Guitarist Steve Cropper joins Nashville's Walk of Fame

Steve Cropper says when he’s out to lunch or picking up some groceries, “Other people notice it before I do.”

“They say, 'Do you hear that?' And I say, 'Hear what?'”

Then, he’ll hear it. It’s him. His guitar, sliding up and down its neck at the beginning of Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man.”

“Play it, Steve!” Sam Moore exclaims on the 1967 recording, as Cropper’s guitar lets out a high howl.

Other times, he can’t help but notice. His father-in-law’s ringtone is “Green Onions,” an instrumental classic Cropper cooked up with his bandmates in Booker T. and the M.G.’s. Or he’ll start his car, and the oldies station will be playing Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour,” which he co-wrote. A visit to London’s famed Harrods department store also springs to mind.

“I walked in and in two steps, they were playing ‘Knock On Wood,’” he recalls with a laugh. “I said, "Man, there's gotta be some spies around here!’”

Though Cropper is revered by guitar players, record collectors and fellow rock legends, those recordings for Memphis’ Stax Records are more famous than he is. On Tuesday, he’ll get a deserved turn in the spotlight.

The 73-year-old Nashville-area resident will receive a star on the Music City Walk of Fame alongside Johnny Cash, Miranda Lambert and executive E.W. “Bud” Wendell. The city is saluting him as the co-writer of “some of music’s biggest classics,” including Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.”

Cropper was part of Redding’s first recording session at Stax Studio, 1962’s “These Arms of Mine.”

“Golly, he opened his mouth, and that was the end of that,” he recalls.

At this point, he knows the backstories as well as the songs themselves, and is happy to share them with the countless fellow musicians who’ve asked over the years. Still, the enormity of some of those tunes is “even hard for me to grasp.”

“It's hard to explain to somebody that (with) "Green Onions" and "Dock of the Bay," there was no difference in the studio. You'd put the same energy and the same effort into (each song). Kids would come up and say, 'Man, how'd you play the lick on so-and-so?' And I'd say, 'I don't remember.' What they don't understand is I played on 150, 200 songs since that song.’”

And Cropper kept playing. He was a key musical force for The Blues Brothers (“Play it, Steve,” shouts John Belushi on their 1978 performance on “Saturday Night Live.”) In 1992, Booker T. & the M.G.’s were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and they backed Bob Dylan at his all-star 30th anniversary concert. Neil Young brought them on his world tour the following year.

He’s now called Nashville home for close to 30 years – after meeting his wife, Angel, at Maude’s Courtyard during a quick trip to town. He likes that he’s only “eight minutes from the studio,” and is currently set up in Studio C at the historic RCA Studio on Music Row. Between playing a special 50th anniversary celebration for the RCA Studio on Saturday, and his Walk of Fame induction, Cropper was looking forward to a low-key session for rising country artist Rainey Qualley.

Studio A celebrates past, looks to future

“I enjoy being in the studio, not because it's secluded. That's just what I like to do,” he says. “When I'm recording, I know that there's a million ears out there that may hear what I'm doing. So I'd better play something that they're going to like.”

The Walk of Fame induction ceremony takes place at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, at Walk of Fame Park (Demonbreun Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues south). It's free and open to the public. Learn more at visitmusiccity.com/walkoffame.