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Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84.

The artist, who performed on and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the finest supporting groups in soul and R&B, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and played on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished guitarist, composer, and producer whose extraordinary talent inspired millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a release.

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

A reason for his passing was not released at this time.

A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new songs.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Voted the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

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

The band was honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper remarked in a previous conversation. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They are reluctant to repeat the same riff twice."

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

According to his official biography, he was "integral to the majority of record released by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would literally spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a very hectic schedule."