He is a drummer born Clement Bozewski in Bayonne, New Jersey, to a musical family where his father was also a drummer in his family’s band.
He started learning the drums at school and was a member of his school orchestra until they asked him to leave. He went from there to playing in a drum & bugle corps, which he still credits for much of his basic drumming expertise, and gave that up when he started his first band while still in high school.
In 1974 he was asked to join Debbie Harry and Chris Stein when they were setting up the New Wave band, Blondie , and with them he saw immense success for the rest of the ’70s, the early ’80s and after they regrouped in the 1990s. After Blondie had split up in the 1980s he and Nigel Harrison from the group were in a band called Chequered Past, and he would also become a drummer for artists that include the Eurythmics, The Tourists, Iggy Pop, Dramarama, Bob Dylan , Pete Townshend and Joan Jett.
From 1990 to 2004 he performed on a regular basis with the group The Romantics. In 1987 he became known as “Elvis Ramone” when he appeared with The Ramones at two of their concerts and he would re-assume that name again in 2004 for the “Ramones Beat Down on Cancer” concert. During the 2000s he has regularly worked with Nancy Sinatra and Blondie , appeared on the album Twang Bang by Danny Freeman and is a member of Slinky Vagabond who made their debut concert in May 2007.
In 2008 he completed a study for the Universities of Chichester and Gloucestershire that spanned 8 years to analyse the stamina required along with the psychological and physical effects of drummers. This led to Clem being given an honorary doctorate by the University of Gloucestershire in 2011. That same year he also formed The International Swingers who released their first album in 2015.
Not too much later on he was a founder of the Split Squad who he toured with and recorded Now Hear This… which appeared on the shelves in January 2014. Later in 2014 he co-founded the Empty Hearts and they released their self-titles album in August of that year.
Blondie recordings
Heart of Glass (Debbie Harry/Chris Stein )
11:59 (Jimmy Destri )
Here he is playing the drums for the Eurythmics on their “Here Comes the Rain”…
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