Jimmy Kimmel opened Tuesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” with a heartfelt tribute to his childhood friend and late-night bandleader Cleto Escobedo III, who died Tuesday at 59.
“We’ve been on the air for almost 23 years, and I’ve had to do some hard monologues along the way,” Kimmel 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.”
As Kimmel recalled his lifelong friendship with Escobedo, photos from their childhood together in Las Vegas appeared on screen. Escobedo’s father, who is in Kimmel’s band, and mother were in attendance Tuesday night. They were visibly moved by the tribute.
“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 explained. “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. My mother used to make me get down on my knees and beg to sleep at his house in front of him. And I would gladly do it, because we were never bored. We were always up to something.”
Kimmel remembered his lifelong companion through stories of childhood mischief before explaining how he brought Escobedo on to “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Kimmel said Escobedo was his first choice to lead his band after landing the show in 2003, although he admitted his pitch of, “‘My best friend from growing up plays the saxophone, he could lead the band,’ didn’t sound good.” Despite his reservations, Escobedo and his dad nailed the audition.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety