Steve Cropper , the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame guitarist who helped form the “Memphis soul” sound on Stax Records recordings by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Booker T & The M.G.’s, died on Wednesday. He was 84.

Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation that operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone . A cause of death was not immediately available.

“Steve Cropper’s offerings to American music are significant but his contribution to soul and R&B music are immeasurable,” Mitchell Worley said in a statement. “As a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.’s and a cornerstone of the Stax Records sound, his songwriting and guitar work shaped the very language of soul music. A gifted songwriter, pr

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