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

The guitar virtuoso, who performed on and collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Often cited among the greatest studio bands in soul music, the four-piece band Booker T & the MGs was the resident studio band of the influential Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and performed on their hit cover 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 loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they continued.

A reason for his passing was not released at this time.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new music.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Voted the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were formed, consisting of organist 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 thought of myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper said in a past interview. "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 refuse to play the same phrase twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "integral to nearly all record issued by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would often spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."