🔗 Share this article The iconic guitarist Steve Cropper, member of Booker T and the MGs, dies at the age of 84 Steve Cropper served as a key member of the resident musical group of the seminal Memphis label Stax Records. The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84. The guitar virtuoso, who played on and co-wrote the classic song 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 finest studio bands in soul music, the group the MGs was the resident studio band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions. Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and played on their popular rendition of Soul Man. "Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose extraordinary talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a release. "While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we find comfort knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they continued. A cause of death was not immediately known. A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned 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 blessed to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, right, with peers Sheryl Crow and Eddie Floyd. A Storied Musical Path Named the number two 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, featuring 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 considered myself to be a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They are reluctant to repeat the same riff twice." Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood. According to his official biography, he was "integral to nearly all record released by Stax from the fall of 1961 through the end of 1970". "We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."