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St. Louis musician Bob Kuban remembers Tina Turner

"She's going to be a star, she's really good," Bob Kuban said on hearing Tina Tuner for the first time.

ST. LOUIS — You don't have to be from St. Louis to have a star on the Delmar Loop, but you do have to have spent your formative or creative years here. 

The "Queen of Rock and Roll," Tina Turner, certainly met those qualifications. 

"When I first heard her, I thought 'Oh boy, she's going to be a star, she's really good,'" band leader Bob Kuban told 5 On Your Side. 

Kuban knows a thing or two about music. 

He lead the group Bob Kuban and the In-Men to a gold record hit, "The Cheater", in 1966. He was playing when Tina Turner, known then as Anna Mae Bullock, was just getting started.

"She was an original at that time," Kuban said. "There weren't anybody doing that type of stuff."

By that stuff, Kuban means Rock and Roll. 

"She was unusual at the time, but she really had it together and a nice person. I got to know her and she was really a great lady," he said.

Turner broke the glass ceiling. 

"She definitely blazed the trail for girl singers," Kuban said. "Back then there weren't a lot of girl singers. You could count on one hand the amount of girl singers that were around. Now there are several and that's because of the Tina Turner influence."

Turner got her start in a St. Louis nightclub, Club Imperial, and the rest is history. 

"What a talent," he said. "What an influence she had on the music industry. Not on just music here in St. Louis, but music throughout the country and music around the world. She was definitely an influence and she'll be missed."

Turner influenced more than just music. She was one of the first pop stars to talk about domestic violence and encourage others to get out of abusive relationships. 

She had a bold voice, both on stage and off.

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