Jimmy Kimmel breaks down in tears during a tribute to the late Cleto Escobedo III, the leader of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! house band Cleto and the Cletones. On Tuesday, he shared kind words for his best friend, who has been a part of the show since its inception, while emphasizing how difficult it is to process the loss. Kimmel also announced that they will take a couple of nights off to mourn his loss.
Jimmy Kimmel cried on air while mourning best friend’s death
During the opening monologue of his talk show, Kimmel couldn’t hold back his tears over the loss of Escobedo III, who passed away at age 59. His cause of death hasn’t been publicly disclosed yet.
Kimmel paid a tribute in his loving memory during the show’s opening, expressing his grief over losing a dear one. He said, “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.”
Further sharing their friendship story, he added, “We became friends and not just regular friends. We became like 24/7, ‘Mom please let me sleep over,’ kind of friends,” Kimmel recalled. “One summer I slept over at the Escobedo house 33 nights in a row. For real. 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, cause we were never bored. We were always up to something.” He mentioned that they shared all sorts of fun moments, including pranking their neighbors.
Recalling the best time together, he explained, “We had so many adventures; we would laugh so hard; we had our own language that like almost no one else understood; we didn’t have to say anything; we’d sit here at rehearsal every day; we didn’t have to look at each other.”
Furthermore, Kimmel also took to Instagram earlier to announce Escobedo’s demise while sharing kind words.
“To say that we are heartbroken is an understatement,” he wrote.
Originally reported by Shazmeen Navrange on Mandatory.com.
