Clifford was raised in Harlingen, Texas where he began playing in 1963. Cliff took traditional guitar lessons for a while but when the Beatles played on the Ed Sullivan Show everything changed. Cliff began playing guitar and sang with different bands in junior high with names like The Aristocrats, The Poor Boys, The Chapter Four,  Bloomfield Bloom, Progress Kalendar Company, The Good Deeds, and Quintin and the Lark. (Quintin was the P A and the band was the Lark) Cliff first met Retro Rocker David Hill when David was playing with The Boxx around this time.  In his senior year in high school Cliff played bass and sang with a new band, Finnwood.  Along with Mikel Leff, Finnwood recorded several original songs at the well-known recording studio owned by Jimmy Nichols Pharaoh Records in McAllen.  A contract was discussed but the music was never released.  In April of 1971, Finnwood opened for ZZ Top in Harlingen.  After high school, in the early 70's, he was part of a band called Woody's Truck Stop featuring David Hill (a current member of the Retro Rockers) on sax, flute and guitar along with Mike Junkin (an original member of the Retros)where he played acoustic guitar and sang. Woody's Truck Stop went through many changes after the exit of David Hill and would eventually become Wildwood in the early 80's with the return of David Hill and the help of Danny McKenna playing mostly country music.  Wildwood played country music for well over 20 years and opened for such notables as Charlie Daniels, Waylon Jennings, and Johnny Rodriguez.  Cliff then went on to form the Retro Rockers in 1986.