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Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned 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 Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died recently in the city of Nashville.

Considered among the finest supporting groups in the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the resident studio band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and performed on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose immense talent touched countless people around the world," his family expressed in a message.

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

A reason for his passing was not immediately known.

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

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

A Storied Musical Path

Named the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs came together, consisting of organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

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

"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They won't even 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 "integral to nearly all record issued 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 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."