🔗 Share this article Steve Cropper, guitarist of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84 Steve Cropper formed the backbone of the resident musical group of the pioneering Memphis label Stax Records. The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has passed away 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 recently in Music City, Nashville. Widely regarded among the finest studio bands in soul music, the four-piece band the MGs was the core musical unit of the historic Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions. Cropper later became a member of the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and played on their successful version of Soul Man. "Steve was a deeply admired guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent touched generations around the world," his family said in a release. "While we grieve the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they added. A specific cause was not immediately known. A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on fresh material. "He's such a kind human," Gore said. "We were lucky to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, right, with artists Eddie Floyd and Sheryl Crow. An Illustrious Journey Ranked the second-best 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 were founded, comprising organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964. The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. "I've always considered myself to be a rhythm player," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They won't even play the same lick twice." As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood. According to available information, he was "a part of the majority of record issued by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970". "We would literally spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had a roster of artists on the roster, so we had a very hectic schedule."