Jimmy Kimmel’s longtime band leader and childhood friend Cleto Escobedo III has died.

Kimmel broke the news on Instagram Tuesday, telling his followers, “Early this morning, we lost a great friend, father, son, musician and man, my longtime bandleader Cleto Escobedo III. Cleto and I have been inseparable since I was nine years old. The fact that we got to work together every day is a dream neither of us could ever have imagined would come true.”

He added, “To say that we are heartbroken is an understatement.”

According to Page Six, Escobedo was hospitalized last week, which prompted Kimmel to cancel Thursday’s episode to be by his side—solving the “mystery” of why the late-night show ran a repeat episode at the last minute when a new one had been scheduled. The site also reports that E

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