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Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.

The musician, who contributed to and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed recently in the city of Nashville.

Considered among the greatest studio bands in soul and R&B, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is most famous for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a deeply admired musician, songwriter, and producer whose profound talent impacted generations around the world," his family stated in a message.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we find comfort knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued.

A specific cause was not released at this time.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing fresh material.

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

A Prolific Career

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 were formed, consisting of keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

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

"I've always considered myself to be a player who focuses on rhythm," 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 won't even play the same riff twice."

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

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

"We would literally spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had nearly 20 artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."