🔗 Share this article

The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.

The guitar virtuoso, who played on and collaborated on writing Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away this past Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the best supporting groups in soul and R&B, the quartet the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and featured on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose profound talent inspired countless people around the world," his family said in a release.

"While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they noted.

A reason for his passing was not disclosed.

An associate, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new songs.

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

A Prolific Career

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

A year later, the MGs were founded, featuring organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

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

"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They are reluctant to repeat the same lick twice."

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

According to his official biography, he was "integral to virtually every record issued by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would often spend long days in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."