Cleto Escobedo III, Jimmy Kimmel’s bandleader and childhood friend of the host, has died at the age of 59.

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Escobedo’s band, Cleto and the Cletones, accompanied “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Since their debut in 2003, but their partnership dates back to their childhood in Las Vegas.

“Clito and I have been inseparable since I was 9,” Kimmel wrote on Instagram. “The fact that we work together every day is a dream that none of us ever imagined would come true.”

In an interview with Variety in 2013, Kimmel noted that Escobedo was a “musical prodigy.” “When ABC offered me the show, I prayed that they would let me hire Cleto — and to my surprise, they agreed, even without seeing him perform,” he said.

To ensure the network kept the group, Kimmel took ABC executives—including Lloyd Brown, then head of entertainment—to see a live performance by Escobedo’s group. “They were fascinated and loved the fact that he was my best friend and that his father was also in the band,” the presenter said.

Cleto Valentin Escobedo III was born on August 23, 1966 in Las Vegas, the only child of Sylvia Escobedo and Cleto Escobedo Jr. His father, also a saxophonist, later joined him in Claytons. Escobedo used to say that his father’s influence was crucial for him to pursue his music career.

“There was music everywhere,” he said in an interview on The Jake Feinberg Show last year. “I distinctly remember my dad playing in Hawaii. I was five years old and I was so emotional watching the band and him on stage. I was crying because I was so excited about all that music.”

With Paula Abdul, Luis Miguel and Marc Anthony

Escobedo was studying at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, when he began performing at Strip casinos. His first big break came in 1990, when he auditioned to join Paula Abdul’s touring band. The world tour with the singer resulted in a contract with Virgin Records and performances with other artists, including Luis Miguel and Marc Anthony. He was on tour with Anthony when he received a call from Kimmel inviting him to lead the band for the new program, according to what he said in an oral interview at Texas Tech University in 2022.

Escobedo described the early years of his friendship with Kimmel as filled with hurt — a harbinger of things to come. “We would hail taxis from neighbors in the early hours of the morning,” he recalls. “We had prank calls, normal kids stuff.”

But most of all, he said, they “really loved watching comedy shows, and we were big David Letterman fans when we were kids, so we watched him a lot.”

“A lifetime of friendship”

Kimmel paid tribute to his friend on the show when Escobedo turned 50. “Their lifelong friendship was marked by the kind of torture that only an older brother could give you without getting caught,” he said.

When Kimmel hired Escobedo as his band’s leader, the musician’s father had already retired and was working backstage at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The presenter suggested that he bring his father into the group, turning the program into a real family business.

“I’m in seventh heaven every night,” Cleto Escobedo Jr. told the San Antonio Express-News in 2013. Referring to Kimmel, he added: “I play with my son on a show with my other son. If I miss a few notes, Cleto won’t fire me. There’s no other father and son on late night TV.”