{"id":372612,"date":"2025-11-11T23:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T23:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/372612\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T23:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T23:32:12","slug":"jimmy-kimmel-bandleader-cleto-escobedo-iii-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/372612\/","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel bandleader Cleto Escobedo III dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel<\/a> is mourning the death of one of his oldest friends \u2014 his show\u2019s bandleader, Cleto Escobedo III. <\/p>\n

Kimmel announced Escobedo\u2019s death Tuesday on Instagram, saying \u201cthat we are heartbroken is an understatement.\u201d Escobedo was 59. <\/p>\n

Escobedo and Kimmel met as children in Las Vegas,<\/a> where they grew up across the street from each other. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just met one day on the street, and there were a few kids on the street, and him and I just became really close friends, and we kind of had the same sense of humor. We just became pals, and we\u2019ve been pals ever since,\u201d Escobedo said in a 2022 interview for Texas Tech University\u2019s Southwest Collection oral history archive, disclosing that he and Kimmel were huge fans of David Letterman as kids.<\/p>\n

Escobedo would grow up to become a professional musician, specializing in the saxophone, and touring with Earth, Wind and Fire\u2019s Phillip Bailey and Paula Abdul.<\/a> 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 \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I wanted great musicians, but I wanted somebody I had chemistry with,\u201d Kimmel told WABC in 2015. \u201cAnd there\u2019s nobody in my life I have better chemistry with than him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, on Escobedo\u2019s 50th birthday, Kimmel dedicated a segment to his friend, recalling pranks with a BB gun or mooning people from the back of his mom\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

\u201cCleto 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,\u201d Kimmel recalled.<\/p>\n

News of Escobedo\u2019s death comes after Thursday\u2019s episode of \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d was abruptly canceled. David Duchovny, Joe Keery and Madison Beer were set as the show\u2019s guests. The date and cause of Escobedo\u2019s death weren\u2019t immediately known.<\/p>\n

Escobedo\u2019s father is also a member of the Kimmel house band and plays tenor and alto saxophones. In January 2022, the father-son duo celebrated<\/a> nearly two decades of performing on-screen together. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Cleto<\/p>\n

Cleto Escobedo III, left, and Guillermo Rodriguez from Jimmy Kimmel Live arrive at the Imagen Awards on Aug. 12, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo\/Vince Bucci, File)<\/p>\n

Cleto Escobedo III, left, and Guillermo Rodriguez from Jimmy Kimmel Live arrive at the Imagen Awards on Aug. 12, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo\/Vince Bucci, File)<\/p>\n

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\u201cJimmy asked me, \u2018Who are we going to get in the band?\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, my normal guys,\u2019 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\u2019d invite him to gigs, and if he didn\u2019t have anything to do he\u2019d come check it out, so he knew my guys,\u201d Escobedo recounted in the 2022 interview. \u201cThen he just said, \u2018Hey, man, what about your dad? Wouldn\u2019t that be kind of cool?\u2019 I was like, \u2018That would be way cool.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 2022 interview, Escobedo said the bandleader job had one major benefit: family time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTouring and all that stuff is fun, but it\u2019s more of a young man\u2019s game. Touring, also, too, is not really conducive for family life. I\u2019ve learned over the years, being on the road and watching how hard it is, leaving your kids for so long. Sometimes they\u2019re babies; you come back and then they\u2019re talking, it\u2019s like, \u2018What?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Escobedo\u2019s survivors also include his wife Lori and their two children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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\u2019s wife, children and parents in your prayers,\u201d Kimmel wrote.<\/p>\n