Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel announced some sad news for fans of his show on Tuesday: the death of his longtime friend and bandleader, Cleto Escobedo III.
Escobedo, who died Tuesday morning at 59, had been absent from the show for months because of illness.
Although the cause of Escobedo’s death hasn’t been announced, Kimmel posted the news on his Instagram page and said, “To say that we are heartbroken is an understatement.”
Kimmel and Escobedo have a shared history that goes back decades.
“Cleto and I have been inseparable since I was nine years old,” Kimmel explained. “The fact that we got to work together every day is a dream neither of us could ever have imagined would come true.”
Escobedo and Kimmel grew up in Las Vegas across the street from each other, and Kimmel lobbied for Escobedo to be his bandleader when ABC hired him in 2003.
“I wanted somebody I had chemistry with. And there’s nobody in my life I have better chemistry with than him,” Kimmel said later.
In 2016, Kimmel celebrated Escobedo’s 50th birthday on the show and shared memories about their decades-long friendship.
“Cleto had a bicycle with a sidecar attached to it. We called it the side hack. I would get in the sidecar and then Cleto would drive me directly into garbage cans and bushes,” Kimmel recalled on that episode, which can be viewed below.
Kimmel also remembered Escobedo “on the lawn with his BB gun just shooting at me” and that he would “quietly, in the back, slip out of his pants and moon people from the back of our car.”
Music was always part of Escobedo’s life. His dad, Cleto Escobedo Sr., is a professional musician who played the saxophone in his son’s band.
Kimmel told WABC in 2015 that his friend was a “child prodigy.” “Like the whole school would gather to watch. He’d get standing ovations. It was a crazy thing.”
Escobedo turned his childhood hobby into a professional career, touring with acts like Earth, Wind & Fire and Paula Abdul.
Kimmel ended his tribute to Escobedo by asking readers to “cherish your friends and please keep Cleto’s wife, children and parents in your prayers.”
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