🔗 Share this article Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, member of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, dies aged 84 Steve Cropper formed the backbone of the resident musical group of the seminal Memphis label Stax Records. Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84. The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died recently in Nashville. Widely regarded among the best backing bands in soul and R&B, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the resident studio band of the historic Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their 1962 track Green Onions. Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and performed on their hit cover of Soul Man. "Steve was a deeply admired guitarist, composer, and producer whose extraordinary talent inspired generations around the world," his family expressed in a release. "While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted. A cause of death was not disclosed. An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs. "He's such a wonderful human," Gore commented. "We were lucky to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, pictured on the right, with fellow musicians Sheryl Crow and Eddie Floyd. A Storied Musical Path Named the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20. A year later, the MGs were formed, comprising keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. "I've always seen myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They won't even play the same phrase twice." Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside 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 "involved in nearly all record put out by Stax from the fall of 1961 through the end of 1970". "We would truly spend long days in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."