019t take Kelly [his partner] with me, nor my dogs, nor my Volkswagens,\u201d reads the Facebook post.<\/p>\n

Phantom Billstickers told the Herald that Wilson\u2019s journey was a private one and they did not wish to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now in his mid-70s, Wilson has a long and influential history with local music. He was The Exponents\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,54694,142022,1656,40124,634,311,29418,17709,16081,111,43,139,69,50487,142023,312,40249,5424,49929,12025,6038],"class_list":["post-241583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-assisted","tag-billstickers","tag-company","tag-creator","tag-death","tag-founder","tag-ill","tag-investigating","tag-jim","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-phantom","tag-postering","tag-says","tag-seeking","tag-street","tag-terminally","tag-wellknown","tag-wilson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}