🔗 Share this article

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

The musician, who performed on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.

Widely regarded among the best studio bands in soul and R&B, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is primarily known for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and played on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

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

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we find comfort knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued.

A specific cause was not disclosed.

A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Voted the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax 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 inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always seen myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They won't even play the same phrase twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative 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 "a part of nearly all record released by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would truly spend long days in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."