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Although Bullock is indeed an American, he was born in Osaka, Japan in 1956 and came to American at the age of two. As a child, he studied piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland, playing his first recital at the age of 6. He learned to play the saxophone at age 11, and began playing the bass guitar in junior high school rock bands as a teenager. He switched to guitar at age 16, admittedly "to meet more girls." Hiram attended the University of Miami music school, where he studied with Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius, and where he met many of the musicians that he would play with throughout his professional career. One of his steady nightclub gigs in Florida was with the singer Phyllis Hyman, who brought Hiram to New York in the mid 1970s.

After arriving in the Big Apple, he began playing with David Sanborn and The Brecker Brothers band before forming the 24th Street Band with drummer Steve Jordan, keyboardist Clifford Carter and bassist Mark Egan, who was later replaced by Will Lee. That group had an avid following in Japan and released two records there, the second of which was co-produced by keyboardist Paul Schaffer. When Schaffer was later putting together a house band for "The David Letterman Show" on NBC television, he recruited Bullock, Jordan and Lee from the 24th Street Band to play on the late night talk show, which premiered in 1981. Another important connection was with producer Phil Ramone, who hired Hiram to play on a succession of gold and platinum-selling albums by pop stars Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Kenny Loggins. Hiram's numerous recording credits also include work with The Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn, Jaco Pastorius, Pete Townsend, Bob James, Chaka Khan, James Taylor, Steely Dan, Sting, James Brown, Miles Davis, Barbra Streisand, Burt Bacharach, Roberta Flack, Spyro Gyra, Eric Clapton and Al Green.

In the mid 1980s, Bullock appeared in the house band of tv's "Saturday Night Live" and in 1985 released his first recording as a leader, First Class Vagabond . He followed that up in 1986 with the fusiony From All Sides , in 1987 with Give It What U Got and in 1992 with Way Kool , all on Atlantic Jazz. Two recordings with bassist and longtime colleague Will Lee and drummer Clint deGanon -- 1994's World of Collision and 1996's live Manny's Car Wash , both for Big World Music -- highlighted Hiram's fretboard flash and wreckless abandon in a high powered rock trio setting. His jazziest offering to date was 1996's Late Night Talk , a mellow organ session featuring the great Dr. Lonnie Smith on the Hammond B-3, Idris Muhammad on drums, Joe Locke on vibes and Ed Howard on bass. Carrasco was his 1997 homage to Latin music while 2000's Guitar Man was a return to his rock-fusion roots. With 2001's Color Me , Bullock began to display his prolific songwriting nature and his penchant for pop hooks. With Try Livin' It he takes another big stride in that direction.