Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel started his Tuesday night monologue with a tearful tribute to his childhood friend and his show's band leader, Cleto Escobedo III.
During a taping of Tuesday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel got emotional when he told the audience, “I've had to do some hard monologues along the way, but this will this one's the hardest because late last night, early this morning, we lost someone very special who was much too young to go.”
Kimmel, 57, said the two worked together on his show every day for almost 23 years.
“He was proud of me. He loved me. He loved seeing all of this happen, being a part of it. He never took it for granted,” the comedian said of his friend.
Kimmel said he and his team will be taking the next couple of nights off. It’s unclear when Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return.
Kimmel announced the death of Escobedo on Instagram earlier Tuesday.
“Early this morning, we lost a great friend, father, son, musician and man, my longtime bandleader Cleto Escobedo III,” Kimmel wrote.
“To say that we are heartbroken is an understatement. Cleto and I have been inseparable since I was nine years old. The fact that we got to work together every day is a dream neither of us could ever have imagined would come true.
“Cherish your friends and please keep Cleto’s wife, children and parents in your prayers,” Kimmel concluded.
Escobedo’s cause of death has not been released. He was quietly absent from the show for months before his death.
Kimmel’s show was canceled last Thursday due to Escobedo’s condition, according to Variety.
The Independent has reached out to Kimmel’s show for comment.
The musician fronted Cleto and the Cletones on the late-night talk show since its premiere in 2003. His dad, Cleto Escobedo Jr., is also a member of the band and plays tenor and alto saxophones on the show, which is taped in Los Angeles.
Before his late-night gig, the composer was known for touring with Paula Abdul, Marc Anthony, and Earth, Wind and Fire. After Kimmel and Escobedo became friends while growing up across the street from each other in their hometown of Las Vegas, the pair remained close throughout college and their young adult years.
In 2015, the late-night host told ABC that he convinced the president of the network that Escobedo had to be his band leader after he took the exec to see the musician’s band perform.
“Of course I wanted great musicians, but I wanted somebody I had chemistry with,” Kimmel said at the time. “And there's nobody in my life I have better chemistry with than him.”
Escobedo told the San Fernando Sun in 2014, “Jimmy is very loyal to his friends. He didn’t have to ask me; I would have understood if he had hired some famous guy to be his musical director. But he trusted me, and I don’t take it for granted.”
He said at the time, “For me, as the father of young children, this is the perfect job. I can do other things if I want. But I want to stay here as long they will have me. I will always stay by Jimmy’s side.”
Escobedo is survived by his wife, Lori, and their two children.
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