🔗 Share this article

Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84.

The guitar virtuoso, who played on and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away on Wednesday in the city of Nashville.

Often cited among the greatest backing bands in soul and R&B, the group Booker T & the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join 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 musician, songwriter, and producer whose profound talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a statement.

"While we grieve the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they continued.

A specific cause was not disclosed.

A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs.

"He's such a kind human," Gore remarked. "We were lucky to have him, for sure."

A Prolific Career

Ranked the runner-up for 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, featuring keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always considered myself to be a rhythm guitarist," Cropper remarked in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They are reluctant to repeat the same lick twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "integral to the majority of record released by Stax from late 1961 through 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had nearly 20 artists signed to the label, so we had a very hectic schedule."