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

The artist, who performed on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, died recently in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the best backing bands in soul and R&B, the group the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a deeply admired musician, songwriter, and producer whose profound talent impacted generations around the world," his family expressed in a statement.

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

A specific cause was not released at this time.

An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs.

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

An Illustrious Journey

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 were formed, featuring 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 thought of myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, 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 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 "involved in virtually every record released by Stax from the fall of 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would literally spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had a roster of artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."