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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 artist, who performed on and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed recently in Music City, Nashville.

Often cited among the best backing bands in soul and R&B, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and performed on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a release.

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

A cause of death was not disclosed.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating fresh material.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Ranked the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment 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 player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper said in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They refuse to play the same phrase twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to his official biography, he was "involved in nearly all record issued by Stax from late 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would literally spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a very hectic schedule."