Suzanne de Passe likens her many years with Motown as “a lot like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride” at the Disney theme parks.

And she has absolutely no regrets about buying the ticket.

The Harlem-raised de Passe — who will receive the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s prestigious Ahmet Ertegun Award for nonperformers on Oct. 19 in Cleveland — joined the company in 1968 as a creative assistant to Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. and soon became one of its most impactful executives as president of Motown Productions. She met Gordy in New York City via her friend, then-new Supremes singer Cindy Birdsong. The group was in town to perform on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and Gordy needed a ride to an art gallery appointment after his own limousine was called away.

De Passe, as it happened, had a “can’t afford to but have it” car at the ready, and Gordy repaid her kindness with dinner and then “the opportunity of a lifetime.”

“I have had the benefit of getting a launching pad from Motown,” de Passe says from the Los Angeles headquarters of her current venture, the de Passe Jones Entertainment group. “I really, really learned a lot and was able to go out on a limb in some cases, and either rise or fall but never not be in a position of learning and growing.”

It of course “means a lot” to de Passe to receive the same award that Gordy received in 1987. And she’s pleased to be honored the same night as another Motown stalwart and friend — songwriter-producer Norman Whitfield — is receiving an Award for Musical Achievement.

De Passe has amassed a wealth of honors leading up to the Ertegun Award. She was the first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as co-writer of “Lady Sings the Blues.” She won two Emmy Awards as executive producer for the “Motown 15: Yesterday, Today, Forever” special and “Motown Returns to the Apollo,” and Golden Globe and Peabody Awards in the same role for the CBS miniseries “Lonesome Dove.” She also received Emmy nominations for the miniseries “The Jacksons: An American Dream,” “The Temptations,” “Small Sacrifices” and “Buffalo Girls.”

And she’s still going, currently developing an anime studio and with “a lot of other irons in the fire” for other projects — including some rooted in her Motown past.

With the Rock Hall honor looming, however, de Passe — who’s quick to note that “it was always a team effort at the company” — is willing to walk down memory lane and recount some of the greatest adventures of her Motown years.

Easy as 1-2-3

De Passe’s first major project was discovering and developing the Jackson 5, who were brought to her while she was living at 1300 E. Lafayette St., Detroit — where Birdsong, Diana Ross and other Motowners lived at the time.

“Bobby Taylor of the Vancouvers called and asked me to come down to his apartment,” de Passe remembers, “and there, strewn across his living room were these kids. Apparently, they’d been trying to get an audition (with Motown). … They got up and they sang, like, four songs, a cappella. I was blown away. Everybody coming from the same gene pool has a certain effect on the vibration of the vocal cords, I think. It was really quite stunning.

“I told (Gordy), ‘I have found an act we just have to sign.’ He said: ‘Great! That’s what you’re supposed to do.’ I said, ‘Wait until you hear these kids.’ He said: ‘Kids?! I don’t want any kid acts. Do you know how much trouble Stevie Wonder is?’ And I’d only been (at Motown) for, like, 11 seconds, so I didn’t know.

“I think my big claim to fame in this regard was just not taking ‘no’ for an answer, and he saw them and the rest is history.”

While Gordy and others took charge of the Jackson 5’s music, de Passe and her cousin, Tony Jones, handled everything else, including moving and settling the family in Los Angeles, establishing a look and creating choreography, rehearsing at home in their Hollywood living room, using Coca-Cola cans for a microphone. De Passe also traveled with the group on tour.The efforts paid off. The Jackson 5 notched four consecutive No. 1 hits and the rest was more history. “It wasn’t my vision; I was serving the vision,” de Passe notes. “Those were bona fide hit records and then their live performances were electric. It was like Beatlemania, only in chocolate.”

Upside down

Having co-written the “Lady Sings the Blues” film for Diana Ross, de Passe remained an integral part of the singer’s team at Motown. “I think for me, working with Diana Ross as a solo artist and pulling together songwriters and projects for her was probably … I wouldn’t say rewarding as much as I would say engaging,” de Passe explains. “It really was a full-time sort of effort.”

“My boss, Mr. Gordy, made it my priority to make sure she had a continuity of product, so that was definitely the energy at the company.”

Among the triumphs was Ross’ last hit album for Motown, 1980’s “Diana,” a chart-topping, platinum set produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards that included the hits “Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out.” The project was fraught with acrimony, including Ross insisting it be remixed and Rodgers and Edwards later suing Motown, unsuccessfully, for allegedly unpaid fees.

“It wasn’t always a bed of roses,” de Passe acknowledges. “It was tough. I would say all of the challenges were met either in the moment or shortly thereafter, and the rest speaks for itself. To create what I consider to be the most commercial and sort of groundbreaking album for her was pretty special.”

Ross released just one more new album with Motown before leaving the label for RCA Records in 1981.

Wardrobe function

Also for Ross, de Passe was assigned to travel with her on tour and “coordinate a lot of stuff.” And, she acknowledges, things could occasionally fall between the cracks.

“We were in Framingham, Mass.,” de Passe remembers. “She had a sequence in her show called ‘Leading Ladies,’ and there were several costume changes required. I was out in front of the house, absolutely caught up watching (Ross) do this amazing performance and I forgot I was supposed to be backstage to help her change. By the time I got backstage, there she was with her hands behind her back, wrestling with a zipper, and I’m thinking, ‘Omigod … .”

“We actually laughed about it afterwards because it wasn’t that I was somewhere eating lunch. I was watching her and so completely caught up in the moment that I missed my cue to help her backstage. That was an acceptable excuse, I think.”

Master blaster

Like most at Motown, de Passe had dealings with Stevie Wonder that could only be described — fondly, mind you — as challenging.

“He was so sick of me,” says de Passe, who would ride herd on Wonder’s notoriously glacial recording sessions. “He had a T-shirt made to wear, for me, that says, ‘We’re almost finished.’ I have a picture of that on my wall.

“Stevie would say, ‘OK; meet me at the studio at 10 o’clock tonight,’ and then he’d roll in at about 3 a.m. and I’d have to be back at work at 9 o’clock in the morning. So there were a lot of times when I recall passing out on the couch in my office, thanks to Stevie Wonder.

“But, of course, the music was so incredible, so it wasn’t like once he got there, it wasn’t worth it. He just had no concept of time or your schedule.”

De Passe recalls, too, that Wonder had agreed to be part of her “Motown: Merri X-Maas” special for ABC in 1987.

“When he was supposed to arrive to tape, I got a call from someone on his team: ‘Stevie won’t be there. He’s on his way to Australia,’” de Passe says. “What can you say? That’s Stevie.” Fortunately, she had others — Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, Run-DMC, Natalie Cole, Lola Falana, Redd Foxx and others — to fill out the lineup.

Polishing the silver

The “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever” concert and TV special was one of de Passe’s career highlights — but not a project that was easy to pull off.

“When I got to Motown, I was such a fan of the music,” de Passe says. “So when Mr. Gordy installed me as the president of Motown Productions in 1982, I brought that energy with me. I realized that the company was turning 25 (in 1983), and I would say that Mr. Gordy was not a fan of the idea when I first presented it to him. But I soldiered on and sold it to NBC and got Don Mischer to direct and Richard Pryor to host. So by the time I went back to Mr. Gordy, it was fete accompli.”

The acclaimed production was brimming with highlights and featured nearly every major living Motown icon, as well as reunions of the Supremes and the Jackson 5. But it was Michael Jackson who created additional drama — and not only because he insisted on performing his non-Motown single “Billie Jean” during the show.

Though it wound up being the night’s highlights, de Passe said that after rehearsals, she received a letter from Jackson’s attorney dictating that the performance could not be used in the broadcast or even filmed in the first place. They said: “Michael only wants to do it for the people in the house. All cameras must be turned off,’” de Passe remembers. “It was a real, like, ‘You must be joking!’ moment.

“This is where I think relationships really matter. Don and I went to Michael and said: ‘Look, this is too good not to film. Why don’t you come down to the editing room after, and if you don’t like it and you don’t approve it, we won’t include it. But we really think it must be taped.’ And he agreed, because in my relationship with him, I think he really felt he could trust me.

“He came to the editing room and I don’t have to tell you what happened after that.”

Miniseries, maxi stories

De Passe considers her two Motown miniseries — “The Temptations” in 1988 and “The Jacksons: An American Family” in 1992 — to be “two different situations. Both were nominated for multiple Emmy Awards (“The Temptations” won for Best Director, Allan Arkush) and de Passe said the former’s success paved the way for the latter.

But she recalls that not everyone was confident about “The Temptations” before it aired.

“The Friday before we were mixing (sound) and we were summoned across the street to the NBC lot,” de Passe remembers. “I don’t remember the executive’s name, but he said: ‘Look, there’s no good way to say this, but your testing is not good. I don’t want you to have expectations of success because the testing has been very dreary.’ And we were like, ‘How can you test what isn’t finished?’

“So we finished and delivered the show and it aired Sunday night. Monday morning, my telephone rings and it was Scott Sassa, who was running NBC at the time, saying: ‘Congratulations! This has gone through the roof! Can we talk about the Supremes?’ The roller coaster of that weekend, from the pits to the peaks, was mind-boggling.”

De Passe says she still has other Motown stories in mind.

“We’ve tried for ages to get Marvin Gaye done, and for one reason or another, it hasn’t happened yet,” she notes. She’d also like to do a multi-episode telling of “the whole Motown story” at some point.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony takes place at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 19 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland and will be streamed live via Disney+. It will be on the streamer subsequently, while a three-hour highlights special airs Jan. 1 on ABC and on Jan. 2 via Hulu.