41. Kenny Rogers Roasters

Country singer Kenny Rogers founded Kenny Rogers Roasters, which was a chain of chicken restaurants. He founded the chain in 1991, and Rogers often appeared in commercials for the venture. Before he founded Roasters, he was a big part of Dole Food Co.’s advertising campaign.

Rogers was inspired to found his own restaurant chain after he was one of the early investors in Kentucky Fried Chicken, which helped make him millions (in addition to his singing career). The company closed down its U.S. operations in 1999, and now it only operates in Asia. To this day, it has 156 locations in Asia.