Jimmy Kimmel breaks down in tears honoring late best friend Cleto Escobedo

Jimmy Kimmel broke down in tears while paying tribute to his childhood best friend, Cleto Escobedo III, after his death Tuesday.

“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,” the emotional comedian told his audience on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Tuesday.

Kimmel then shared how he and Escobedo became inseparable after they met as neighbors in Spring Valley, Nev., in 1977.

“There was a boy who lived down my block … lived across the street and two houses over. His name was Cleto but we all called him Jr.,” the talk show host shared.

“We had so many adventures. We would laugh so hard. We had our own language that like, almost no one else understood,” Kimmel, 57, recalled of their childhood.

“We didn’t have to say anything. We’d sit here at rehearsal every day. We didn’t have to look at each other. I knew he was thinking about looking at me and I was thinking about looking at him.”

Kimmel also gushed over his late pal’s musical skills, saying Escobedo was a “child prodigy who would get standing ovations in junior high school.”

When the award show host started his eponymous talk show in January 2003, he called Escobedo to lead the band.

“Everyone loves Cleto … everyone here at the show,” he said as he sobbed. “We are devastated by this. It’s not … It’s just not fair.”

During Kimmel’s heartbreaking 20-minute tribute, Cleto’s mother, Sylvia Escobedo, was in the audience, as the late musician’s father, Cleto Escobedo II, was on stage playing with the band.

“I want to thank Cleo’s parents, Cleo and Sylvia, for making him and for sharing him with me and with all of us and for treating me like their own son, always,” Kimmel said.

As Page Six reported, Cleto died on Tuesday after complications stemming from a liver transplant. He was 59.

We were told that the band leader was hospitalized last week and Kimmel canceled his taping last Thursday at the last minute to be by his friend’s side.

Cleto was the leader of his band, Cleto and the Cletones, for nearly 23 years. His father played the tenor and alto saxophone alongside his son.

Due to the Kimmel’s heartbreaking loss, he has canceled his late-night talk show on Wednesday and Thursday.