On June 14, 1971, he and
Peter Morton started the first
Hard Rock Café (HRC) restaurant in London's fashionable
Mayfair district. The restaurant combined rock music,
memorabilia related to rock 'n' roll and
American cuisine. The cafe-music-museum concept became very popular and soon the restaurant opened units in different parts of the globe. HRC was the first
theme restaurant chain in the world. Tigrett bought Morton out, and took on the original Cafe in London along with rights to the name in most of the world including the U.S. states
East of the Mississippi; Morton had rights to the name in states
West of the Mississippi and in
Israel,
Colombia and
Australia. Eventually both sold their interests in HRC to the
Rank Organisation. In 1992, Tigrett started the
House of Blues (HOB) with partner
Dan Aykroyd.
Harvard University was an initial investor in the business and a prototype was opened in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Soon after Disney and
Andrew Filipowski invested in the venture. Differences of opinion between Tigrett and the other HOB board members over operations resulted in Tigrett leaving the venture in 1998. In the late 1990s, Tigrett launched The Spirit Channel, an enterprise offering services related to
spirituality and health through the Internet, traditional media and physical locations. The venture failed to take off. In 2004, Tigrett launched yet another new venture, the Bozo Project, focusing on the restaurant business. Tigrett was influenced by his
guru,
Sathya Sai Baba. In the BBC documentary
The Secret Swami, Tigrett stated that he believed that there was truth to the rumors of Sai Baba's actions of pedophilia and sexual abuse towards some of his young male followers. He also stated that such behavior would not change his belief in Sai Baba. ==Personal life==