[4] Schnatter started the business in the back of his father's tavern after selling his car and using the proceeds to purchase used restaurant equipment.

After stepping down as CEO, Schnatter remained chairman of the board of directors until July 2018, when it was revealed that, during an internal sensitivity-training May 2018 conference call, he claimed without evidence that Colonel Sanders had used the word "nigger" without backlash.

[2] Schnatter founded Papa John's Pizza in 1984, when he converted a broom closet in the back of his father's tavern.

In addition to preventing him from accessing information, the corporation also implemented a "poison pill" strategy to limit Schnatter's chances of buying back a majority stake in the company.

[29] Under the agreement, the company agreed to share all of its records with Schnatter and to remove a part of its "poison pill" plan that restricted his communication with other shareholders, and Schnatter agreed that he would not seek to stay on the company's board of directors after his term expired on April 30, 2019, and that if a mutually agreeable independent director was chosen to replace him, he would step down before the end of his term.

[32] In June 2019, the company was the fourth-largest take-out and pizza delivery restaurant chain in the world,[33][34][35] with headquarters in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, part of the Louisville metropolitan area.

[36][37][38] In November 2019, Schnatter made his first public comments after leaving Papa John's to Louisville Fox affiliate WDRB.

In the interview, he admitted he had used the word "nigger" during an internal conference call on diversity training, but said he did so to convey his hatred of racism and was quoting Colonel Sanders.

Ritchie had replaced him as CEO, but had been dismissed after less than a year, and Schnatter said he saw more common ground with Jeff Smith, who became chairman of the board in February 2019.

In 2008, he made a million-dollar contribution to the Louisville Zoo's Glacier Run expansion in exchange for Calistoga having naming rights to an adjacent water park.

On August 15, 2015, Schnatter's original Camaro was stolen along with two other classic cars in Detroit, where they were slated to appear in the city's annual Woodward Dream Cruise.

[55] In 2009, Schnatter was accused of sexual misconduct involving a 24-year-old female marketing employee, resulting in a confidential settlement.

[55][56] In 2012, Papa John's and Schnatter received media attention after he made critical comments about the Affordable Care Act to a class on entrepreneurship.

[59] Schnatter also contributed to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign[60] and made supportive comments about his administration in January 2017.

[14] Schnatter spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2022, attacking cancel culture and President Joe Biden's small business policies.

[61] He also pushed a conspiracy theory that Biden created the 2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis to serve as "a great distraction from all the real issues here that affect Americans.

"[62] In December 2015, Schnatter's charitable foundation donated $8 million to the University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics to establish a research and teaching institute.

Gerome Sutton, a Simmons graduate and member of its board of trustees, said, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on.

"[66] In October 2019, the foundation also donated $500,000 to Jeffersonville High School, for renovation of its baseball field, where he had played on the team while a student there.