🔗 Share this article Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, musician of Booker T and the MGs, has passed away aged 84 Steve Cropper served as a key member of the in-house studio band of the seminal Memphis label Stax Records. Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84. The musician, who performed on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed on Wednesday in the city of Nashville. Considered among the best backing bands in soul and R&B, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the resident studio band of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions. Cropper later became a member of the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and featured on their hit cover of Soul Man. "Steve was a deeply admired musician, songwriter, and producer whose profound talent inspired generations around the world," his family expressed in a release. "While we grieve the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they added. A reason for his passing was not disclosed. An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new songs. "He's such a wonderful human," Gore said. "We were lucky to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, right, with artists Sheryl Crow and Eddie Floyd. A Prolific Career Ranked the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20. A year later, the MGs came together, comprising organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964. The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. "I've always considered myself to be a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They refuse to play the same lick twice." In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood. According to available information, he was "a part of virtually every record issued by Stax from late 1961 through the end of 1970". "We would often spend long days in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."