🔗 Share this article Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, member of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has passed away aged 84 Steve Cropper served as a key member of the resident musical group of the seminal Memphis label Stax Records. Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84. The musician, who contributed to and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away on Wednesday in Nashville. Often cited among the finest studio bands in soul music, the group Booker T & the MGs was the house band of the historic Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions. Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their hit cover of Soul Man. "Steve was a deeply admired musician, songwriter, and producer whose profound talent touched generations around the world," his family said in a statement. "While we mourn the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they added. A specific cause was not immediately known. A colleague, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on fresh material. "He's such a kind human," Gore commented. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, right, with fellow musicians Sheryl Crow and Eddie Floyd. A Prolific Career Voted the second-best guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20. A year later, the MGs came together, comprising keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded 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 considered myself to be a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They refuse to play the same lick twice." In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood. According to historical accounts, he was "involved in virtually every record released by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970". "We would truly 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 extremely demanding schedule."