Jimmy Kimmel paid homage to his late best friend and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” band leader, Cleto Escobedo III , during the “hardest” opening monologue the late-night host said he ever had to deliver.

Kimmel broke down in tears on Tuesday night’s show as he shared intimate details about his “great friend, father, son, musician and man” Escobedo, who died earlier that morning at age 59.

“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,” the 57-year-old late-night host told his audience.

“In 1997, my family moved to Las Vegas. My parents sold our house in Brooklyn, and we moved 3,000 miles across the country.”

Kimmel s

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