Jimmy Kimmel Announces Death of Bandleader and Close Friend Cleto Escobedo III

Escobedo, a Las Vegas native, has led “Cleto and the Cletones” for Kimmel’s late night show for more than 20 years. Kimmel moved in across the street from Escobedo in 1977 when the comedian’s parents left New York for sin city.

Kimmel dedicated a segment to Escobedo in 2016 for his friend’s 50th birthday, joking that the two had the type of friendship built on “the kind of torture you can only an older brother can inflict on you without being arrested.”

He teased his friend about times when Kimmel rode in the sidecar of Escobedo’s bicycle just for Escobedo to steer him into trash cans. Kimmel told one story about a time when Kimmel built a go-kart out of wood as child, only to be sabotaged by his buddy.

“Cleto snuck into my garage and glued the steering column left or right,” Kimmel said. “I went right into traffic.”

At the end of the segment, Kimmel shared photos of the two men from their time growing up together. One of the photos was of them playing music together, with Kimmel on the clarinet and Escobedo on the saxophone.

Kimmel told WABC the year before that he knew he had to have Escobedo for his house band in 2003 when “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” first aired. Escobedo was a “child prodigy” who ended up being a professional touring musician, Kimmel said.

So Kimmel took the president of ABC to see Escobedo’s band perform and “he loved it.”

“Of course I wanted great musicians, but I wanted somebody I had chemistry with,” Kimmel said. “And there’s nobody in my life I have better chemistry with than him.”

This story first appeared NBCNews.com.