Renowned late-night host Jimmy Kimmel is grieving the loss of a cherished friend and colleague, Cleto Escobedo III, the bandleader of his show. Kimmel shared the news of Escobedo’s passing on Instagram, describing the team’s heartbreak. Escobedo was 59.
Their friendship dates back to childhood when Kimmel and Escobedo lived as neighbors in Las Vegas. They formed a close bond, shaped by a shared humor and mutual admiration for David Letterman, as Escobedo recalled in a 2022 interview with Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection oral history archive.
Escobedo’s career as a professional saxophonist saw him touring with music legends like Earth, Wind & Fire’s Phillip Bailey and Paula Abdul. He also collaborated with artists such as Marc Anthony, Tom Scott, and Take Six. When Kimmel launched his late-night talk show on ABC in 2003, he was determined to have Escobedo lead the house band on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“I needed not just talented musicians but someone I shared chemistry with,” Kimmel told WABC in 2015. “There’s no one I connect with better than Cleto.”
Escobedo would grow up to become a professional musician, specializing in the saxophone, and touring with Earth, Wind and Fire’s Phillip Bailey and Paula Abdul. He recorded with Marc Anthony, Tom Scott and Take Six. When Kimmel got his own ABC late-night talk show in 2003, he lobbied for Escobedo to lead the house band on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“Of course I wanted great musicians, but I wanted somebody I had chemistry with,” Kimmel told WABC in 2015. “And there’s nobody in my life I have better chemistry with than him.”
In 2016, on Escobedo’s 50th birthday, Kimmel dedicated a segment to his friend, recalling pranks with a BB gun or mooning people from the back of his mom’s car.
“Cleto had a bicycle with a sidecar attached to it. We called it the side hack. I would get in the sidecar and then Cleto would drive me directly into garbage cans and bushes,” Kimmel recalled.
News of Escobedo’s death comes after Thursday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was abruptly canceled. David Duchovny, Joe Keery and Madison Beer were set as the show’s guests. The date and cause of Escobedo’s death weren’t immediately known.
Escobedo’s father is also a member of the Kimmel house band and plays tenor and alto saxophones. In January 2022, the father-son duo celebrated nearly two decades of performing on-screen together.
“Jimmy asked me, ‘Who are we going to get in the band?’ I said, ‘Well, my normal guys,’ and he knew my guys because he had been coming to see us and stuff before he was famous, just to come support me and whatever. 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 recounted 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.’”
In the 2022 interview, Escobedo said the bandleader job had one major benefit: family time.
“Touring and all that stuff is fun, but it’s more of a young man’s game. Touring, also, too, is not really conducive for family life. I’ve learned over the years, being on the road and watching how hard it is, leaving your kids for so long. Sometimes they’re babies; you come back and then they’re talking, it’s like, ‘What?’” he said.
Escobedo’s survivors also include 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.
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