Queen‘s Brian May and Fleetwood Mac‘s Mick Fleetwood are among the artists paying tribute to the late Booker T. and the M.G.’s guitarist Steve Cropper, who passed away Wednesday at the age of 84.
May, who appeared on Cropper and his band The Midnight Hour‘s 2024 album Friendlytown, wrote on Instagram, “We sadly lost one of the great original guitar heroes last night. Steve Cropper was and always will be an inspiration to all of us who bend electric guitar strings to this day.”
“I was fortunate to meet and work with this genial and generous human being – and we all made sure he heard the words that left him in no doubt of the energy we all felt flow from him, and the debt we owed him,” he noted.
Mick Fleetwood called Cropper a “trailblazing musician” and an “incredible human being.”
“I was blessed to have known and shared the stage with many times,” Mick wrote. “The world of music has lost a shinning gem.”
And Dan Ackroyd, who worked with Cropper in the Blues Brothers, called the guitarist “a musical giant,” adding, “The Blues Brothers would not exist without him. It was an honor to have shared studios and stages with ‘The Colonel’.”
Other musicians who paid tribute to Cropper include The Kinks‘ Dave Davies, retired Whitesnake frontman David Coverdale and guitarist Joe Bonamassa.
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