🔗 Share this article

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

The musician, who played on and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Widely regarded among the finest backing bands in soul music, the group Booker T & the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and played on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent touched generations around the world," his family said in a message.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they continued.

A cause of death was not released at this time.

An associate, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Ranked the second-best guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper started his career at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were founded, comprising organist 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 considered myself to be a rhythm guitarist," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They won't even play the same riff twice."

In addition to being 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 historical accounts, he was "integral to virtually every record issued by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."