Jimmy Kimmel’s best friend and band leader Cleto Escobedo dies

Jimmy Kimmel’s band member and lifelong best friend Cleto Escobedo has died. He was 59.

We hear that house band leader Escobedo had complications stemming from a liver transplant.

“Early this morning, we lost a great friend, father, son, musician and man, my longtime bandleader Cleto Escobedo III,” Kimmel posted on Instagram Tuesday.

“To say that we are heartbroken is an understatement. Cleto and I have been inseparable since I was nine years old. The fact that we got to work together every day is a dream neither of us could ever have imagined would come true. Cherish your friends and please keep Cleto’s wife, children and parents in your prayers.”

We hear Escobedo was hospitalized last week, with Kimmel canceling his Thursday episode last minute to be by Escobedo’s side.

Kimmel and the musician, who toured with Earth, Wind and Fire and Paula Abdul, became friends in their hometown of Las Vegas when the late night host was nine-years-old.

They reportedly grew up across the street from one another and had their own band.

In a past interview, Esobedo said that the young pals “were like-minded on what we thought was funny.”

They spent time playing baseball, football, having sleepovers and going fishing with Escobedo’s father.

When Kimmel got his show in 2003, he fought hard to get Escobedo to be part of it.

“I was nervous, because I thought they’d say ‘we don’t want your friend to be the band leader,’” Kimmel told ABC. “So I took the president of ABC to see him play with his band, 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.”

Escobedo had said of his role: “Jimmy is very loyal to his friends. He didn’t have to ask me; I would have understood if he had hired some famous guy to be his musical director. But he trusted me, and I don’t take it for granted.”

Escobedo’s father also plays in the house band, coming out of retirement for the gig after giving up music to raise his son.

“For me, as the father of young children, this is the perfect job,” he said. “I can do other things if I want. But I want to stay here as long they will have me. I will always stay by Jimmy’s side.”