Instead of canceling Tuesday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the wake of the passing of the show’s bandleader Cleto Escobedo III at the age of 59, Jimmy Kimmel chose to devote his entire 22-minute monologue to remembering his lifelong best friend.
Kimmel broke down in tears immediately as he addressed the audience, beginning, “We’ve been on the air for almost 23 years, and 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, and I’d like to tell you about him, if you don’t mind.”
The late-night host went on to talk about their lifelong friendship, starting as kids in Las Vegas, continuing, “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. 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 added touches of humor throughout the monologue, talking about the hijinks that he and Cleto would get up to as kids: “We would box for hours in his backyard, in his bedroom — we definitely gave each other many concussions. We would cut off each other’s air supply and knock each other out for fun. We would stay up all night ordering pizzas to our neighbors’ houses and make crank calls. We’d record them with a little microphone attached to a suction cup so we could listen back. We made a rap album like the Beastie Boys — except very bad. We made up mean songs about our neighbors and friends. He’d play piano, I would sing along. His parents had a Betamax and HBO, which we would use to try to see naked people.”
Cleto’s father, Cleto Escobedo Jr., a member of the late-night band Cleto and the Cletones, was also present on Tuesday night’s show, even playing with the band despite losing his son less that 24 hours earlier, as was Cleto’s mother, who sat in the audience.
“Cleto Sr. and his wife Sylvia — Cleto’s mom — have been like my second parents since I was in the fourth grade,” noted Kimmel. “I’ve known them for 47 years. These people never once yelled at me. Not once. They are the best people. Sylvia comes to work here every day, sits in that seat, despite the fact that she does not work here. She does not have a job here. She comes and stays all day to be near her husband and son.”
Throughout the monologue, Kimmel detailed Cleto’s entire career as a professional saxophonist, including touring with Paula Abdul, and releasing a solo album. He also spoke about how Cleto was his only choice to be the bandleader for Jimmy Kimmel Live! when he first got the show.
While he didn’t mention any specific cause of death, Kimmel did reveal that Cleto was battling some sort of illness that had him in the hospital for an extended time. The host thanked all the doctors and nurses who took care of Cleto for the past several weeks.
Kimmel concluded his monologue by saying, “Cherish your friends. We’re not here forever. Thank you for indulging me. We’re going to take the next couple of nights off. But I wanted to be here tonight to tell you about my friend.”
He then came back from commercial to interview Eddie Murphy, whom Kimmel and Cleto both idolized when they were younger. As he noted above, Kimmel will be taking the next couple nights off to mourn his friend.
Watch Jimmy Kimmel’s monologue honoring his dear friend Cleto Escobedo III below.
