- published: 16 Mar 2016
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Richard Michael Barrett (born June 22, 1964), better known as Dicky Barrett, is the frontman of Ska punk band The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and the announcer for Jimmy Kimmel Live. Barrett is known for his distinctive loud, gravelly voice.
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Barrett attended Norwood Junior High School and Xaverian Brothers High School in Massachusetts. He left Xaverian Brothers High School and went on to Norwood Senior High Norwood, MA and later Bunker Hill Community College where he met Bosstones drummer Joe Sirois. He now lives in Los Angeles. He has mentioned that he is an Irish Catholic.
Prior to his association with the Bosstones, Barrett played in the local Boston area bands Cheapskates, Toxic Toast (as mentioned in Michael Patrick MacDonald's book "Easter Rising: An Irish American Coming Up from Under"), and Impact Unit.
Barrett has spent the majority of his musical career playing with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. He appeared on eight full-length albums, three EPs and a live album with the Bosstones, as well as touring continuously throughout the world, until the band's announcement of a hiatus in December 2003. The band's 1997 release, Let's Face It, would prove to be the band's biggest break, mostly due to the first single "The Impression That I Get," which charted at number one on the Billboard charts.
Cleto and the Cletones is the moniker of the "house band" on the ABC-TV late-night television program, Jimmy Kimmel Live (2003–present).[citation needed]Cleto Escobedo III is the leader of the sextet, and plays the alto, tenor, and soprano saxophones on the show, as well as occasionally singing both on camera and off (for comedy bits and other musical segments). He grew up as a neighbor of host Jimmy Kimmel in Las Vegas and after briefly attending UNLV, he joined the band Santa Fe (now Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns).
Escobedo's big break came when Paula Abdul invited him to perform with her on tour. Since that time, Escobedo has been based in Los Angeles, and performed on many commercial jingles and also toured with Marc Anthony and Earth, Wind & Fire's Phillip Bailey.
His father, Cleto Escobedo, Jr., also plays tenor and alto saxophones on the show, and has an illustrious past as saxophonist with the groundbreaking late 1960s rock & soul band Los Blues. The band had close ties with The Righteous Brothers, and recorded one album at Chess Records that is out-of-print. Los Blues counted Sammy Davis, Jr. and Elvis Presley as fans. Escobedo, Jr. had hung up his horn until Kimmel called him to join his house band.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.
The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26, 2003, following Super Bowl XXXVII. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios (formerly Touchstone Television). From its premiere until February 4, 2011, the show aired at 12:05 am Eastern Time. The show now airs at Midnight Eastern Time since February 7, 2011.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is no longer truly "live"; instead, it is taped at 7:00 pm Pacific Time on the day of broadcast (two hours before it reaches air on the East Coast), except in the event of reruns. On rare occasions, though, it airs a special live edition, usually after major events like the Academy Awards ceremonies. Until 2009, new episodes aired five nights a week, though currently the Friday episode is now essentially a rebroadcast of a recent episode. On April 14, 2009 after the March sweeps break, the show began broadcasting in 720p HDTV. However, ABC stations that air the show on tape delay due to local programming and do not have the capability to air tape-delayed network programming in HD air the show in 480i SDTV.