{"id":49768,"date":"2025-11-12T01:28:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T07:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=49768"},"modified":"2025-11-12T03:30:25","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T09:30:25","slug":"jimmy-kimmels-bandleader-cleto-escobedo-iii-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=49768","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy Kimmel’s bandleader Cleto Escobedo III dies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jimmy Kimmel’s bandleader, and childhood friend, Cleto Escobedo III died on Tuesday morning, Kimmel<\/a> announced on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Escobedo, who led the band Cleto and the Cletones on Kimmel’s show<\/a> “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was 59.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No cause of death was provided.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Early this morning, we lost a great friend, father, son, musician and man, my longtime bandleader Cleto Escobedo III,” wrote Kimmel in an Instagram post<\/a> on Tuesday. “To say that we are heartbroken is an understatement. Cleto and I have been inseparable since I was nine years old.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kimmel continued, “The 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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kimmel reflected on his relationship with Escobedo in a 2016 segment <\/a>celebrating Escobedo\u2019s 50th birthday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He explained he met Escobedo in 1977 after moving to Las Vegas, when Escobedo became his neighbor. In the birthday tribute, Kimmel discussed his early relationship with Escobedo, and shared photos of the pair in their youth.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 2021 interview<\/a> with “Jimmy Kimmel Live’s” Guillermo, Escobedo discussed his rise to working on Kimmel\u2019s show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I was in Atlanta, and Jimmy called and said \u2018Hey man, I think I\u2019m gonna have this show. Do you wanna be my bandleader?’ Of course I was like ‘Yes.’\u2019\u201d Escobedo said. “It\u2019s been the best gig ever.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABC News has reached out to a representative for Kimmel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jimmy Kimmel’s bandleader, and childhood friend, Cleto Escobedo III died on Tuesday morning, Kimmel announced on social media. Escobedo, who led the band Cleto and the Cletones on Kimmel’s show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was 59. No cause of death was provided. “Early this morning, we lost a great friend, father, son, musician and man, my longtime bandleader Cleto Escobedo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":49769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[35242,24572,2659],"class_list":["post-49768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-cleto","tag-jimmy","tag-kimmel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49770,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49768\/revisions\/49770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}