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Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.

The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and collaborated on writing Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the greatest backing bands in the history of soul music, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and performed on their successful version of Soul Man.

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

"While we feel sorrow for 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 immediately known.

An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing fresh material.

"He's such a good human," Gore said. "We were blessed 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 the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were formed, featuring 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 rhythm guitarist," Cropper said 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 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 historical accounts, he was "a part of nearly all record released by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had nearly 20 artists on the roster, so we had a very hectic schedule."