Cleto Escobedo III, the saxophonist who has served as bandleader for "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" since the show's debut in 2003 and has remained the late-night host's closest friend since childhood, has died. He was 59.
According to an Instagram post by Kimmel, Escobedo passed away early Tuesday morning. No cause of death was disclosed."Early this morning, we lost a great friend, father, son, musician and man, my longtime bandleader Cleto Escobedo III," Kimmel wrote. "To say that we are heartbroken is an understatement."
The pair's bond stretched back decades to their Las Vegas childhood, where they lived across the street from each other and struck up an instant friendship that would define both of their lives.
"We just met one day on the street, and there were a few kids on the street, and he and I just became really close friends, and we kind of had the same sense of humor. We just became pals, and we've been pals ever since," Escobedo said in a 2022 interview for Texas Tech University's Southwest Collection oral history archive. The two bonded over their shared admiration for David Letterman as children.
After establishing himself as a professional musician with expertise in saxophone, Escobedo toured with Wind and Fire, Phillip Bailey of Earth, and Paula Abdul. He collaborated with artists including Marc Anthony, Tom Scott, and Take Six, before Kimmel envisioned him leading his late-night show.
Their collaboration became one of daytime television's longest lasting partnerships. In 2016, marking Escobedo's 50th birthday, Kimmel dedicated an on-air segment to reminiscing about their antics as kids, including pranks involving a BB gun and mooning passersby from his mother's car.
When Kimmel launched his ABC talk show, he made recruiting Escobedo a priority, according to an interview Kimmel gave to WABC in 2015. "Of course I wanted great musicians, but I wanted somebody I had chemistry with," Kimmel said. "And there's nobody in my life I have better chemistry with than him."
He added that Escobedo had a bicycle with a sidecar attached to it, which they called the side hack. “I would get in the sidecar and then Cleto would drive me directly into garbage cans and bushes,” he said.
The younger Escobedo eventually convinced Kimmel to hire his father, who plays tenor and alto saxophones in the house band. In January 2022, the father-and-son duo marked nearly two decades of performing together on-screen.
"I'd invite him to gigs, and if he didn't have anything to do, he'd come check it out, so he knew my guys," Escobedo said of Kimmel's support before fame in the 2022 interview. "Then he just said, 'Hey, man, what about your dad? Wouldn't that be kind of cool?' I was like, 'That would be way cool.'"
Thursday's episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" was canceled, with guests David Duchovny, Joe Keery, and Madison Beer set to appear.
Escobedo is survived by his wife, Lori, and their two children.
"The fact that we got to work together every day is a dream neither of us could ever have imagined would come true. Cherish your friends and please keep Cleto's wife, children, and parents in your prayers," Kimmel wrote.