Blues Legend B.B. King Hospitalized in Las Vegas

89-year-old musician, who suffers from Type II diabetes, canceled his tour in October due to health issues

UPDATE: In a message posted to his website Tuesday, King stated, ""I want to thank everyone for their concern and good wishes. I'm feeling much better & am leaving the hospital today."

His daughter Claudette also told the Los Angeles Times Monday that he was hospitalized for dehydration caused by Type II diabetes. He is "feeling much better," she added. 

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B.B. King is battling.

The 89-year-old blues artist, who pulled the plug on the remainder of a tour in October due to health issues, has been hospitalized, his rep confirmed to the Los Angeles Times.

No explanation was given, but TMZ reported earlier today that King was rushed to a hospital near his Las Vegas home over the weekend with a diabetes-related emergency.

King has been a spokesman for diabetes awareness after being diagnosed with Type II diabetes more than 20 years ago. He also starred in a commercial for blood-glucose monitor OneTouch Ultra in 2011.

Ranked by Rolling Stone in 2011 as the No. 6 guitar player of all time, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer—whose guitar is famously named Lucille—maintained an active performance schedule until he was forced to cancel his tour last year.

King told The Guardian in October 2012, "I think I've done the best I could have done. But I keep wanting to play better, go further. There are so many sounds I still want to make, so many things I haven't yet done. When I was younger I thought maybe I'd reached that peak. But I'm 86 now, and if I make it through to next month, I'll be 87. And now I know it can never be perfect, it can never be exactly what it should be, so you got to keep going further, getting better."

"I'm slower," he admitted to 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."

(Originally published Monday, Apr. 6, 2015, at 7:34 p.m. PDT.)