🔗 Share this article Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, guitarist of Booker T and the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84 Steve Cropper was part of the house band of the seminal Memphis label Stax Records. Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has died at the age of 84. The musician, who played on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville. Considered among the finest backing bands in soul and R&B, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the historic Memphis label Stax and is most famous for their classic 1962 track Green Onions. Cropper went on to join the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and played on their successful version of Soul Man. "Steve was a cherished guitarist, composer, and producer whose immense talent inspired millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a release. "While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we find comfort knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they noted. A specific cause was not disclosed. An associate, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating fresh material. "He's such a kind human," Gore said. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, right, with peers Sheryl Crow and Eddie Floyd. A Prolific Career Ranked the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax 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 succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. "I've always thought of myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They are reluctant to repeat the same phrase twice." As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood. According to available information, he was "involved in the majority of record issued by Stax from late 1961 through the end of 1970". "We would often spend 15 hours a day 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."