🔗 Share this article Steve Cropper, guitarist of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died aged 84 Steve Cropper was part of the in-house studio band of the pioneering Memphis label Stax Records. The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84. The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville. Considered among the greatest studio bands in soul music, the four-piece band the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions. Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their popular rendition of Soul Man. "Steve was a beloved guitarist, composer, and producer whose immense talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a message. "While we feel sorrow for the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we find comfort knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they added. A reason for his passing was not immediately known. An associate, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new music. "He's such a wonderful human," Gore commented. "We were blessed to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, right, with artists Sheryl Crow and Eddie Floyd. A Storied Musical Path Named the second-best guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20. A year later, the MGs were formed, consisting of keyboardist 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 seen myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They won't even play the same lick twice." Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative songwriter, and besides 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 released by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970". "We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had a roster of artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."