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

The artist, who performed on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died on Wednesday in the city of Nashville.

Considered among the finest studio bands in soul and R&B, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax and is primarily known for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and featured on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished musician, songwriter, and producer whose extraordinary talent inspired countless people around the world," his family said in a release.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they noted.

A cause of death was not immediately known.

An associate, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating fresh material.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Voted the number two 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 were formed, 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 inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always seen myself as a rhythm player," Cropper remarked 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."

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 available information, he was "integral to virtually every record issued by Stax from the fall of 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would literally spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists we worked with, so we had a very hectic schedule."