For a man who spent almost seven decades in the recording industry, Blues legend B.B. King played his heart out with nearly 200 shows a year well into his '70s. But Thursday night, King passed away after entering hospice, which he announced on May 1, according to BuzzFeed.

King's attorney Brent Bryson confirmed his passing to The Associated Press. He said that King died at 9:40 p.m. Thursday evening in his sleep.

King's legendary career had garnered him 15 Grammys, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and the everlasting respect of fellow musicians such as Eric Clapton and Bo Diddley. Even President Barack Obama had a few words to say in recognition of his talent.

"The blues has lost its king, and America has lost a legend," President Obama said Friday in a statement. "B.B. King ... became the ambassador who brought his all-American music to his country and the world. 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."

In an interview with Tavis Smiley on PBS King revealed what it was like growing up in the south, especially as a black man in times of racial tension. He detailed a moment in Mississippi when he saw a black man being forced up a street to the courthouse where he was lynched.

"I think it scared me more than anything else, because I was maybe a few years older than he was, so he was a boy, and I was scared after seeing them dragging him up the streets," King told Smiley. "I thought that just as had happened to that guy, it could happen to me."

King grew up in Benna, Mississippi, where he worked as a child on a sharecropping plantation.

According to Bustle, King was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, only after being inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980. He recorded his first song in 1946, which was titled "3 O'Clock Blues."