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Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has left us 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 Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.

Considered among the best studio bands in soul music, the group the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper later became a member of the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and played on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent touched generations around the world," his family expressed in a release.

"While we grieve the loss of a loved one and companion, we find comfort knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.

A specific cause was not disclosed.

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

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

A Storied Musical Path

Named the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper first found employment 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 replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

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

"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They refuse to play the same lick twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative 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 "a part of virtually every record issued by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would often spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had nearly 20 artists we worked with, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."