Steve Cropper, musician of Booker T and the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84

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

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

Considered among the finest supporting groups in the history of soul music, the four-piece band the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and featured on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished musician, songwriter, and producer whose immense talent touched 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 be remembered through his music," they continued.

A specific cause was not disclosed.

An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new music.

"He's such a wonderful human," Gore said. "We were lucky 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 first found employment at Stax Records 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 succeeded 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 guitarist," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They refuse to play the same riff twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a productive 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 "a part of nearly all record put out by Stax from the fall of 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would truly spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."