Jimmy Kimmel Back Following Cleto Escobedo III’s Death, Re-Names Band

After taking a few days off to mourn, Jimmy Kimmel was back on the air on Monday night (Nov. 17), less than a week after the death of his lifelong best friend and late Jimmy Kimmel Live! bandleader, Cleto Escobedo III. Longtime viewers of the show likely noticed that when announcer Lou Wilson ran down the night’s guests, Samuel L. Jackson and comedian Ms. Pat, instead of ending with a shout-out to Cleto and the Cletones, Wilson debuted the house band’s subtly tweaked new name: The Cletones.

The small, but significant change was another example of the huge hole left behind by Escobedo’s death on Nov. 11 due to the heart condition cariogenic shock. After a lifetime of friendship beginning when they were neighbors as children in the Las Vegas suburbs, Escobedo had been by Kimmel’s side during the entire run to date of his late night show, beginning in 2003.

Fighting through tears, Kimmel paid loving tribute to his pal during last Tuesday’s show when he announced Escobedo’s passing, calling his 22-minute homage the “hardest” monologue he’s ever had to do. “We loved all the same things. Baseball, fishing, boxing, [Muhammad] Ali, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Woody Allen, Michael McDonald, Huey Lewis, Stevie Wonder, and most of all, we loved David Letterman,” Kimmel said.

“I wanted Cleto to lead my band,” he said of the late night ensemble that also featured Escobedo’s horn-playing father, Cleto Escobedo Sr. “The idea that anyone other than him would lead the band was terrifying. It had to be him. “ was so scared they would say no and I would have to have another band. I had to work up the nerve to bring it up. Because I knew [saying], ‘My best friend from growing up plays the saxophone, he could lead the band,’ wasn’t a great pitch.”

In further tribute to Escobedo, Kimmel announced over the weekend that he has started two fundraisers to celebrate the musician’s life and give back, one for UCLA Health in honor of the care Escobedo received there and The Animal Foundation to honor his “love of animals.”