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

The musician, who performed on and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away this past Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Widely regarded among the best studio bands in soul and R&B, the group the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax Records and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and played on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a deeply admired artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a statement.

"While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they added.

A cause of death was not disclosed.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs.

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

A Prolific Career

Voted the second-best guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.

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

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

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

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "involved in virtually every record issued by Stax from 1961 through 1970".

"We would truly spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a very hectic schedule."