Steve Cropper, the legendary Booker T. & the MG’s guitarist and beloved member of The Blues Brothers band, has died at the age of 84. The news was confirmed by the Soulsville Foundation, marking the end of an extraordinary era for one of the most influential musicians in American soul and rock history.

Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, shared that Cropper’s family informed her of his passing on Wednesday in Nashville, according to the Associated Press. Soulsville operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music—built on the grounds of the original Stax Records studio—where Cropper spent many of his most formative years and helped craft the unmistakable Memphis soul sound.

As of now, no official cause of death has been released, though longtime associate Eddie Gore shared that the guitarist had recently suffered a fall and was at a rehabilitation clinic the day before his passing. Gore added that Cropper had been working on new music and described him as “such a good human,” saying those who knew him were “blessed to have him.”

A legacy rooted in Memphis soul
Born October 21, 1941, in Dora, Missouri, Steve Cropper moved with his family to Memphis at just nine years old. The city shaped him completely. By his mid-teens, he had already picked up a guitar and immersed himself in the rhythms of black church music and the diverse musical landscape that defined Memphis in the 1950s.Cropper’s playing style became iconic not for flash, but for something far harder to imitate: taste, restraint, groove, and an uncanny instinct for exactly what a song needed—and nothing more. His crisp rhythm patterns and sharp, melodic riffs helped define an entire genre.