ANKARA/WASHINGTON
Legendary American guitarist B.B. King, dubbed the “The King of Blues”, died in his sleep Thursday in Las Vegas, his lawyer announced.
He was 89.
He was hospitalized for dehydration in Las Vegas in April after he fell ill in October.
King was known for his hits Lucille, Sweet Black Angel, The Thrill is Gone and Rock Me Baby.
An accomplished guitarist and singer, King – whose real name was Riley B. King – was born in Mississippi in 1925 to a sharecropper. He started his career in the 1940s and released more than 50 albums before he died.
During the course of that time he won 15 Grammy awards, and collaborated with such musicians as Eric Clapton, Guns N' Roses' Slash, and U2.
B.B. was short for Blues Boy, a name he took early on in his career when he was working as a DJ in Memphis, Tennessee.
His music was known for its combination of his steely country voice with a potent mixture of rhythm and biting guitar.
Despite his age, King continued to tour until he fell in October forcing a rare cancellation of his tour. He performed for decades despite living with Type II diabetes.
President Barack Obama hailed the musician saying “blues has lost its king, and America has lost a legend”.
“No one worked harder than B.B. No one inspired more up-and-coming artists. No one did more to spread the gospel of the blues”, he said in a statement.
