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

The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, passed away on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the best studio bands in soul music, the quartet the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is primarily known for their 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 beloved artist, writer, and producer whose extraordinary talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family said in a statement.

"While we mourn the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued.

A specific cause was not immediately known.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating fresh material.

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

A Storied Musical Path

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

A year later, the MGs were founded, 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 past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They refuse to play the same lick twice."

In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to historical accounts, he was "integral to the majority of record released by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had a roster of artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."