Jimmy Kimmel paid an emotional tribute to Cleto Escobedo III, the leader of his in-house band, who died on November 11 at the age of 59.
The TV personality initially broke the news on Instagram, writing: “Early this morning, we lost a great friend, father, son, musician and man, my longtime bandleader Cleto Escobedo III. To say that we are heartbroken is an understatement.”
On that day’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the host broke down as he paid tribute to his lifelong friend. “We’ve been on the air for almost 23 years, and I’ve had to do some hard monologues along the way,” he said, crying. “But this one’s the hardest because late last night, early this morning, we lost someone very special who was much too young to go, and I’d like to tell you about him, if you don’t mind.”
“There was a boy who lived on my block. He lived across the street and two houses over. He was a little over a year older than me. His name was Cleto, but we all called him junior,” Kimmel continued. “Eventually, we met and became friends. And not just regular friends. We became 24/7, ‘Mom, please let me sleep over, please,’ kind of friends. One summer, I slept over at the Escobedo house 33 nights in a row.”
He then described how, when he got to host his late-night show, he pushed hard to get Escobedo cast as the bandleader, forming Cleto And The Cletones, which included his father Cleto Escobedo Jr. Kimmel recalled their audition for an executive. “Lloyd (Braun, former chairman of ABC) saw it. He saw the father and son. He said, ‘I love it!’ And he got up and left. And we’ve been working together every day for almost 23 years.”
He concluded: “Everyone here at the show we are devastated by this. It’s just not fair. He was the nicest, most humble, kind and always funny person.” The host also added that the show would be taking “the next couple of nights off” to mourn his passing.
Escobedo performed on the show from its inception in 2003 to his death, writing the theme tune with Kimmel’s brother Jonathan and Les Pierce. He is survived by his wife Lori and their two children.
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