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The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.

The musician, who played on and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in Nashville.

Often cited among the finest supporting groups in soul music, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and performed on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent touched countless people around the world," his family expressed in a release.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a family man and friend, we find comfort knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.

A cause of death was not immediately known.

A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new music.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Voted the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper started his career at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were founded, 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 honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They are reluctant to repeat the same lick twice."

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

According to his official biography, he was "a part of the majority of record issued by Stax from 1961 through 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."