Update April 7, 11:30 p.m. EDT
"A Message from B.B.
""I want to thank everyone for their concern and good wishes. I'm feeling much better & am leaving the hospital today.'"
Update April 7, 5:47 a.m. EDT
B.B. King's daughter, Claudette, told the Los Angeles Times that her father "is much better" after being hospitalized for dehydration caused by his Type II diabetes.
Update April 6, 11:14 p.m. EDT
According to TMZ, B.B. King was taken to a Las Vegas hospital over the weekend for a diabetes-related illness. According to one TMZ source, the issue is diabetes-related dehydration. King's reps confirmed that King remains at the hospital near his Vegas home.
B.B. King's representatives confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that the legendary bluesman has been hospitalized for an undisclosed ailment.
King, born Riley B. King, has battled Type II diabetes for more than 20 years. There has been no confirmation if diabetes led to the 89-year-old's hospitalization.
In October 2014, King's website released a statement after the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer fell ill during a performance at the House of Blues in Chicago. "He was immediately evaluated by a doctor and diagnosed with dehydration and suffering from exhaustion whereby causing the eight remaining shows of his current tour to be cancelled," the statement read.
King has recently cut back his shows per year from about 300 to 100. "I'm slower," King told Rolling Stone last year. "As you get older, your fingers sometimes swell. Now you understand what I'm trying to say? So that do happen sometimes, but I've never missed a job from having this happened and I've never missed...let's see...I've missed 18 days in 65 years. Sometimes guys will just take off; I've never done that. If I'm booked to play, I go and play."
"The crowds treat like my last name," King continued. "When I go onstage people usually stand up, I never ask them to, but they do. They stand up and they don't know how much I appreciate it."
King was booed in April 2014 in St. Louis when a performance "included only a handful of complete songs amid musical snippets, long-winded soliloquies and a 15-minute sing-along of 'You Are My Sunshine' with the house lights inexplicably up," according to Billboard. King was 88-years-old at the time of that show.
Some of King's top hits include "Three O'Clock Blues," "Let the Good Times Roll" and "When Love Comes to Town."
