The guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Steve Cropper, died at 84.
Pitchfork and The Associated Press reported that Soulsville Foundation president and CEO Pat Mitchell Worley told the AP that Cropper’s family confirmed the news to her, but did not share a cause of death. He was 84. He also acted as the producer of many of these records. He was later a member of the Blues Brothers band.
Cropper was an original member of the Stax Records house band Booker T. & the M.G.’s, alongside organist Booker T. Jones, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, and drummer Al Jackson Jr. His guitar can be heard on recordings by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Carla and Rufus Thomas. In addition to backing up other artists, Booker T. and the M.G.’s released instrumental records under their own name—the best known of which is 1962’s “Green Onions.” They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
Cropper was born in Missouri and raised in Memphis, where he first picked up a guitar at the age of 14. In high school, he played in a band called the Royal Spades, who were signed to Stax Records when it was still called Satellite Records. Changing their name to the Mar-Keys, the outfit became the fledgling label’s first house band. They landed a hit single in 1961 with “Last Night.”