Jimmy Kimmel and Cleto Escobedo III at Dodger Stadium on October 25, 2024. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Jimmy Kimmel shared his broken heart for 22 minutes with his audience Tuesday night.

The late night host used his “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” monologue to speak about his childhood friend who was also his bandleader. Cleto Escobedo III died at the age of 59 on Tuesday.

“We’ve been on the air for almost 23 years and I’ve had to do some hard monologues along the way, but this one’s the hardest, because late last night, early this morning, we lost someone very special who was much too young to go,” Kimmel said at the open of his show. “And I’d like to tell you about him if you wouldn’t mind.”

He met Escobedo when they were children, after Kimmel’s family moved from Brooklyn to Las Vegas. Esco

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