Private Jack - Interview Hiram Bullock

[@funklover24]

Miss Hiram so much. Rest in peace. ❤

[@cryscars]

I platonically LOVE and still MISS this man 😢 in 2023, Hiram Bullock. Interacted with him 3 times. First met Hiram Saturday, Feb 14th, 1988 (Valentines Day) in San Diego California, when he performed at a club there called 'The Bacchanal'. Was SO nervous asking him for his autograph after the show. He shook my hand & told me "Crystal, PLEASE don't call me Mr. Bullock that's too formal, that's what the secretaries at Atlantic Records call me. Please just call me what friends do, Hiram." 😊Peeled the paint off the walls with his playing that night. He was a STUNNING performer, he actually wore a "Superman"--type outfit with red spandex tights and large red space boots LOL 😆Hiram ran through the entire seated audience playing guitar wirelessly. He played guitar dancing on tabletops while the people sat watching. He hopped from ONE table to ANOTHER! 😮He gave a PHENOMENAL performance! He was on 🔥!! I saw Hiram two MORE times, when he came to Washington, D.C. playing at legendary Blues Alley nightclub in Aug 1989 and again in Aug 1994. After the Aug '89 show, he invited me in the dressing room and bassist Will Lee/band was in there too. As soon as I walked in and Hiram saw me, he smiled and said loudly, "Hi Crystal, how you been doin'?!" 😊He had NOT seen me over a YEAR BEFORE. Couldn't BELIEVE that he actually REMEMBERED me.😲With all the people he encountered traveling around doing shows for YEARS, it was unreal to be remembered by him. NOTHING special about me. I'm just an ordinary person, a woman of color. Then Hiram playfully said "Crystal I just saw you in San Diego last YEAR, are you FOLLOWING me?" LOL 😆He had seen me in California in "88 ay his show, and now here I was on the East coast at ANOTHER show in '89. I laughed at him & said, "No Hiram, actually YOU'RE following ME, 'cause I'm FROM here, I'm FROM D.C, so you in MY neighborhood now, LOL!!" 😆 There were 5 of us in the dressing room, laughing and talking about music and other things too. He always mentioned his joke to me, about me supposedly following him all across the country LOL😆 Told Hiram that HE was following ME around, since he happened to be doing shows in cities that I LIVED in LOL.😆🤣 He even told me that when he was playing on stage in Germany, he thought that he saw me in the audience THERE LOL.😆Had a stupid smirk on his face when he SAID it, he KNEW he was making that nonsense up LOL.😆🤣 Joking with me, we all laughed our heads off in the dressing room. Got autographs from Hiram and Will Lee. Hiram talked about "finding himself." He also complained about the record company he was signed to Atlantic Records, and how they would NOT let him RECORD certain songs because they did not think they would sell. He actually did an R & B type song that night in Aug. '89 that nobody had heard before {because he wasn't ALLOWED to RECORD it} called "Force of Habit."😊 LOVED it! ❤🎼🎵 Hiram was SO OPEN and SO DOWN--to--EARTH. No matter HOW famous he was, no matter the famous PEOPLE he associated with/recorded with/performed with, you could just sit down and converse with him like a "regular" person. At the '94 show, Hiram had a VERY bad night--he was a half hour LATE for the gig and his guitar BROKE in mid-performance. Will Lee & drummer Charley Drayton had to carry the rest of the show, while Hiram struggled to fix his guitar onstage. Beautiful white Fender Stratocaster, he left his well-worn Strat at home. Audience became angry, loud and was booing. Felt like a RIOT was about to happen. Will & Charley ran upstairs quick to dressing room, while Hiram left the stage and sat down at the bar teary eyed saying "Oh No, I can't believe this." People got in his face cursing at him, demanding he give them their MONEY back. He was sitting in a chair holding his head in his hands teary eyed. Approached him from behind, after the angry audience left. I said "Hi Hiram." Startled, he quickly spun around wide eyed, stared at me and exclaimed "Crystal?! It's YOU!! What are YOU doing HERE?!?!" 😲He STILL REMEMBERED me, after NOT seeing me in 5 YEARS!!😳😲 Unbelievable! His face and his eyes lit up, Hiram was SO HAPPY to SEE me! 😊 And me HIM! ☺ I told him that I was there because I'm FROM D.C. LIVED in the DC area, heard he was in town performing and I wanted to see him. Hiram asked me, "Did you SEE the show?" I said, "Yes...I saw and heard EVERYTHING." He looked downcast then suddenly became defensive asking me, "Did you come over here to do what those OTHER people just did to me?" 😠 I told him "NO I DIDN'T come over here to condemn you Hiram, you feel bad enough ALREADY. I came over here to offer kindness and a HUG 'cause you look like you NEED one." "Would you like a hug?" 😊Instead of feeling the rage the others expressed over the money spent on him (which they felt they WASTED), I felt compassion. He wasn't an inanimate "guitar MACHINE" put on Earth just to entertain people---he was a living, breathing HUMAN BEING. Hiram had been HUMILIATED in front of a crowd of VERY angry people, verbally abused and looked depressed. 😔 He was in an unfamiliar city, and knew NO one in this area. Never seen a big man so vulnerable. Hiram was a tall man, with a stocky build at 6--foot something, a barrel--chested "gentle giant" towering over me 5'3. He said "Yes" he wanted a hug, so we stood up and hugged. I said, "One bad night does NOT a musician MAKE." He looked at me and said "You're RIGHT." His spirit lifted and he smiled. 😊 He said, "This is the best thing I've heard all day. Thank You Crystal for caring about me, I really appreciate it." 😊Then, we just sat together at the bar there {between his 2 performances}. Hiram even explained to me WHY he was late for his own gig. He told me that he had been tired, overslept and then he, Will & Charley hurriedly left NY area LATE in rush-hour NY TRAFFIC. Told me they drove themselves down to DC and then got LOST in DC. Surreal. Hiram Bullock and I, just the 2 of us sitting and talking, laughing, eating & interacting like 2 normal everyday human beings. We talked about music and other things. He talked to me, like he'd known me for YEARS. That was the last time I saw Hiram, on Friday August 26th, 1994 in Washington, D.C. At Blues Alley. In 2023 I still have all the show tickets he autographed, and also the precious EMAIL that Hiram sent me on October 3rd 2006. The FIRST thing he wrote to me was "YES, I DO REMEMBER YOU, after all the years." Mind--boggling that this man whom I met in 1988, still remembered me 28 YEARS LATER in 2006.😳 Hiram also wrote to me that he was still performing/touring with Will Lee and Charley Drayton (as he did when I had seen him) and said the 3 of them had just played at the music festival in Detroit not too long before he Emailed me. Told me things had come a LONG way, since his terrible show that night in Aug '94 when we last saw each other. 😊Felt good to be in touch again. Hiram was a kindhearted, friendly, VERY playful, VERY funny, quirky, goofy, gregarious, VERY talkative and an emotional man, in addition to being so musically GIFTED. One of the MOST talented and energetic men on Earth. SO VIBRANT! I just really liked and cared about Hiram as a HUMAN BEING, while everyone ELSE seemed to be, and most STILL ARE fixated on him solely as a MUSICIAN. There's no other point of reference for people, if they never MET him. Hiram Bullock touched many people (as well as myself) all over this Earth with his MUSIC and outstanding Creator-given TALENT. But he touched me MORE with his simple HUMANITY that most people didn't get to SEE/EXPERIENCE. So glad that I DID, and I enjoyed the close-up VIEW. Just sharing memories, I'm so sorry it's so long here. Thank You for posting this interview. ❤

[@Martyprod2]

Thank you very very much for this testimony about the great and amazing hiram, that i loved so much too. no need to apologise, i'm someone who write a lot too ;). thanks !

[@cryscars]

@@Martyprod2 You're so welcome. 😊And I appreciate your words here. Thank You for understanding, really sorry about the length. It's actually MORE to the story, but I posted ALL of it on FB in 2 groups I am in for Hiram. And on my own FB along with pics of the autographs Hiram gave me. What I posted HERE is actually a CONDENSED version, believe it or not LOL😆. I hope that you met Hiram too. I wish that all the people whom love his music, had had the opportunity to sit with him and just talk, like he and I did. I had 3 opportunities, which was & still is UNREAL to me.😳

[@Martyprod2]

@@cryscars Hi, i'm a musician as well, you can find me there at www.youtube.com/@didiermartini or directly here at didiermartini.com this channel host the old stuff i had to record a long time ago in my past on my VCR on TV and i don't use it to post my own music. I had the chance to have as a guest will lee on one of my tune, and will was one of close Hiram's Friend. i would have loved to met Hiram, I was a big fan too, unfortunatly life can be awful , and i never had this opportunity. I recorded some time ago a kind of tribute to Hiram, by doing a cover of the Sting/Gil evans version of Little wing, hope to post this at some points.

[@Matt-Hurin]

Hirams the man, wish I could have seen him live, what a legend and great dude 🤘🏼

[@Martyprod2]

yes, totally agree !

[@robertosozio3425]

For my one great Bluesman great feeling great voice RIP

[@got2bharmony]

Great upload of a true talent.

[@swingmanic]

He sure had the magic, without a doubt!..It sounds like he had a big heart and he played from it!!!!!!!!

[@andrewsandoz8005]

RIP Mr. Bullock.

[@MikoStrato]

Un grandissimo che non c'è più purtroppo !!!!!!

[@cliffworks4321]

insightful interview and some great Hiram playing singing talking - kind of stuff he used to play casually at my Roppongi pad in the 80's, dig him playing chord solo of Here's That Rainy Day.

[@michaelreis8266]

Wise words on emotional attatchment to the Music and Moment. I feel like I'm cheating if I can't connect..yet for some its simply physical. Music is God!

[@patboudotlamot]

incroyable personnalité : humain bourré de talents

[@moafernandes2323]

segura ele!

[@brainchildroy1]

My favorite. I've been trying.....🤦🏽‍♂️🤣🤷🏽‍♂️ To steal the masters riffs forever! He's the best! 🤘

[@lorenzo.pastore]

rip

[@clydebermingham121]

Truly said .... Don’t be a musician to be famous , but just rather to have fun ...”If you wanna be famous , rob a bank , or something ..” hahahaha... lol😆🤗

[@RoyMcDonald420]

If you wanna be rich and famous he said, which is more funny to me. Dude was a riot...an so dang nice and humble it seems. Listen to 'Mad Dog Daze' and it will prob make you laugh. Lyrics ring so true 33 years later, way ahead of time in many ways!!!

[@Harbaksh1234]

A huge loss ...

[@josephballerini3730]

Seems like he used that same strat through most of his career...

[@jacomia1015]

Yeah, but I don't think the guitar he has in this video is "it". "His" guitar was a sunburst finish that had be terribly deteriorated. My guess is that it was probably a custom made guitar that had the same set-up (2 humbuckers with the middle single coil) I saw him play a gig with Kenwood Denard in his EXTREME drug days where that original guitar was falling apart--the input jack had fallen OUT of the guitar and he was attempting to repair it with duct-tape by wrapping it around and around the guitar--all the while a terrible squeal was being emitted from the dying guitar and his tongue was hanging from the side of his mouth as he was out-of-his mind wasted. Finally, Kenwood, trying to hide is anger, appealed to the audience "does someone have a guitar that Hiram can borrow?" There was some random guy in the audience who happened to have a guitar for Hiram. He actually played pretty well after that being as high as he was. I think that guitar "disappeared" sometime after that (and I think might have found its way back to him at some point). One of my all-time favorite players and influences! Glad he cleaned himself up before he died! RIP Hiram!

[@fibergullet]

@@jacomia1015 Hiram had said at one point on the message board on his website that he believed his old strat had ended up in the hands of a collector. He sounded like he didn't really have any desire to track it down either. I think he said he was thoroughly satisfied with the signature edition guitars Cort had made for him as well as some custom guitar made for him by someone in Japan.

[@jacomia1015]

@@fibergullet Makes sense to me! Would be an amazing piece of guitar history to have in a collection now that he's passed on.

[@travisbarney3591]

@@jacomia1015 Was Jaco playing bass with them?

[@jacomia1015]

@@travisbarney3591 No, this would have been like '92/93, when they were promoting Kenwood's 'Just Advance' album so Jaco would have died several years before that. Marcus had played on the album but I don't remember who was playing bass at the gig.