đź”— Share this article Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, member of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died aged 84 Steve Cropper was part of the in-house studio band of the pioneering 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 collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville. Considered among the finest backing bands in the history of soul music, the group the MGs was the house band of the historic Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions. Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their successful version of Soul Man. "Steve was a beloved artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent inspired countless people around the world," his family expressed in a message. "While we mourn the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they continued. A specific cause was not immediately known. A colleague, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs. "He's such a wonderful human," Gore commented. "We were lucky to have him, for sure." Steve Cropper, pictured on the right, with peers Eddie Floyd and Sheryl Crow. A Storied Musical Path Ranked the second-best guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20. A year later, the MGs were founded, consisting of 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 thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper said 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 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 historical accounts, he was "integral to nearly all record issued by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970". "We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."