Obama lauds B.B.: 'The blues has lost its king'

President Obama paid tribute Friday to the late B.B. King, saying "no one did more to spread the gospel" of blues music.

"The blues has lost its king, and America has lost a legend," Obama said in a written statement.

King, 89, died late Thursday in Las Vegas.

"B.B. King was born a sharecropper's son in Mississippi, came of age in Memphis, Tennessee, and became the ambassador who brought his all-American music to his country and the world," Obama said. "No one worked harder than B.B. No one inspired more up-and-coming artists."

Citing a White House blues concert that he and first lady Michelle Obama hosted three years ago, the president said:

"I hadn't expected that I'd be talked into singing a few lines of 'Sweet Home Chicago' with B.B. by the end of the night, but that was the kind of effect his music had, and still does. He gets stuck in your head, he gets you moving, he gets you doing the things you probably shouldn't do -- but will always be glad you did."

Referencing King's most famous song, Obama added: "B.B. may be gone, but that thrill will be with us forever. And there's going to be one killer blues session in heaven tonight."