Steve Cropper, Legendary Guitarist, Songwriter and Producer of Some of Soul Music’s Biggest Hits, Dies
by Greg Brodsky
Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper at a 2008 reunion performance.
Steve Cropper, the legendary guitarist, songwriter and producer of many of music’s biggest hits as a member of Booker T & the M.G.’s, the house band for soul label Stax Records, has died at 84. The news was first reported by Variety today (Dec. 3, 2025) via his son, Cameron. The cause of death was not immediately known. While at the Memphis-based label, Cropper co-wrote hits, played guitar behind, and produced such legends as Otis Redding “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay”), Eddie Floyd (“Knock on Wood”), and Wilson Pickett (“In the Midnight Hour”). As the guitarist for the M.G.’s, Cropper, along with the band’s namesake organist Booker T, drummer Al Jackson Jr. and bassist Lewie Steinberg, replaced in 1965 by Donald “Duck” Dunn, performed on hundreds of sessions, shaping the soul of American music.
Jones and Cropper tell the story of how – along with Steinberg and Jackson – they accidentally created a masterpiece. The quartet was booked to record demos, but the scheduled singer arrived too hoarse to record. Instead of packing up, the band stayed and started noodling on a blues riff.
Jim Stewart, the owner of Stax, was engineering the session that day. He liked what he heard and began recording the band without telling them. When they finished, he liked it so much that he wanted to release it immediately as a single. The group agreed and returned to the studio to write and record a B-side for the new song they named “Behave Yourself.”
Back in the studio, Cropper asked Jones to play a riff he’d played during a recent show. Jones recalls the moment: “I’d forgotten those riffs…so I asked Steve to stand next to the organ and help refresh my memory. I played several licks before Steve stopped and shouted, ‘That’s it!’ He identified the opening notes of what would become ‘Green Onions.’ The song burst to life on the spot.”
The next day, Cropper took the then-unnamed B-side to a local deejay who played it on the air four times in a row. The station’s phones lit up with callers asking where they could buy the song. Naturally, “Green Onions” graduated to the A-side, and the rest is history. The single reached #1 on the R&B chart and #3 on the Hot 100.
Among the artists the M.G.’s backed were Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Albert King, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, and Johnnie Taylor. Post-Stax, Cropper produced and/or played on sessions for Jeff Beck, Jose Feliciano, Yvonne Elliman, John Prine, Tower of Power, John Mellencamp, Paul Simon, Ringo Starr, Buddy Guy, Johnny Lang, Elton John, and Steppenwolf, among many, many others.
Beginning in 1978, Cropper and Dunn were among the heavyweight musicians who backed John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as the Blues Brothers band.
Cropper won two GRAMMY Awards from his seven nominations. He’s been ranked the number two greatest guitarist of all-time—behind Jimi Hendrix—by England’s Mojo Magazine, and number 36 in Rolling Stone magazine’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”
Cropper was prominently featured in the 2024’s Stax: Soulsville U.S.A., an HBO Original four-part documentary series. Reflecting back on his life, the iconic musician once said: “When I think about my legacy, I want it to be said that I was a nice guy.”
Born on October 21, 1941, on a farm near Dora, Missouri, Steve Cropper moved with his family to Memphis at the age of nine.
Booker T & the MG’s recordings are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here. The classic Stax logo t-shirt is available here.
Related: Musician and celebrity deaths of 2025
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