Steve Cropper, Blues Brothers guitarist and Stax Records legend, dies at 84
Steve Cropper, Blues Brothers band member and Booker T. & the MG’s guitarist, has died. He was 84.
Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, told the Associated Press that Cropper’s family notified her of his death. Cropper died Wednesday in Nashville, according to Worley.
Worley’s foundation operates at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, where Cropper’s former employer, Stax Records, used to be.
A cause of death for Cropper has not been shared. Eddie Gore, a longtime friend of Cropper, told the outlet that he visited the musician at a rehabilitation center on Tuesday. Gore said that he suffered a recent fall and was working with Cropper on producing new music.
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“He’s such a good human. We were blessed to have him, for sure,” Gore told the outlet.
Cropper was a key figure in shaping the Memphis music scene. Cropper’s name is featured in Sam & Dave’s 1967 hit “Soul Man.” Sam Moore says “Play it, Steve!” before the guitarist takes it away.
In 2020, Cropper spoke to the Associated Press about his career.
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“I listen to the other musicians and the singer. I’m not listening to just me. I make sure I’m sounding OK before we start the session. Once we’ve presented the song, then I listen to the song and the way they interpret it. And I play around all that stuff. That’s what I do. That’s my style,” Cropper said at the time.
Cropper is most known for his time in Booker T. & the MG’s. The band consisted of Cropper, keyboard player Booker T. Jones, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn and drummer Al Jackson. They were a racially integrated band, which was rare for the time.
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“When you walked in the door at Stax, there was absolutely no color. We were all there for the same reason — to get a hit record,” Cropper told AP in 2020.
Cropper was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005.
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