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Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.

The guitar virtuoso, who performed on and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed recently in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the greatest supporting groups in the history of soul music, the quartet the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and played on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a release.

"While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they continued.

A cause of death was not released at this time.

A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Voted the second-best 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 formed, consisting of organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always considered myself to be a rhythm player," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They are reluctant to repeat the same riff 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 co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to his official biography, he was "a part of virtually every record released by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would often spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists we worked with, so we had a very hectic schedule."