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

The guitar virtuoso, who performed on 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 Nashville.

Often cited among the best backing bands in soul music, the group Booker T & the MGs was the resident studio band of the influential Memphis label Stax Records and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent touched countless people around the world," his family said in a message.

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

A specific cause was not disclosed.

An associate, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs.

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

A Prolific Career

Ranked the runner-up for 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 came together, featuring keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced 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 guitarist," Cropper remarked in a previous conversation. "I get off on 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 riff twice."

In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a productive 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 available information, he was "a part of nearly all record put out by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would literally spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."