Elephants are her favorite. Snakes are different.
Michael Jackson learned about Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Suzanne de Passe when he visited her home with her pet snake and watched a video of her childhood performance.
“He is an avid collector of all things elephant,'' said De Passe, who remembers years ago when Jackson showed up at his apartment building one afternoon and “turned a corner and there was a boa constrictor named Muscles around his neck.'' '' he said. Live Q&A moderated by Page Six to celebrate her upcoming event at the Harbor View Hotel on Martha's Vineyard Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Horrified, De Passe asked the then star, “Michael Jackson, are you sane?” Don't bring things like that into your home. ”
Jackson assured her that her muscles were “okay,” she recalled.
“No, he's not okay!” De Passe replied at the time. “[Michael’s] He came downstairs and I said, “Michael, you're not kidding.'' We'll reschedule. go away! '”
The two found a compromise.
At Jackson's request, Muscles camped out on the couch, covered with De Passe's expensive pillowcase. “Perhaps what I gave was [Jackson] Prateshi's pillowcase…and he picks up Muscles and stuffs them into my pillowcase…and he ties the top! ” she said.
Jackson then “went to his study and looked at himself on video, and I saw the pillowcase,” Mr. de Passe recalled.
When it was time to leave, Jackson asked: I said, “No!” Actually, I take the fitting sheet and the top sheet. You can have it all! Just go! she joked.
Harborview owner Bernard Chiu and local author James Hester co-hosted the reception.
He even surprised her by rolling out the red carpet for de Passe. “The Great Elephant Migration” public art installation by Coexistence Collective, which was on display on the premises when she arrived.
Inside, local residents and de Passe's closest friends and family gathered for a live interview in which she shared stories from her Motown days.
The Muscles incident occurred “four or five years” after Jackson left Motown.
De Passe recalled having to persuade Berry Gordy, the label's famous founder, to sign the late King of Pop and his brother's band, the Jackson Five.
Gordy's first reaction, she recalled him saying, was, “'Kids? I don't want you to act like kids. Do you know how troubled Stevie Wonder is?'”
(Wonder was 11 years old when the label signed him.)
She added of Jackson's childhood: He liked comics. he loved painting. It wasn't like people would say, “He didn't have a childhood.'' He had a different kind of childhood, but a childhood nonetheless. ”
The Jackson Five deal is one of many memories in the Motown vault that earned De Passe, 78, a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2024 class.
“My claim to fame is that I was relentless. I didn't take no for an answer…and when he finally saw them…he lost his mind and said, , 'Why didn't you tell me how great they were?' So we signed them… and the rest is history,” she said.
The entertainment executive also talked about hosting Diana Ross on Martha's Vineyard in the past.
One of her proudest moments was executive producing the 1982 Motown 25th anniversary special, which featured memorable performances by Marvin Gaye, Ross, and Jackson, who moonwalked on stage that night. Ta.
Meanwhile, Ross shocked the production team by unexpectedly co-starring on stage with Adam Ant, who performed the Supremes' “Where Did Our Love Go.”
“That night was incredible…If you watch the show, you'll see this incredible expression.” [Ant’s] The face,” de Passe recalled.
This show won her an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Series.
De Passe's accomplishments at Motown included signing then-young artists such as Rick James, Teena Marie, DeBarge and Lionel Richie's group the Commodores, she said.
“The Suits wanted to take the Commodores down because we spent a lot of money and we didn't get any hits… [Gordy] I told them:[Motown] It wasn't a dollar and cents deal. If someone doesn't have a hit song that we signed on for, it's our fault, not theirs,” she said.
The band then had a hit with their debut album Machine Gun.
She eventually left the company in 1992 to start her own entertainment company, where she produces film and television projects. She's still dabbling in Motown projects, but amazingly, she's literally not tuning in.
“I don't listen to much music anymore. I listen to books because I'm interested in music, but I definitely don't listen to much Motown music,” she said.
But nurturing and creating stars like Jackson and Richie remains one of her greatest achievements.
On October 19th, the executive will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award from RHOF.
“[Never] Never in my wildest, wildest, wildest dreams did I think I would be inducted into the Hall of Fame…I never thought…I burst into tears [when I got the call] I couldn't believe it,” she concluded.
