Cleto Escobedo III, childhood friend of Jimmy Kimmel’s band leader and host, dies at age 59

• Timothee Chalamet, Billie Eilish, Charli XCX: How ‘Remy’s Delicious Restaurant’ and Justin Bieber fans became the new pop generation’s favorite photographer
• do you remember? 90’s heartthrob twins become successful brokers in the US and boast luxury: “partners in life”

Escobedo’s band, Creto and the Cretones, appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Since their debut in 2003, their partnership dates back to their childhood in Las Vegas.

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

In a 2013 interview with Variety magazine, Kimmel recalled that Escobedo was a “musical genius.” “When ABC offered me this show, I prayed that they would hire Cleto, and to my surprise, they agreed without even seeing him perform,” he said.

To help the network retain the band, Kimmel took ABC executives (including then-president of entertainment Lloyd Brown) to see Escobedo’s group perform live. “They were impressed and loved the fact that he was my best friend and his father was also in the band,” the presenter said.

Cleto Valentine Escobedo III was born on August 23, 1966 in Las Vegas, the only son of Sylvia Escobedo and Cleto Escobedo Jr. His father was also a saxophonist and would later join the Cretones. Escobedo has often said that his father influenced him to pursue a career in music.

“There was music everywhere,” he said in an interview on the “Jake Feinberg Show” podcast last year. “I clearly remember when my father was performing in Hawaii. I was five years old and I was so moved when I saw the band and my father on stage. I was so excited to hear all the music that I cried.”

With Paula Abdul, Luis Miguel, Marc Anthony

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

Escobedo said the early days of his friendship with Kimmel were full of pranks and foreshadowed things to come. “We used to order taxis from neighbors early in the morning,” he recalls. “We made prank calls. Just normal kids.”

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

“Friendship that lasts a lifetime”

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

When Kimmel hired Escobedo to conduct the band, the musician’s father was already retired and working behind the scenes at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The host suggested adding fathers to the group and turning the show into a true 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’m on the show with my son, with my other son. If I’m a little off, Cleto won’t fire me. There’s no other father and son on late night TV.”