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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 artist, who contributed to 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.

Often cited among the best backing bands in soul and R&B, the quartet the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

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

"While we mourn the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued.

A specific cause was not immediately known.

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

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

A Storied Musical Path

Named the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were founded, consisting of keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded 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 seen myself as a rhythm player," Cropper said 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 refuse to play the same phrase twice."

Not only was he 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 "integral to virtually every record released by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would literally spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had nearly 20 artists we worked with, so we had a very hectic schedule."