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Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84.

The guitar virtuoso, who played on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.

Often cited among the best backing bands in soul and R&B, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax Records and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and played on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent impacted generations around the world," his family stated in a message.

"While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they noted.

A cause of death was not immediately known.

A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs.

"He's such a good human," Gore said. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."

An Illustrious Journey

Voted the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were founded, comprising keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always seen myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They refuse to play the same phrase twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to historical accounts, he was "involved in nearly all record put out by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would often spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had a roster of artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."