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

The guitar virtuoso, who performed on and helped pen 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 the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the resident studio band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is primarily known for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent impacted generations around the world," his family said in a statement.

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

A reason for his passing was not disclosed.

A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned 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 kind human," Gore remarked. "We were blessed to have him, for sure."

An Illustrious Journey

Voted the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment at the Stax label 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 replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always seen myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper explained 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."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a productive 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 issued by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would often spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."