🔗 Share this article

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

The guitar virtuoso, who played on and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died on Wednesday in Nashville.

Considered among the best studio bands in soul and R&B, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the resident studio band of the historic Memphis label Stax and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a deeply admired musician, songwriter, and producer whose profound talent impacted generations around the world," his family expressed in a release.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued.

A reason for his passing was not disclosed.

A friend, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new music.

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

A Prolific Career

Ranked the second-best 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 came together, consisting of organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always thought of myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They refuse to play the same lick twice."

In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to his official biography, he was "integral to nearly all record released by Stax from 1961 through 1970".

"We would truly spend long days in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had a roster of artists on the roster, so we had a very hectic schedule."