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

The musician, who performed on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed recently in Music City, Nashville.

Widely regarded among the finest studio bands in soul and R&B, the group Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the resident studio band of the historic Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the comedy music group 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 millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a message.

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

A cause of death was not released at this time.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on fresh material.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Voted the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career 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 entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always seen myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper remarked in a previous conversation. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They won't even play the same lick twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "a part of nearly all record put out by Stax from 1961 through 1970".

"We would truly spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."