Word: tigrett
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Eight years ago, Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of the Hard Rock Cafe, sold his interest in the rock 'n' roll restaurant chain for $107 million, gave most of his money to charity and went to study with a guru in Puttaparthi, India, a remote city that is probably one of the few places on the globe where there isn't a Hard Rock Cafe. Music had become too corporate for Tigrett's liking; rock songs were turning up in cola commercials, beer companies were sponsoring concert tours. Tigrett wanted to get away from it all, find an ashram and meditate...
...what means would Tigrett employ to help lift humankind to a higher consciousness, to inspire a new generation of truth seekers? Theme restaurants...
...course, Tigrett had been there, done that, sold the T shirt when he was heading the Hard Rock chain. His new venture would be, had to be, different. He had been studying Hinduism in India, but now he would find his inspiration in the music of the blues...
Blues music today is in some ways what rock used to be: outside the system, neglected by mainstream radio, but beloved by a small and growing group of loyal listeners. Tigrett, 47, has long been one of them. He grew up on a plantation outside Memphis, Tennessee, where he was surrounded by such music, and he sees himself as leading the crusade to bring blues into the mainstream. "I've been into the blues ever since I was a kid," he says. "The first music that I heard, the first storytelling I ever heard, the first culture that ever entered...
Once he settled on the idea of starting his blues chain, Tigrett wisely spread the financial risk by appealing to friends for the start-up money to fund his venture. Dan Aykroyd (who played one of the dark-suited Blues Brothers on TV and in films) chipped in, as did actor Jim Belushi (brother of the late John Belushi, Aykroyd's fellow Blues Brother). Even Harvard University pitched in $10 million because an investment fund it runs liked Tigrett's plan. In all, the resourceful--or at least very well-connected--Tigrett raised about $30 million in private cash...