🔗 Share this article Steve Cropper, guitarist of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84 Steve Cropper served as a key member of the in-house studio band of the seminal Memphis label Stax Records. Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84. The musician, who played on and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died on Wednesday in the city of Nashville. Considered among the best studio bands in soul music, the group Booker T & the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their 1962 track Green Onions. Cropper went on to join the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and played on their popular rendition of Soul Man. "Steve was a beloved guitarist, composer, and producer whose immense talent inspired millions of lives around the world," his family said in a statement. "While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued. A reason for his passing was not disclosed. An associate, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new music. "He's such a wonderful human," Gore commented. "We were lucky to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, right, with peers Sheryl Crow and Eddie Floyd. A Prolific Career Ranked the number two guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper started his career at the Stax label 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 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 considered myself to be a player who focuses on rhythm," 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 are reluctant to repeat the same riff twice." In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and besides 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 "involved in the majority of record released by Stax from late 1961 through 1970". "We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had a roster of artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."