Music was Kula’s passion

As a musician, Bob Kula played a wide range of styles, from country western to soul and rock. He performed on the same stage as some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, from the Ramones to Ricky Nelson, Rick Derringer to George Thorogood.

But after his father died in 1996, Kula gave up performing to become a full-time, live-in caregiver for his elderly mother.

Kula, 53, of Ralston, died Saturday from head injuries suffered in a fall Thursday at the family home.

His brother, Jim, of Lincoln, said Bob enjoyed many different styles of music, and that translated into performing with a dozen bands on guitar, mandolin, bass, lap guitar and pedal steel.

“That’s what he was about — enjoying music,” Jim Kula said.

Among the groups Bob Kula performed with were the Rats, Skuddur, the Jailbreakers, Warsaw Willie, Cimarron Express and John Marriot & Crossfield. He also played pedal steel for the Omaha performances of “Always ... Patsy Cline.”

“He loved authentic country, but at the same time, he thought Brad Paisley was so cool, a red-hot guitar player,” said a friend, Tom Larkin. “There was so much paint on his musical palate that he could draw on.”

Kula, a 1974 graduate of Ralston High School, was preceded in death by his father, Sigmund, and is survived by his brother and mother, Marie.

Funeral services are scheduled at 11 a.m. on Wednesday at Korisko Larkin Staskiewicz Funeral Home, 5108 F St. Visitation is Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the funeral home.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com

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