Clem Burke, famed drummer for Blondie, died Sunday. He was 70.

The official Blondie account announced the news of Burke’s death: “It is with profound sadness that we relay news of the passing of our beloved friend and bandmate Clem Burke following a private battle with cancer. 

“Clem was not just a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie. His talent, energy, and passion for music were unmatched, and his contributions to our sound and success are immeasurable. Beyond his musicianship, Clem was a source of inspiration both on and off the stage. His vibrant spirit, infectious enthusiasm and rock solid work ethic touched everyone who had the privilege of knowing him.”

The statement was signed “Debbie, Chris, and the entire Blondie family.”

Burke played on all of Blondie’s albums, from their 1976 self-titled debut to their breakthrough Parallel Lines album in 1978, featuring their chart-topping “Heart of Glass,” 1979’s Eat to the Beat and 1980’s Autoamerican. After the band regrouped in 1997, he appeared on their subsequent albums, 1999’s No Exit, 2003’s The Curse of Blondie, 2014’s Ghosts of Download and 2017’s Pollinator, their final LP to date.

Burke’s passing came as a surprise to many, but his close friends acknowledged he’d been battling cancer for the past few months. In recent years, he and singer Deborah Harry were the only original members of Blondie still touring (both performed at last year’s Cruel World festival in Pasadena), with co-founding member guitarist Chris Stein sidelined by his own health issues.

Burke, a tireless performer who toured with other bands when Blondie was idle, was a founding member of two of his hometown Bayonne, New Jersey’s most popular cover bands, Total Environment and sweet Willie Jam Band, and he had a stint in the renowned Saint Andrew Bridgemen Drum and Bugle Corps.

Recruited by Harry and Stein, Burke joined Blondie in early 1975, as it quickly became one of the breakout bands from the New York punk explosion at clubs like CBGB and Max’s Kansas City. Burke, who helped the band recruit his friend Gary Valentine on bass, cited his own drum influences as Hal Blaine, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr and Earl Palmer in a 1998 article in U.K. rock magazine Mojo.

On finding his own rock superstar to play with, Burke noted in an interview: “I was emphatic that I needed to work with people that I felt had that sort of charisma and creativity. Debbie was amazing. You could sense that immediately. And I’m not talking about just her beauty. I’m just talking about her whole essence as a human being, as a person. I would put her on the same level as [David] Bowie, as far as the things that she comes up with creatively.”

When Blondie took time off from touring and recording in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Burke played drums regularly for the Romantics and sat in with the likes of Pete Townshend, Bob Dylan, Eurythmics, Dramarama, the Fleshtones, Iggy Pop and Joan Jett.  He joined post-punk supergroup Chequered Past in 1983 alongside Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, former Blondie bassist Nigel Harrison, Tony Sales and Michael Des Barres in 1983 and played with the Ramones (as “Elvis” Ramone) for a pair of gigs in August 1987 and with the Go-Go’s on more than one occasion.

Burke also recorded and played live with Wanda Jackson, Nancy Sinatra, Kathy Valentine, Dramarama, Slinky Vagabond and International Swingers (with Sex Pistol Glen Matlock, Generation X’s James Stevenson and Supernaut’s Gary Twinn). In 2014, he formed garage all-star group the Empty Hearts with Romantics lead singer Wally Palmar, Chesterfield Kings bassist Andy Babiuk, the Cars’ guitarist Elliot Easton and Faces pianist Ian McLagan for a self-titled Ed Stasium-produced album on Little Stevie Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool label, managed by Jonathan Wolfson (Daryl Hall).

“Clem was a total force of nature,” says Wolfson. “I even have video of him teaching my son Danny how to play drums.”

“Godspeed Dr. Burke,” the band’s announcement of his passing concluded, a reference to the honorary doctorate he received from the University of Gloucestershire for a drumming project he conducted over the course of eight years analyzing the physical and psychological effects of drumming and the stamina required to play the most demanding of all instruments.

In recent years, frustrated over the time Blondie wasn’t touring, Burke performed in a tribute band, Bootleg Blondie, which wasn’t received all that warmly by his bandmates. Burke told TIDAL in 2022, “It’s a very interesting experience for me, although somewhat controversial, but I’m able to see that the legacy of Blondie is really the songs.”

He was inducted with his Blondie bandmates into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

His frequent collaborator, Michael Des Barres, put it simply in a text: “Like me, he lived for rock ‘n’ roll.”