Jimmy Kimmel Breaks Down in Tears Over Death of Bandleader Cleto Escobedo III

Jimmy Kimmel was in tears Tuesday night remembering his childhood friend and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” bandleader Cleto Escobedo III, who died at just 59.

Page Six reports Escobedo passed away following complications from a liver transplant.

Kimmel told the audience in a 22-minute monologue, "I've had to do some hard monologues along the way. 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.”

Jimmy explained that in 1977, his family moved from Brooklyn to Las Vegas, and he grew up on the same street as Escobedo.

The comedian said, "We became friends, and not just regular friends. We became, like, 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.”

Reflecting on their youth, he went on, “We were never bored. We were always up to something. Whiffle ball on the front lawn. Nerf football in the street. We dressed up as cowboys. We set fire to Hot Wheels. Cleto had a warped secondhand pool table in his garage. We'd shoot pool. We would box for hours in his backyard. In his bedroom, we would box. We definitely gave each other many concussions.”

He added that they liked to “order pizzas to our neighbors” and  “make crank calls,” and even “made up mean songs about our neighbors and friends."

Jimmy confessed, "His parents had a Betamax and HBO which we would use to try to see naked people."

Kimmel went on, "He knew everything about sex, and he taught me all of it. Now, half of everything he taught me was wrong.”

The late-night host later added, "He was so much fun. He was wild. It's funny, because as an adult, he was not wild. He was a dad who, if we did go out, we'd go on a fishing trip. He liked to stay home with his family. He never missed a day of work. But when we were kids, he was stealing fire extinguishers out of motels and shooting kites out of the sky with a shotgun on our block in our neighborhood.”

Jimmy confessed that one time, he had a party while his parents were out of town and Cleto took his girlfriend up to Kimmel’s parents’ room. When Jimmy’s mom and dad got home from vacation, they found a condom wrapper next to their bed. 

Kimmel revealed, “The sad part of the story is my parents came down with this Trojan wrapper. Not for one second did they think it might be mine. They knew it was Cleto’s.”

Jimmy and Cleto’s friendship lasted their whole lives.

He shared, "We had so many adventures. We would laugh so hard. We had our own language that, like, almost no one else understood. We didn't have to say anything… We didn’t have to look at each other. I knew he was thinking about looking at me and I was thinking about looking at him.”

Praising his friend’s talents, Jimmy went on, "Cleto was a phenomenal saxophone player from a very young age. He was a child prodigy who would get standing ovations in junior high school, if you can imagine that.”

Cleto got his big break touring with Paula Abdul and then cut his own album. He went on to tour with Luis Miguel, Mark Anthony and Philip Bailey, as well working in the recording studios.

When Jimmy landed his own late-night show, he recalled, "I wanted Cleto to lead my band. We grew up watching Dave [Letterman] and Paul, and the idea that anyone other than him would lead the band was terrifying.”

Cleto had to audition, and he nailed it. Jimmy shared “and we've been working together every day for almost 23 years now."

As Jimmy began to talk about Cleto’s parents, wife, and children, he began to cry, saying, “Everyone here at the show, we are devastated by this. It's not, it's just not fair. He was the nicest, most humble, kind, and always funny person.”

He ended by thanking the medical staff who took care of Cleto, as well as all the friends and family that had shown support over the past few months.

“Cherish your friends,” Jimmy told the audience.

Kimmel then told the audience, "We're going to take the next couple of nights off, but I wanted to be here tonight to tell you about my friend."