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

The artist, who performed on and helped pen Otis Redding's 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 studio bands in the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the historic Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a deeply admired musician, songwriter, and producer whose immense talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a release.

"While we grieve the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they added.

A specific cause was not immediately known.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new music.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Named the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs came together, consisting of 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 player," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They won't even play the same phrase twice."

In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to historical accounts, he was "a part of nearly all record put out by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists we worked with, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."