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

The guitar virtuoso, who played on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed recently in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the finest supporting groups in soul music, the quartet the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

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

"Steve was a deeply admired guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a message.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they continued.

A reason for his passing was not immediately known.

A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new songs.

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

A Prolific Career

Ranked the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax Records 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 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 considered myself to be a rhythm player," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I get off on 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."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

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

"We would truly spend long days in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists we worked with, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."