Isaac Burton Tigrett (born November 28, 1948) is an American businessman, best known as the co-founder of Hard Rock Café and House of Blues.
He is the widower of the late Maureen Cox Tigrett (formerly Starkey), the ex-wife of Beatle drummer Ringo Starr. His wife died of leukemia in 1994.
Early life
Isaac Tigrett belonged to a well-to-do business family and was raised in Jackson, Tennessee, until the age of 15. His grandfather, also Isaac Burton Tigrett, was a banker who acquired, developed and merged railroads in the Deep South. The younger Tigrett was a boarding student at McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but was expelled. He then enrolled at Baylor School in Chattanooga, from where he graduated. He is an alumnus of Centre College, which later gave him an honorary degree (in 1997) for promoting African American culture and racial harmony.
Career
On June 14, 1971, he and Peter Morton started the first Hard Rock Café