Instead of canceling Tuesday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in the wake of the passing of the show’s bandleader Cleto Escobedo III at the age of 59, Jimmy Kimmel chose to devote his entire 22-minute monologue to remembering his lifelong best friend.

Kimmel broke down in tears immediately as he addressed the audience, beginning, “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, and I’d like to tell you about him, if you don’t mind.”

The late-night host went on to talk about their lifelong friendship, starting as kids in Las Vegas, continuing, “There was a boy who lived on my block. He lived across t

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