Jimmy Kimmel is paying tribute to Cleto Escobedo III, his childhood best friend and longtime bandleader for his late night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, who died on Tuesday at 59.
During his 22-minute monologue (below), which he called his “hardest” to date, the host recalled tons of memories he shared with Escobedo over the years. The pair became best friends as children after Kimmel’s family moved in across the street from Escobedo’s home in Las Vegas. Once Kimmel later landed his show at ABC in 2003, he brought Escobedo and his band, Cleto and the Cletones, along since the beginning.
“We had so many adventures,” Kimmel said through tears during Tuesday’s show. “We would laugh so hard. We had our own language that almost no one else understood. We didn’t have to say anything. We’d sit here at rehearsal every day. 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. We look at each other like this and that would be it.”
Kimmel continued, “We loved all the same things. Baseball, fishing, boxing, [Muhammad] Ali, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Woody Allen, Michael McDonald, Huey Lewis, Stevie Wonder, and most of all, we love David Letterman. We never missed David Letterman. And the first time I was on the [Late Show with David Letterman] was in 1999. It was a really big deal for both of us. That afternoon before the show, I was so nervous. I was walking in New York City, just walking fast, trying to burn off the nervous energy, and I called him just so we could be amazed together that this was happening and it was an amazing thing.”
The comedian went on to praise how “phenomenal” a saxophone player Escobedo was from a young age: “He was a child prodigy who would get standing ovations in junior high school, if you can imagine that.” And once ABC hired Kimmel to host Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he knew he had to bring his best friend along for the journey.
“One day in September of 2002, I got a talk show just out of nowhere. I had a meeting with an executive at ABC named Lloyd Braun and he hired me to host this show. And when you do a show like this, you need a few things. You need a desk, you need an announcer, you need a Guillermo and you need a band. And of course, I wanted Cleto to lead my band,” Kimmel explained. “The idea that anyone other than him would lead the band was terrifying. It had to be him. I was so scared they would say no and I would have to have another band.”
Kimmel eventually found the courage to pitch the idea to ABC, and said Escobedo and his father ended up auditioning for the job together.
“Not only did I want Cleto to lead the band, I wanted his dad to be in the band. So, I pitched it to Lloyd,” he recalled. “Cleto and his dad did a special song. They played ‘Pick Up the Pieces’ by the Average White Band, which is two saxophones. And Lloyd saw it. He saw the father and son together. He said, ‘I love it.’ And he just got up and left. And we’ve been working together every day for almost 23 years now.”
An emotional Kimmel added, “I’ve often said that the single best thing about doing this show was getting the opportunity to allow Cleto Senior to pick up where he left off in 1966 and become a musician again with his son.”
The host continued to express how much “everyone loves Cleto,” and that “everyone here at the show, we are devastated.” He also noted that Jimmy Kimmel Live! would be taking a few nights off following Escobedo’s death.
“Even though I’m heartbroken to lose him,” a teary-eyed Kimmel continued, “I’m going to take yet another lesson from him and acknowledge how lucky I was to have him literally at my side for so many years.”
