Jimmy Kimmel is honoring his late bandleader Cleto Escobedo III .

The comedian dedicated his latest monologue to his best friend—who had led the Jimmy Kimmel Live! band since the show premiered in 2003 and who Jimmy had known since he was nine years old—just hours after sharing that he'd passed away at the age of 59 .

"We've been on the air for almost 23 years and I've had to do some hard monologues along the way," Jimmy began the Nov. 11 episode of his late-night show , "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, and I’d like to tell you about him. If you don’t mind."

The 57-year-old went on to recall growing up on the same block as Cleto in Las Vegas and shared fond memories of their ch

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