Steve "The Colonel" Cropper (born October 21, 1941) is an American guitarist, songwriter and producer. As part of the Stax Records house band Booker T. & The MG's, he played on hundreds of recordings by Stax artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla and Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor, also acting as producer on many of these records, and later gained fame as a member of The Blues Brothers band. He has been described as "probably the best-k...
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Steve "The Colonel" Cropper (born October 21, 1941) is an American guitarist, songwriter and producer. As part of the Stax Records house band Booker T. & The MG's, he played on hundreds of recordings by Stax artists such as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla and Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor, also acting as producer on many of these records, and later gained fame as a member of The Blues Brothers band. He has been described as "probably the best-known soul guitarist in the world".
Cropper was born Stephen Lee Cropper in Willow Springs, Missouri, a town near his family's farm outside Dora, Missouri. In 1950, his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. At age ten, he strummed a guitar for the first time, his brother-in-law's Gibson. Cropper received his first guitar at age 14, and started playing with local musicians. His hero at the time was Lowman Pauling of the Winston-Salem, NC band, The Five Royales.
Cropper and guitarist Charlie Freeman formed (as a tip of the hat to Pauling's band)...
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