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Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.

The guitar virtuoso, who performed on and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in Nashville.

Widely regarded among the greatest supporting groups in soul music, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

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

"Steve was a beloved artist, writer, and producer whose extraordinary 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 are consoled knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued.

A cause of death was not disclosed.

A friend, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on fresh material.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Voted the second-best guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs came together, featuring organist 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 player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They won't even play the same lick twice."

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

According to historical accounts, he was "integral to nearly all record put out by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would often spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."