🔗 Share this article The iconic guitarist Steve Cropper, member of Booker T and the MGs, has died aged 84 Steve Cropper was part of the resident musical group of the pioneering Memphis label Stax Records. Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84. The musician, who played on and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville. Widely regarded among the finest supporting groups in soul and R&B, the four-piece band the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax Records and is most famous for their classic 1962 track Green Onions. Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their popular rendition of Soul Man. "Steve was a deeply admired musician, songwriter, and producer whose immense talent inspired countless people around the world," his family expressed in a message. "While we grieve the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted. A specific cause was not immediately known. An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs. "He's such a wonderful human," Gore said. "We were lucky to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, pictured on the right, with peers Eddie Floyd and Sheryl Crow. An Illustrious Journey Voted the second-best guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20. A year later, the MGs came together, comprising 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 past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They refuse to play the same riff twice." Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood. According to available information, he was "integral to virtually every record put out by Stax from late 1961 through the end of 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."