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Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.

The musician, 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 the city of Nashville.

Widely regarded among the greatest supporting groups in the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax 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 1970s and played on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a deeply admired musician, songwriter, and producer whose immense talent inspired countless people around the world," his family stated in a message.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they noted.

A reason for his passing was not immediately known.

An associate, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new music.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Ranked the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs came together, comprising keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded 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 explained in a previous conversation. "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 won't even play the same lick twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside 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 "a part of the majority of record put out by Stax from late 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."