🔗 Share this article Steve Cropper, musician of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has passed away aged 84 Steve Cropper served as a key member of the in-house studio band of the seminal Memphis label Stax Records. Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has left us at the age of 84. The artist, who performed on and collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed on Wednesday in the city of Nashville. Widely regarded among the greatest backing bands in soul music, the quartet the MGs was the resident studio band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions. Cropper later became a member of the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and played on their hit cover of Soul Man. "Steve was a cherished guitarist, composer, and producer whose extraordinary talent touched countless people around the world," his family said in a message. "While we grieve the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they continued. A reason for his passing 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 good human," Gore remarked. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, right, with peers Sheryl Crow and Eddie Floyd. An Illustrious Journey Ranked the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20. A year later, the MGs were formed, comprising keyboardist 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 considered myself to be a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper said in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They won't even play the same phrase twice." Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood. According to available information, he was "integral to nearly all record put out by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970". "We would often spend long days in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had nearly 20 artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."