Booker T. & the MG’s Guitarist Steve Cropper Dies at 84

Steve Cropper — who played guitar for Booker T. & the MG’s , the Blues Brothers , and Otis Redding — has died. He was 84. His son Cameron confirmed the news to Variety . Cropper was a multi-instrumentalist, a songwriter, and the guy John Belushi says “Play it, Steve” to on “Soul Man.”

Cropper was born in Dora, Missouri in 1941. His family moved to Memphis when he was 9, where he first encountered Black church music. Cropper’s relationship with Stax Records began with his first band. The group called themselves the Mar-Keys after the marquee outside the place that would become Stax HQ. He joined Stax house band Booker T. & the MG’s in 1962. He co-wrote “Green Onions,” Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay,” and “Knock on Wood.” Cropper left Stax in 1970 after what Varie